Title: The Moomins
Author: Tove Jansson
Original language: Swedish
Translation(s): 43 languages
Context: The Moomins (1945) is a translated novel containing a series of books and a comic strip by Tove Jansson, a Swedish-speaking Finnish illustrator. Main characters of the novel are the Moomins. The Moomins are round, large snouted white fairy tale characters similar in appearance to hippopotamuses. The Moomins belongs to the genre of children’s fantasy.
Synopsis: The Moomins stay in their home in Moominvalley. They have lived in temporary homes, in a theatre and a lighthouse in the past. All through their lives they along with their different friends have had numerous adventures.
In the series, The Moomins, all the nine books were released along with five picture books. Between 1945 and 1993, a comic strip was also released. Since then a number of films, television series have been based on The Moomins. Moomin World is a theme park in the Naantali, Finland based on The Moomins characters.
Stories in The Moomins concern many oddly-shaped and eccentric characters with few of them associated to each other. Moomintroll, Moominmamma and Moominpappa form the central characters of the Moomins family. Little My, Hemulens, Snufkin, Sniff and the Snork Maiden are the other characters in The Moomins who are attached or accepted into the family group from time to time. The other characters reside where the series is set, in surrounding Moominvalley. The Moomins family resides in this fictional valley where they make a decision to continue living at the end of The Moomins and the Great Flood.
Other works by the Author:
Novels
1946 – Comet in Moominland
1968 – Comet in Moominland (Reworked edition)
1948 – Finn Family Moomintroll
1950 – The Exploits of Moominapappa
1968 – The Memoirs of Moominpappa
1954 – Moominsummer Madness
1957 – Moominland Midwinter
1965 – Moominapappa at Sea
1970 – Moominvalley in November
Short story collections
1962 – Tales from Moominvalley
Picture Books
1952 – The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My
1960 – Who Will Comfort Toffle?
1977 – The Dangerous Journey
1980 – Villian in the Moominhouse
1993 – Songs from Moominvalley
Comic strips
1977 – 1981 – Mumin, Books 1-7, Moomin, Books 3-7 (Books 1-6 released in English)
Novels
1972 – The Summer Book
1974 – Sun City
1982 – The True Deceiver
1984 – The Field of Stones
1989 – Fair Play
Short story collections
1968 – Sculptor’s Daughter
1971 – The Listener
1978 – Art in Nature
1987 – Travelling Light
1991 – Letters from Klara and Other Stories
1998 – Compilation, Messsages. Selected Stories 1971 – 1997
2006 compilation – A Winter Book