When I read my first Moomintroll books, I was already ten or eleven years old, and I remember vividly how different they were. Three things stood out: the all-pervasive feeling of melancholy; their humorous quirkiness (or quirky humor); and its author’s dedication to keeping strange things strange. Jansson is a master in resisting the dreaded “urge to explain”—what goes unquestioned for this world’s inhabitants goes unquestioned for the reader, and what the characters find strange but can’t explain remains strange for the reader too. It’s only when the characters actually try and find something out that anything is “explained.” Now, everybody talks about this “sense of wonder” one should retain, but that’s actually pretty hard to do if you’re continuously and condescendingly force-fed with the notion that everything can be explained and will work out toward a happy ending (and by that I certainly do not mean science), aggravated by the incessant bombardment with supposedly “real” mysteries certain kinds of people professionally pretend to know about, a poor ersatz for genuine enchantment and our natural sense of wonder. The Moomintroll books have their dark and brooding passages, and the threats the inhabitants of the valley and the world face are no child’s play indeed, like the flood and the comet in the first and the second installment, written by Jansson in 1945 and 1946, respectively. (The English translation of the first book, The Moomins and the Great Flood, was recently released as a limited hardcover edition available only in Finland, but the authorized translation can be found via the “extended links” section of the book’s Wikipedia entry.) After all this time, these books are still a great read, and I can see why they figured—alongside the original Peterchens Mondfahrt by Gerdt von Bassewitz—as my most beloved books during my childhood.

'Comet in Moominland' is the first book I remember reading entirely on my own. I wonder if I've yet read a better one? If I have, it's probably by Tove Jansson, teaching me the word 'melancholy' at too early an age. ( )

The Moomins are my favorite before bed stories because they have the aura of a traditional fairy tale without the sappy, overly sweet characters. These characters are funny and quirky and often times incredibly self-involved. This novel focuses on the imminent destruction of Moominvally and what Moomintroll, Snufkin, et al do to try and stop it. In the end they move into Snufkin's cave with all of their belongings and wait it out together while everyone else flees in terror. It's a very Moomin thing to do. ( )

trop lent pour moi ( )

I love the Moomintrolls. These gentle, exsistential stories are such fun. ( )