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cimoreneI mentioned that I'm going through the Moomin books so I can knit. I asked if I should start anywhere particular, but Wax said to start with one she loved, so they are not in chronological order.
Farlig Midsommar literally means Dangerous Midsummer but was translated into English as "Moominsummer Madness", perhaps out of fear that anglophone readers would be too unfamiliar with Midsummer as a carnival holiday. This book features the Moomin family, Snorkfröken, and two houseguests named Homsan and Misan who are forest creatures who happen to be visiting (having floated up on a log after the Moomin valley flooded) when the party decided to abandon their house before it was completely immersed for a theater that was floating by, only none of them know what a theater is, so there's a great deal of theater humor. Snusmumriken accidentally adopts 24 forest children in the process of getting revenge on a park ranger and Mumintrollet and Snorkfröken become wanted by the police in error. The different threads of the story separate and come together very well and it's all quite funny. My favorite was when Muminmamma said calmly, "Unfortunately the diningroom is under water."
Trollkarlens Hatt is The Magician's Hat, but it was released in English as "Finn Family Moomintroll" because translations were undertaken with extreme freedom in the 1940s. Also I found out from Tumblr - and it was quite a shock - that the English version has translated the magician himself as "the hobgoblin" in spite of a clear and unambiguous lack of hobness or goblinry. Snorkfröken and her brother Snork are featured as well as Sniff, Snusmumriken, Hemulen, the secret island and yearly congregation of hattifnattarna, Tofslan and Vifslan and their secret language, and the first appearance of Mårran. This book is also pretty funny and significantly more suspenseful than Farlig Midsommar, and strikes me as a bit more satiric. That is, it's subtly satirical, but the fussy and unimaginative hemuls, the muskrat, etc are undeniably portraits of a certain kind of person. The appearance of Mårran and the subsequent trial of Tofslan and Vifslan for stealing the world's most valuable ruby from her is absolutely SAVAGE though, and while all the fun-poking at the characters is essentially gentle and good-humoured, I can't help feeling the underlying view of human nature demonstrated in the events of the trial is actually rather bleaker than most of the ones you encounter in, for example, golden age murder mysteries. My favorite quotes were:
Farlig Midsommar literally means Dangerous Midsummer but was translated into English as "Moominsummer Madness", perhaps out of fear that anglophone readers would be too unfamiliar with Midsummer as a carnival holiday. This book features the Moomin family, Snorkfröken, and two houseguests named Homsan and Misan who are forest creatures who happen to be visiting (having floated up on a log after the Moomin valley flooded) when the party decided to abandon their house before it was completely immersed for a theater that was floating by, only none of them know what a theater is, so there's a great deal of theater humor. Snusmumriken accidentally adopts 24 forest children in the process of getting revenge on a park ranger and Mumintrollet and Snorkfröken become wanted by the police in error. The different threads of the story separate and come together very well and it's all quite funny. My favorite was when Muminmamma said calmly, "Unfortunately the diningroom is under water."
Trollkarlens Hatt is The Magician's Hat, but it was released in English as "Finn Family Moomintroll" because translations were undertaken with extreme freedom in the 1940s. Also I found out from Tumblr - and it was quite a shock - that the English version has translated the magician himself as "the hobgoblin" in spite of a clear and unambiguous lack of hobness or goblinry. Snorkfröken and her brother Snork are featured as well as Sniff, Snusmumriken, Hemulen, the secret island and yearly congregation of hattifnattarna, Tofslan and Vifslan and their secret language, and the first appearance of Mårran. This book is also pretty funny and significantly more suspenseful than Farlig Midsommar, and strikes me as a bit more satiric. That is, it's subtly satirical, but the fussy and unimaginative hemuls, the muskrat, etc are undeniably portraits of a certain kind of person. The appearance of Mårran and the subsequent trial of Tofslan and Vifslan for stealing the world's most valuable ruby from her is absolutely SAVAGE though, and while all the fun-poking at the characters is essentially gentle and good-humoured, I can't help feeling the underlying view of human nature demonstrated in the events of the trial is actually rather bleaker than most of the ones you encounter in, for example, golden age murder mysteries. My favorite quotes were:
- "You know you mustn't be sudden at me!"
- "I shall botanise!"
- the whole ceiling was full of foreign words
- "Life isn't peaceful," said Snusmumriken happily.
- "Even a newborn baby mouse could understand."
- "How horrible?" - "About from here to the door, or a little further, if that helps." - "On the contrary."
- Someone who eats pancakes with jam can't be so terribly dangerous. You can talk to him.
