Moominpappa at Sea (Moomins Fiction)

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The family decides to set off on their boat and live on the tiny dot of an island with a lighthouse on it that Moominpappa has "claimed".

Talking to my Scandinavian friends, I discovered that Jansson was writing as much for adults as children and decided to re-read her. Moominpappa at Sea was deliberately darker than other books on the series I've read this far, something I was not expecting.

The book also highlights the enormous power of the autumn sea, by which one perhaps feels smaller, and thus even thoughts shift from their ordinary paths to something larger: “It was just the right way to live if one liked big waves. Tatuś Muminka i morze" nie jest wesołą historią o okrąglutkich trollach, dla mnie była momentami nawet przygnębiająca.

The island proves to be a magical place with aloof seahorses, trees that move, a friendly groke and a mystery of a deserted lighthouse.

This title is where the Moomin books do start to take a dark turn, I guess beginning Moominland Midwinter, but if book series are supposed to grow with its readership, (Comet in Moominland was published in the mid 1940s, this one in 1965) then this series has. This book in particular is an exploration of the meaning and purpose of life and has a slightly melancholy tone.

Moominpappa yearns to make a fresh start, to find a rocky island and lighthouse where he’ll feel alert and important again.The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.