A fresh new translation of Collodi's cherished classic of childhood adventure
Carved from a piece of magical wood by the old carpenter Geppetto, the puppet Pinocchio comes to life and is almost immediately cast into a series of extraordinary misadventures. Featuring mischievous animals, a wise cricket and, of course, a nose that grows, The Adventurous of Pinocchio is one of the world's most beloved fairy tales.
This sparkling new translation by John Hooper and Anna Kraczyna captures the rascally spirit that makes the playful and easily distracted Pinocchio an icon of children's literature, while also revealing the novel's quiet message about the dangers of social inequality and the duty of kindness humans owe one another.
A revelatory new edition of the most translated Italian book in the world-soon to be *two* major motion pictures: a Netflix animated version co-directed and co-written by Guillermo del Toro and voiced by Ewan McGregor, Cate Blanchett, and Tilda Swinton, and a Disney Plus live-action version directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, Cynthia Erivo, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lorraine Bracco, and Keegan-Michael Key
A Penguin Classic
Carved from a piece of wood by the old carpenter Geppetto, the puppet Pinocchio comes to life and immediately starts to misbehave. But while this beloved character has achieved literary immortality, the novel has been widely misunderstood. Pinocchio has a penchant for lying, to be sure, but it's when he avoids going to school that he repeatedly gets into trouble. The Adventures of Pinocchio is thus not a cautionary tale about lying but an unusually timely fable for our increasingly authoritarian times-a story about the importance of education and of preventing others from pulling our strings.
This effervescent new translation captures the antic spirit that makes the mischievous, egotistical, and easily distracted Pinocchio a late nineteenth-century prototype for the likes of Bart Simpson. Featuring copious annotations informed by the translators' deep knowledge of Italy, it reveals the novel to be not only a subversively entertaining children's book but also a sophisticated satire reflecting the author's concern for the social inequality of his time and his belief that duty to others is at the core of our humanity.
Story Locale: Italy
“Very lively . . . A fine translation in many ways, and I love the way it brings out the Italianness, and I do like the punch of it. It’s great.” ―
Ann Hallamore Caesar, The TLS Podcast“An effort to reclaim the spirit of the original, particularly as something distinct from the animated Disney cartoon that most are familiar with . . . Their goal . . . is not dissimilar to that of Matteo Garrone in his wonderfully dark film adaptation: to demonstrate, once again, that
Pinocchio is far more than just a children’s story.” ―
The Week in Italy
