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Pinocchio
Carlo Collodi
HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics."But I am not like other boys! I always tell the truth.”The story of Pinocchio has remained one of the best-loved children’s tales for over a century. However, the original 1883 novel about the adventures of the mischievous marionette on his quest to become a real boy began as a sophisticated story for both adults and children, and includes political satire, slapstick humour and questions about the role of tradition and society. From the moment Geppetto decides to carve himself a son from a magical piece of wood, the tale lurches from one fantastical episode to another, in one of the most enchanting fables of all time.
PINOCCHIO
Carlo Collodi
Table of Contents
Title Page (#u89a64160-4105-5eae-9b99-8f12cb8c4eee)
History of Collins (#u319ada8a-c487-54d0-baea-cbaa66f31f43)
Life & Times (#ud922112d-93b6-56cd-8aa0-9ffafe604978)
Chapter 1 (#u951216d9-a8f9-56bd-a425-1b36e86e488b)
Chapter 2 (#ue70ee91d-89a6-55e4-81ef-69818548fa9e)
Chapter 3 (#u88e25e9f-0520-585f-b1bc-a656193ff11c)
Chapter 4 (#ued83135d-da2e-5adf-8f37-b7a45270dd9d)
Chapter 5 (#uf0fd5b53-a47f-5f06-b3ac-617b4b9d9017)
Chapter 6 (#ue7ab7cbd-c284-50e6-b105-9d1517679fba)
Chapter 7 (#ued5a85af-d09f-5ffc-94e3-d3d2a9a1d644)
Chapter 8 (#u623200d6-32df-50ee-b67e-427e035670e1)
Chapter 9 (#u4c38aa99-189d-54b8-ad92-6cd3afc46345)
Chapter 10 (#u3d4e4046-d35d-5f28-9a43-ce3fb9b8a49e)
Chapter 11 (#uadf06aac-eb58-5676-bd04-f4ebe9ebfc35)
Chapter 12 (#ua82f413e-c321-57cb-bc13-7861a047a2fe)
Chapter 13 (#u10ed6f7a-2547-52a5-afb8-6e89ca14efaf)
Chapter 14 (#ud282c56f-a007-593f-a846-2415e2df02b0)
Chapter 15 (#ueb7e1b5b-8c43-500f-b7ec-494a1e5d746d)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 27 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 28 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 29 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 31 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 32 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 33 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 34 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 35 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 36 (#litres_trial_promo)
Classic Literature: Words and Phrases adapted from the Collins English Dictionary (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
History of Collins (#ulink_85976c77-4f34-5adb-b05f-599051389bb1)
In 1819, millworker William Collins from Glasgow, Scotland, set up a company for printing and publishing pamphlets, sermons, hymn books and prayer books. That company was Collins and was to mark the birth of HarperCollins Publishers as we know it today. The long tradition of Collins dictionary publishing can be traced back to the first dictionary William published in 1824, Greek and English Lexicon. Indeed, from 1840 onwards, he began to produce illustrated dictionaries and even obtained a licence to print and publish the Bible.
Soon after, William published the first Collins novel, Ready Reckoner, however it was the time of the Long Depression, where harvests were poor, prices were high, potato crops had failed and violence was erupting in Europe. As a result, many factories across the country were forced to close down and William chose to retire in 1846, partly due to the hardships he was facing.
Aged 30, William’s son, William II took over the business. A keen humanitarian with a warm heart and a generous spirit, William II was truly ‘Victorian’ in his outlook. He introduced new, up-to-date steam presses and published affordable editions of Shakespeare’s works and Pilgrim’s Progress, making them available to the masses for the first time. A new demand for educational books meant that success came with the publication of travel books, scientific books, encyclopaedias and dictionaries. This demand to be educated led to the later publication of atlases and Collins also held the monopoly on scripture writing at the time.
In the 1860s Collins began to expand and diversify and the idea of ‘books for the millions’ was developed. Affordable editions of classical literature were published and in 1903 Collins introduced 10 titles in their Collins Handy Illustrated Pocket Novels. These proved so popular that a few years later this had increased to an output of 50 volumes, selling nearly half a million in their year of publication. In the same year, The Everyman’s Library was also instituted, with the idea of publishing an affordable library of the most important classical works, biographies, religious and philosophical treatments, plays, poems, travel and adventure. This series eclipsed all competition at the time and the introduction of paperback books in the 1950s helped to open that market and marked a high point in the industry.
HarperCollins is and has always been a champion of the classics and the current Collins Classics series follows in this tradition – publishing classical literature that is affordable and available to all. Beautifully packaged, highly collectible and intended to be reread and enjoyed at every opportunity.
Life & Times (#ulink_605df6fc-06d9-55fc-9ef0-c4c9702b7152)
The Original Pinocchio
As one might expect, the novel Pinocchio is quite different from other picture-book and animated versions, such as the Disney film of 1940. It was originally published in 1883 as The Adventures of Pinocchio and was written in Italian, by the children’s author Carlo Collodi.
