Tove Jansson

Tove Marika Jansson (August 9, 1914 – June 27, 2001) was a Finnish novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. She is the author of, among other works, the world-famous Moomin books.

Author

Tove Jansson wrote and illustrated her first Moomin book, Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen (1945, "The little trolls and the great flood"), during World War II. She said later that the war had depressed her and that she had wanted to write something naïve and innocent. The publisher refused to use the name "Moomin" in the title of the book, afraid that it would confuse the public, and used the term "Little Trolls" instead. The first book was hardly noticed, but the next Moomin books Comet in Moominland (1946) and Finn Family Moomintroll (1948, the literal translation of the original name would be "Magician's hat") made her famous.

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The style of the Moomin books changed as time went by. The first books, up to Moominland in Midwinter (1957), were classical adventure books with strange and adventurous plots including floods, comets and supernatural things, and the characters did not undergo any psychological development. "Moominland in Midwinter" is the turning point in the series: the books take more realistic settings ("realistic" in the context of the Moomin universe) and the characters start to get psychological depth. "Moominland in Midwinter" focuses on Moomintroll, who wakes up in the middle of the winter (Moomins sleep from October to March), and has to cope with the strange and unfriendly world he finds then.

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