The Moomins and the Great Flood: Tove Jansson

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Yet, though the last Moomin strip was drawn in 1975, and Jansson passed away in 2001, the heart of Moomin remains more or less unchanged – even as the characters continue to be reprinted in new stories, in new countries around the world. Moominvalley in November (Originally: Sent i november) – 1970 (In which the Moomin family is absent). They are a family of white, round fairy-tale characters with large snouts that make them resemble the hippopotamus. The book includes some of Jansson’s earliest artwork for the series, beautifully reproduced in sepia and black and white drawings throughout the Sort of Books edition.

The first words written about Moominvalley, quoted at the beginning of this text, reveal that one cannot fully understand “The Moomins and the Great Flood” and its deepest tones and layers without understanding the time and the world Tove Jansson created it in. Tove Jansson was born one year later than Albert Camus, and died a full 41 years later than the man. The residents of Moominvalley often ask Snork for help solving tricky problems and building machines. who inhabit the whimsical, serene Moominvalley alongside a host of other critters like the Hattifatteners, Mymbles and Whompers – more intimately.The Moomins, generally speaking, relate strongly to Jansson's own family– they were bohemian, lived close to nature and were very tolerant towards diversity. As a visual artist, illustrator and author, Jansson expanded and transformed her expression tirelessly up to the last years of her life.

In all, nine books were released in the series, together with five picture books and a comic strip being released between 1945 and 1993.It took six years, until the end of the war, for The Moomins and the Great Flood to be published, but when it was, Jansson described it as her "very first happy ending". Fruits they have never seen hang from the trees, the grass is fine-spun sugar, the snow is ice-cream, a burbling stream is green lemonade and Moominmamma sleeps under a chocolate tree. In 2010, Russian composer Lex Plotnikoff (founder of symphonic metal band Mechanical Poet) released a new-age music album Hattifatteners: Stories from the Clay Shore, [33] [34] [35] accompanied by photos of moomin characters models by photographer/sculptor Tisha Razumovsky. Their journey is packed with adventures which they share with new friends they meet on the way – Snufkin, the carefree wanderer, the fascinating Snorkmaiden, and her brother the Snork.

In an October 2014 blog article at Screendaily, Sophia Jansson states that the film's "artistic team has made an effort to be true to the original drawings and the original text". What confused publishers the most was the fact that the book was written for both adults and children and not only for one or the other. Like the iconic characters from Winnie the Pooh or Peanuts, you’ve seen them – plump, upright hippo-horse hybrids with kind, curious eyes – on book covers, cards and bed sheets, on television.

My copy of Moominland Midwinter was not only my most prized possession when I was a child but probably the reason why I became a reader in the first place.