Collodi’s imaginings are very akin to those of the English author Lewis Carroll, who published Alice in Wonderland in 1865 and Through the Looking Glass in 1871. Both writers indulge in ever more weird and wonderful meanderings, aware that they have given themselves license to write whatever comes into their minds by the nature of the genre they have chosen. The 18th century was a curious time for children’s literature in this respect, as it was the style to take children into imaginary realms filled with anthropomorphic animals and mythical entities, as if realism were the preserve of adult literature.
In Pinocchio, Collodi conjured up a rather unfeeling and spiteful character in the eponymous protagonist, whom he devised as a manifestation of his own counter-conventional views on Italian society. Pinocchio is born as a boy, but – like a baby – without a moral compass, so he is disrespectful, selfish and lacking in both sympathy and empathy.
The tale begins with a rather violent slapstick routine between two characters named Maestro Cherry and Geppetto, who manage to break into verbal and then physical fights before the former gives the latter the piece of wood that will soon be carved to become Pinocchio. This sets the tone for the book in general, which is rather at odds with the traditionally accepted view of the story, which has been tamed to present Pinocchio as naughty rather than nasty.
For example, Jiminy Cricket, the much-loved companion and advisor to Pinocchio in the Disney film, is killed by Pinocchio in the original. In the novel, he is simply called the Talking Cricket and is struck by a hammer thrown by Pinocchio when he tells the wooden boy that a life of idleness will land him in the hospital or prison.
Geppetto has a reputation for being unpleasant before he creates the marionette, but he is put in his place by the demanding Pinocchio, whom he sees as his son. He tries to discipline the wooden boy and to teach him the value of selflessness. Thus, a peculiar love-hate relationship is established through their codependence. Geppetto needs Pinocchio because he is lonely and needs someone to love. Pinocchio needs Geppetto because he needs food and repair.
Having run away to the theatre, nearly been burned alive and then been swindled by a fox and a cat, Pinocchio is revisited by the Talking Cricket as a ghost. The cricket tries to give Pinocchio guidance but is rebuffed once again when he remarks that the wooden boy will come to grief if he always insists on having things his own way. Pinocchio then embarks on a fantastic and disturbing adventure, where he is pursued by assassins and left for dead, but is then rescued and revived by taking animals and fairies.
In chapter 17, we witness Pinocchio tell three lies, resulting in his nose growing enormously long, so that he becomes trapped in a cottage. His nose is then reduced in size by woodpeckers, enabling Pinocchio to escape and continue on his bizarre journey.
The climax of the Pinocchio story comes when the marionette is transformed into a real boy. After more than two years of struggle, he has finally learned enough lessons in life to know how to behave properly and to show kindness. His reward is to become flesh and blood, along with 50 gold coins. This happens after he has rescued Geppetto from incarceration in the stomach of a monstrous shark and they have returned home.
Morals from the Marionette
The allegory in Pinocchio is a matter of interpretation, in many respects. The story is so filled with fanciful nonsense that the core theme becomes rather obscured for much of the book. Collodi’s main objective seems to be a tale with a moral attached. The moral is that a happy life is more likely to come to those children who behave well and think of others before themselves. Additionally, that children only have themselves to blame for their unhappiness if they fail.
It may seem a little harsh, but that was very much the established view of fate at that time. Succeeding in life was hard work, so it was generally felt that failure resulted from weakness. Darwin had published On the Origin of Species in 1859, and people misapprehended his ‘survival of the fittest’ concept. They dismissed the notion of any disadvantage that came as a consequence of social-cultural environment and nurture, instead putting the onus entirely on the self. The message was black and white: learn to be the fittest you can be and everything else will fall into place because you’ll deserve it.
In his early adulthood, Collodi had fought for the Tuscan army in the Italian Wars of Independence, against the Austrian Empire. He had a very keen sense of right and wrong in the world and his forays into literature began with satirical sketches designed to express and disseminate his political views. He was already in his mid-fifties when he began work on Pinocchio. He died in his mid-sixties, before the story had had sufficient time to burgeon in popularity and begin to show signs of becoming the classic that we know today.
Pinocchio undoubtedly owes a lot of its mass appeal to Disney; not just for taking the story to a global audience, but also for editing and abridging the story, as well as making the characters more appealing. In the original illustrations, by Italian cartoonist Enrico Mazzanti, Pinocchio is a rather unattractive stick man, with a downward-pointing nose like that of a proboscis monkey. The Disney version is a cute little boy with an upward-pointing, fingerlike nose. Similarly, the Talking Cricket is transformed into Jiminy Cricket, dressed in tails and top hat and with four human limbs instead of an insect’s six. Disney took the basic story and used its successful formula to make Pinocchio conform to the rest of the portfolio. Some may dislike the ‘saccharin treatment’ of Disney, but one cannot deny that knew what they were doing.
