Pinocchio

Front Cover
Penguin, Apr 30, 2002 - Fiction - 192 pages
Pinocchio plays pranks upon the kindly woodcarver Geppetto, is duped by the Fox and the Cat, kills the pedantic Talking Cricket, and narrowly escapes death, with the help of the blue-haired Fairy. A wooden puppet without strings, Pinocchio is a tragicomic figure, a poor, illiterate, naughty peasant boy who has few choices in life but usually chooses to shirk his responsibilities and get into trouble. This sly and imaginative novel, alternately catastrophic and ridiculous, takes Pinocchio from one predicament to the next, and finally to an optimistic, if uncertain, ending. In his compelling introduction, Jack Zipes places Pinocchio within the traditions of the oral folk tale and the literary fairy tale, showing how Collodi subverts those traditions while raising questions about "how we 'civilize' children in uncivilized times."

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Selected pages

Contents

I How it came to pass that Master Cherry the carpenter found a piece of wood that laughed and cried like a child
1
II Master Cherry makes a present of the piece of wood to his friend Geppetto who accepts it because he plans to make a wonderful puppet who will k...
4
III Geppetto having returned home begins at once to make a puppet to which he gives the name of Pinocchio The first tricks played by the puppet
8
IV The story of Pinocchio and the Talking Cricket from which we see that naughty boys cannot bear to be corrected by those who know more than t...
12
V Pinocchio is hungry and looks for an egg to make himself an omelette but just at the most interesting moment the omelette flies out of the window
15
VI Pinocchio falls asleep with his feet on the brazier and wakes in the morning to find them burnt off
18
VII Geppetto returns home makes the puppet new feet and gives him the breakfast the poor man had brought for himself
21
VIII Geppetto makes Pinocchio new feet and sells his own coat to buy him a spellingbook
25
XX Freed from prison he starts to return to the Fairys house but on the road he meets with a horrible serpent and afterwards he is caught in a trap
75
XXI Pinocchio is taken by a peasant who obliges him to take the place of his watchdog in the poultryyard
79
XXII Pinocchio discovers the robbers and as a reward for his fidelity is set at liberty
82
XXIII Pinocchio mourns the death of the beautiful Little Girl with the blue hair He then meets with a pigeon who flies with him to the seashore and t...
86
XXIV Pinocchio arrives at the island of the Busy Bees and finds the Fairy again
91
XXV Pinocchio promises the Fairy to be good and studious for he is quite sick of being a puppet and wishes to become an exemplary boy
97
XXVI Pinocchio accompanies his schoolfellows to the seashore to see the terrible Shark
100
XXVII A great fight between Pinocchio and his companions One of them is wounded and Pinocchio is arrested by the police
103

IX Pinocchio sells his spellingbook in order that he may go and see a puppetshow
28
X The puppets recognize their brother Pinocchio and receive him with delight but at that moment their master Fireeater makes his appearance and Pi...
32
Pinocchio who then saves the life of his friend Harlequin
36
XII The snowman Fireeater makes Pinocchio a present of five gold pieces to take home to his father Geppetto but Pinocchio instead allows himself to...
41
XIII The inn of the Red Crayfish
46
XIV Pinocchio falls amongst assassins because he would not heed the good advice of the Talking Cricket
50
XV The assassins pursue Pinocchio and having overtaken him hang him to a branch of Big Oak
54
XVI The lovely Little Girl with the blue hair has the puppet cut down she has him put to bed and calls in three doctors to know if he is alive or dead
57
when however he sees the gravediggers who have arrived to carry him away he takes it He then tells a lie and as a punishment his nose grows longer
61
XVIII Pinocchio meets again the Fox and the Cat and goes with them to bury his money in the Field of Miracles
66
XIX Pinocchio is robbed of his money and as a punishment he is sent to prison for four months
71
XXVIII Pinocchio is in danger of being fried in a fryingpan like a fish
109
XXIX He returns to the Fairys house She promises him that the following day he shall cease to be a puppet and shall become a boy Grant breakfast o...
114
XXX Pinocchio instead of becoming a boy is persuaded to go with his friend Candlewick to Toyland
121
XXXI After five months resident in the land of Plenty Pinocchio to his great astonishment grows a beautiful pair of donkeys ears and he becomes a li...
127
XXXII Pinocchio gets donkeys ears and then he becomes a real little donkey and begins to bray
133
but one evening he lames himself and then he is bought by a man who purposes to make a drum of his skin
139
XXXIV Pinocchio having been thrown into the sea is eaten by the fish and becomes a puppet as he was before Whilst he is swimming away to save h...
147
XXXV Pinocchio finds in the body of the Shark whom does he find? Read this chapter and you will know
154
XXXVI Pinocchio at last ceases to be a puppet and becomes a boy
159
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About the author (2002)

Carlo Collodi (Carlo Lorenzini, 1826–90) was a journalist from Florence who took part in Italy’s struggle for independence and died too soon to witness the international success of his children’s book.

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