(The Adventures of) Pinocchio

Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Originally serialized in an Italian children's magazine, Carlo Collodi's classic The Adventures of Pinocchio, frequently shortened to just the eponymous puppet's name, was widely acclaimed and would inspire numerous adaptations in the media during the twentieth century and beyond. While Disney's animated version is among the most widely known, the book itself deviates heavily from it, as was common among the studio's interpretations of classic tales. The story today is in the public domain, and the translation I read from Amazon (available to download for free) was by M.A. Murray.

Pinocchio opens with Master Antonio striking a piece of wood, during which he hears a mysterious voice. He gives said wood to his friend Geppetto to make a puppet, which he does, naming it Pinocchio after a family that had similar names, after which it instantly comes to life. Afterward, the Talking-cricket warns him about the dangers of children rebelling against their parents and running away from home, which provokes Pinocchio to kill him. The puppet further has issues with nose growth, which plays part later on, and experiments with eating food a few times.

He eventually decides to attend school, although en route, Pinocchio sells his book to another boy, joining a puppet show headed by Miss Rose and Fire-eater, who test his morality when he is tempted to "kill" another of the puppets. Then he encounters the Fox and the Cat, the former being lame on one foot and the other (who is female in the book) being blind, the two tricking him into thinking that planting the coin he received from selling his book in the Field of Miracles can make him rich.

While traveling with the vulpine and feline, Pinocchio gets lost in the woods and is chased by bandits, with a blue-haired Fairy giving him sanctuary. Here occurs the book's version of the scene where Pinocchio tells a string of lies and his nose elongates, returning to normal size after he cries things out. However, he ultimately rejoins the Fox and the Cat, who finally take him to the Field of Miracles, where he sows his coins. Naturally, this doesn't work, and a Parrot mocks him for his idiocy, after which he visits the Courts of Justice to report the Fox and Cat yet is jailed for months.

A Serpent leads Pinocchio into a trap for polecats where he is caught, with a peasant releasing him and throwing him into a doghouse, where he discovers that the watchdog Melampo is dead. After the puppet leaves, a Pigeon tells him that Geppetto sailed across the sea to find him, with a massive Dog-fish swallowing him. Pinocchio eventually decides to abide by his original promise and attend school, although he isn't exactly warmly received. However, he does make a few friends who follow him to the seas in another attempt to find the Dog-fish.

After Alidoro the mastiff saves Pinocchio from a green fisherman that tries to make him into a meal. Then one of the puppet's friends from school, Romeo, nicknamed Candlewick, invites him to Cocagne, nicknamed the Land of Boobies, with a coachman transporting them there. While they enjoy their time there for several months, they eventually transform into donkeys, with Candlewick sold to a peasant and Pinocchio to a circus troupe. After he injures his leg, Pinocchio is sold to a buyer who attempts to drown him so that he can make a drum out of his skin.

After reemerging from the water, however, Pinocchio returns to puppet form, after which he travels to the Dog-fish that swallowed Geppetto, the two escaping, with the fates of most of the major characters settled afterward. Overall, I enjoyed the original book version of Pinocchio, which surprised me at how different it was from Disney's adaptation, in a few ways vastly superior given its larger cast of talking animal characters. The translation was perhaps the biggest problem with the version I read, given the asinine names like "Land of Boobies," but Collodi's classic is definitely a bucket-list book.

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