In chapter 3, when Geppetto is carving Pinocchio from the piece of wood, the nose begins to grow and Geppetto is unable to prevent it from growing, no matter how much he cuts away. In chapter 17, Pinocchio’s nose grows because he tells lies. This contrast has led scholars to conclude that Collodi’s intention was that Pinocchio’s nose actually grows when he is feeling anxious, rather than simply telling lies. So the ubiquitous interpretation of Pinocchio’s nose growth as an indicator of untruths is incorrect. It just so happens that telling lies makes Pinocchio feel uneasy, which is why his nose grows. But why quibble over such a detail? The moral that telling lies will show on your face is good advice for children, which is partly why the Pinocchio tale has persisted.
The overriding message from Pinocchio is that people can change. Pinocchio himself finds compassion and consideration for others after being mistreated by other characters in the story until he realizes what he has run away from was what many children yearn for – a stable and loving home. Geppetto discovers his kindliness by learning to care for someone else apart from himself. Collodi seems to imply that the good in all of us will appear in the right circumstances and that cannot be a bad comment on the human condition in a world where the bad in many people dominates.
CHAPTER 1 (#ulink_151dbc47-764c-5241-88bd-efd24f17e613)
How it happened that Mr Cherry, the carpenter, found a piece of wood that laughed and cried like a child
There was once upon a time …
‘A king!’ my little readers will shout together.
No, children, you make a mistake. Once upon a time there was a piece of wood.
It was not the best, but just a common piece of wood, such as is used in stoves and fireplaces to kindle the fire and warm the rooms in winter.
How it happened I cannot tell, but the fact is that one fine day this piece of wood just happened to be there in the shop of an old carpenter whose real name was Mr Antonio, but everyone called him Mr Cherry, because the tip of his nose was always as red and shiny as a ripe cherry.
As soon as Mr Cherry noticed this piece of wood, he was delighted. He rubbed his hands together joyfully and said, ‘This has come at exactly the right moment. It is just what I need to make a leg for my little table.’
Then, without hesitating a moment, he took his sharp axe to strip off the bark and the rough part of the wood. But just as he raised the axe for the first blow, he stopped with his arm in the air, for he heard a very tiny voice, begging him gently, ‘Don’t strike me too hard!’
You can imagine old Mr Cherry’s surprise.
He looked round the room to see where the tiny voice had come from, but he saw nobody. He looked under the bench – nobody. He looked in the cupboard which was always shut; but there was nobody. He looked in the basket of chips and sawdust – no one. He opened the door and looked out into the street – no one! What was to be done?
‘I see,’ he said at last, laughing and scratching his wig, ‘I must have imagined that tiny voice. Now let’s to work!’
He raised his axe again, and down it went on the piece of wood.
‘Oh, you hurt me!’ complained the same tiny voice.
This time Mr Cherry was struck all of a heap. His eyes stood out of his head, his mouth was wide open, and his tongue hung out over his chin, as you see on some fountain masks.
As soon as he could speak he said, trembling and stuttering with fright, ‘But where did that tiny voice come from that cried “Oh”? There’s not a living soul here. Is it possible that this piece of wood has learnt to cry and complain like a baby? I can’t believe it. This piece of wood – just look at it! It’s nothing but a piece of firewood, like all the others; when you put it on the fire it will make a kettle boil. Well, then? Is someone hidden inside it? If there is, so much the worse for him. I’ll attend to him!’
And he took the poor piece of wood in both hands and, without mercy, started to beat it against the wall.
Then he stopped and listened to hear if any tiny voice were complaining this time. He waited two minutes – nothing; five minutes – nothing; ten minutes – and still nothing!
‘Now I understand!’ he exclaimed, laughing and pulling his wig. ‘I must have imagined that tiny voice that said “Oh!” I’d better do my work.’ And, because he was very frightened, he began singing to encourage himself.
Meanwhile he put the axe down and, taking his plane, began planing and shaping the piece of wood.
But while the plane went to and fro, he again heard that tiny voice which said, laughing, ‘Stop! you’re tickling me!’
This time, poor Mr Cherry dropped as if struck by lightning.
When he opened his eyes, he was sitting on the floor. He was so changed you could hardly have recognized him. Even the end of his nose, which was always red, had turned blue with fright.
CHAPTER 2 (#ulink_89c66fea-6d98-5010-af38-7fad91ef2146)
Mr Cherry gives the piece of wood to his friend, Geppetto, who plans a marvellous puppet that can dance, and fence, and turn somersaults in the air
At that moment somebody knocked on the door. ‘Come in!’ said the carpenter; but he was too weak to stand up.
A little, jolly old man came into the shop. His name was Geppetto, but when the boys in the neighbourhood wanted to tease him they called him by his nickname of Polendina, because of his yellow wig which looked very like a dish of polenta.
Geppetto was very short-tempered. Woe betide anybody who called him Polendina! He simply went wild, and no one could do anything with him.
‘Good morning, Mr Antonio,’ said Geppetto. ‘What are you doing down there?’
