Franz Kafka Birthday Doodle Gives Google a Cockroach Infestation

Google's Doodles have been on a roll lately. They've celebrated the Summer Solstice, Hitchcock title designer Saul Bass, and legendarily mellow painter Bob Ross. Now Google's gotten more literary, though. To celebrate Franz Kafka's July 3 birthday — the German absurdist would have been 130 — they've illustrated a giant cockroach coming home from a hard day at work. It's a tip of the hat to Kafka's The Metamorphosis, in which a salesman is mysteriously transformed into a giant insect, much to his horror.
Notice the little apple in the Doodle. In the story, the salesman's father throws apples at him after his insectoid transformation. Click through our gallery of Google Doodle's greatest hits.