Moominvalley in November (Moomins Fiction)

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Grandpa Grumble encounters The Ancestor, an ancient Moomin living in the stove, whose presence is felt or imagined at times. As with the best children’s fiction, there is much here to entertain adults. Some of the more sad and wistful passages seem particularly meant for older readers, though there is no reason why children cannot identify with them as well. Here is my favorite: Here’s an offbeat selection for November. Strangely dark for a children’s book, it’s the last in the Moomins series. Tove Jansson said that after the Second World War she was depressed and wanted to write about something naïve and innocent. She wrote the first book of the Moomins series in 1945, about a family of hippo-like white trolls. The Moomins are well known and loved by many European children, but I suspect this book is more obscure and less lighthearted than the rest. Perhaps Jansson expects her child readers to have grown up with her enough to appreciate a more melancholy story.

Suddenly Fillyjonk shouted: 'You musn't touch old leaves! They're dangerous! They're full of putrefaction!' She dashed to the front of the veranda with the blankets trailing behind her. 'Bacteria!' she screamed. 'Worms! Maggots! Creepy-crawlies! Don't touch them!' The Hemulen went on raking. He screwed up his stubborn, innocent face and repeated loudly: 'I'm making the place look nice, for Moominpappa.' [7] Boyce, Frank Cottrell; Cottrell-Boyce, Frank (25 December 2015). "Frank Cottrell Boyce: Five things to learn from the Moomins". The Guardian. Moominvalley in November ( Swedish: Sent i november, 'Late in November') is the ninth and final book in the Moomin series by Finnish author Tove Jansson, and was first published in her native Swedish in 1970, and in English in 1971. Set contemporaneously with her previous novel Moominpappa at Sea (1965), it is the only installment in the series where the titular Moomin family are actually absent. Instead it focuses on a set of other characters, including Snufkin, who come to live at Moominhouse during the onset of winter whilst its inhabitants are away, and the various interactions which they have with each other.

padarėliai lindi kas sau, galvoja, žvejoja, kartais suirzsta vienas ant kito, fantazuoja ir laukia. Kalbasi vienas su kitu, bet iš tikrųjų kiekvienas su savimi, kaip kokie Kiros Muratovos filmų personažai. Ir tai, kaip Jansson aprašo juos, kokiais charakteriais, jausmais ir emocijomis apdovanoja, ir yra visas knygos grožis. For yes, that in Moominvalley in November what the friends do, what they engage in upon discovering that the Moomins are absent from their valley and from their house (missing Moomintroll, Moominmamma and Moominpappa, hoping that their absence will only be temporary, vainly searching for the Moomins, tidying up the house for the family’s return) feels rather saddening and melancholy, and considering that throughout Moominvalley in November there is in my humble opinion from the very first instance of the Moomins being not present a rather constant and painful textual feeling that their absence is in fact of a permanent nature, that the Moomin Family will not be returning to their valley, to their house, to their friends, well for and to me, everything that the Moomins’ friends do with regard to their their absent friends (and in particular tidying up the house and searching for the family), it just really seems to majorly increase the level of sadness and painfulness encountered in Moominvalley in November. Ahola, Suvi. "Jansson, Tove (1914 - 2001)". Biografiakeskus, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura . Retrieved 25 November 2012. When the Hemulen got to the valley it was filled with a fine, drizzling rain. He walked straight into the garden and stopped, with a puzzled look on his face. Something wasn’t right. Everything was the same but somehow not the same. A withered leaf floated down and landed on his nose. How silly, the Hemulen exclaimed. It’s not summer at all. It’s autumn! In some way or another he had always thought of Moominvalley in summer.” Det är som när man kommer hem till sin mamma men hon är ute. Huset är detsamma, bara lite mörkare och tystare. Och även om man tänder alla lampor och slår på radion är det liksom ändå inte samma sak. Det är lite ödsligt and liksom lite kallare. Man sätter sig ner på en stol vid köksbordet och försöker säga 'Jaha ja, pffft, dom kommer nog snart'

Our cast of six main creatures (they all have paws) are: Fillyjonk, made neurotic by a disastrous housecleaning experience; Grandpa-Grumble, a forgetful and irascible old gent; Mymble, a somewhat vain and silly creature; Toft, a waif longing for a (Moomin)mamma; Snufkin, who is trying to remember a five-note snatch of music he came up with last time he was in Moominvalley; and Hemulen, who has little confidence in himself but thinks he has to arrange things for everyone else. Ruduo, lapkritis. Muminukų slėnis tuščias. Visa šeimyna kažkur iškeliavo, bet prisiminimai apie ją atvilioja į slėnį homsiuką Toftą, Filifjonką, Hemulį, mažosios Miu seserį Miumlą, dėdžių Skrutą ir Snusmumriką, kuris planavo iškeliauti (visada iškeliauja artėjant žiemai), bet lieka dar kelioms dienoms, savaitėms. Ir štai, šitie padarėliai užeina į muminukų namą. Šniukštinėja po kambarius. Atidaro maisto sandėliuką. Įsikuria virtuvėje. Hemulis net pradeda meistrauti namelį medyje muminukų Tėčiui, kurį, kaip ir Mamą, vis prisimena ir mini gražiuoju.Man rodos, Jansson vertina individualumą. Buvimą savimi (kaip banaliai skamba, ar ne?). Jai gražu tie keistuoliai veikėjai. Jų pyktis, baimė, irzlumas, neadekvatumas. Netobulumas. Man dinglar med benen och försöker lösa lite i ett korsord men det går inte så bra. Man reser sig upp och gör en kopp kaffe, men den smakar liksom lite platt. Det är bäst att gå hem till sig igen och vänta lite.

Moominvalley in November has been adapted to television once in the 1990 Swedish show Moominvalley, although the character Toft appears in the episodes from the 1990 Japanese anime that adapt Moominpappa at Sea. In Greg's excellent review, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..., he compares the book to a Bergman film, and he's right - this is terribly sad. There are no s'mores or campfire songs. No one suggests a game of Monopoly, and Cards Against Humanity hadn't been invented yet. In fact, if there was a love affair between elderly Grandpa-Grumble and the young, hot Mymble, this could be one of Woody Allen's later, unfunny films. To celebrate autumn, this blog dives into some of Tove Jansson‘s enchanting autumn descriptions from the book Moominvalley in November(1970). It will be wet and a bit melancholic, but you will also learn how to keep warm and to appreciate that darkness has its perks as well. I don't think it's a spoiler to say the Moomin family do not appear in this book. Several friends come to their house and find them gone. A character called Toft, who is clearly based on the author herself feels this absence profoundly. Other characters miss the Moomin family and they tidy up the place and try to do some nice things they think the Moomins will appreciate upon their return. Grandpa-Grumble gets a stomach ache and refuses to take his medicines till the others throw him and the Ancestor a party. At the party, each of the characters performs an act of entertainment; the Hemulen recites a poem that he has written, Toft reads from his book, Mymble dances accompanied by Snufkin's music, and Fillyjonk cooks Welsh rarebit and performs a shadow puppet show about the Moomin family returning home. However, the Ancestor does not appear, as Grandpa-Grumble had mistaken his own reflection in a mirror upstairs for the Ancestor, to whom he makes everyone give a toast. [9]Having read and loved the rest of the moomin books several times over several decades, I was reluctant to read this final book written by Tove after the loss of her mother.