It’s better for them to get used to it right from the start, you know, used to the fact that things don’t turn out the way you imagined and that it doesn’t matter that much.

The Cartoonist
Tove Jansson

Tove Jansson’s tales of obsession and ambition are revealed and sparkle ‘like buried treasure’.

An elderly caretaker at a large outdoor exhibition, called Art in Nature, finds that a couple have lingered on to bicker about the value of a picture; he has a surprising suggestion that will resolve both their row and his own ambivalence about the art market. A draughtsman’s obsession with drawing locomotives provides a dark twist to a love story. A cartoonist takes over the work of a colleague who has suffered a nervous breakdown only to discover that his own sanity is in danger.

In these witty, sharp, often disquieting stories, Tove Jansson reveals the fault lines in our relationship with art, both as artists and as consumers. Obsession, ambition, and the discouragement of critics are all brought into focus in these wise and cautionary tales.

The collection contains these short stories:

Art in Nature
The Monkey
The Cartoonist
White Lady
The Doll’s House
A Sense of Time
A Leading Role
The Locomotive
Flower Child
A Memory from the New World
The Great Journey

Art in Nature on the publisher Sort of Books’ website.

The book was first published in Swedish as Dockskåpet och andra berättelser in 1978 and was translated into English in 2012.