The Adventures of Pinocchio: Preface by Giancarlo Rossini

By Carlo Collodi (Carlo Lorenzini)

The Adventures of Pinocchio. Italian: [piˈnɔkkjo]) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan village. He was created as a wooden puppet but he dreams of becoming a real boy. He is notably characterized for his frequent tendency to lie, which causes his nose to grow. Pinocchio is a cultural icon. He is one of the most reimagined characters in children's literature. His story has been adapted into other media, notably the 1940 Disney film Pinocchio.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Real Publishing & Gian Rossini
• Release date: Sep 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9791220842853

Book preview

Table of contents

Table of contents

PREFACE by Giancarlo Rossini

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 26

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 29

CHAPTER 30

CHAPTER 31

CHAPTER 32

CHAPTER 33

CHAPTER 34

CHAPTER 35

CHAPTER 36

PREFACE by Giancarlo Rossini

Pinocchio is a children's novel by the Italian author Carlo Collodi.

These are the mischievous adventures of an animated puppet named Pinocchio and his father, a poor wood carver named Geppetto.

It was originally published in serial form as Storia di un puppet (Italian: The story of a puppet) in the Giornale per i bambini, one of the first Italian weekly for children, starting on July 7, 1881. The story stopped after almost 4 months and 8 episodes in chapter 15, but by popular demand from readers, the episodes were resumed on February 16, 1882. In February 1883, the story was published in a single book. Since then, Pinocchio's spread to the major children's book markets of the time has been continuous and uninterrupted, and has been met with rave reviews around the world.

Universal icon and metaphor of the human condition, the book is considered a canonical piece of children's literature and has had a great impact on world culture. The philosopher Benedetto Croce considered it one of the greatest works of Italian literature. Since its first release, it has inspired hundreds of new editions, plays, merchandise, television series and films, such as the iconic animated version of Walt Disney, and common ideas like a liar's long nose.

According to extensive research conducted by the Carlo Collodi National Foundation and based on UNESCO sources in the late 1990s, the book has been translated between 240 and 260 languages ​​around the world. This makes it one of the most translated books in the world. It is considered one of the best-selling books ever published, it also remains the most translated Italian book and, after the Bible, the most read.

Made the union of Italy in 1861, although not territorially completed, the Italians still remained to be done, in the words of Massimo D’Azeglio. In addition to the immense task of forming a national consciousness, there were the dramatic problems of pauperism, the backwardness of the economy and illiteracy. inevitably the new State clashed with the Church, already hostile to the process of national unification and fearful of being deprived of the monopoly of the management of consciences, as well as losing its privileges. With difficulty the State tried to assert its sovereignty in the field of popular education and start a work of modernization that required the dissemination of technical and scientific notions, professional teaching, schools of arts and crafts, tolerated by the Church only with a view to a charitable and welfare concept. The more open bourgeoisie contributed by promoting and organizing mutual aid societies, consumer cooperatives, popular banks and, in the field of education, popular and itinerant libraries, leagues for the education of the people, and other secular pedagogical initiatives. which would have contributed significantly to reducing the illiteracy rate.

Civiltà Cattolica, the magazine of the Society of Jesus, explained well, in 1882, the Catholic hostility to the various educational initiatives to emancipate the people, behind which he saw, with good reason, also the important propulsive effect of Freemasonry. According to the Jesuits, the spread of scientific teaching and the concept of work as a means of redemption, that is, of that ethics that in the nineteenth century found literary expression in Samuel Smiles' Self-help, was to be clearly condemned, since it provoked the apostasy of Reason from faith and of Science from God . The frontal conflict between secular values ​​and the Catholic Church was not destined, however, to break and the old instinct for compromise by a moderate ruling class would gradually reappear. For the latter, the weakening of the Church did not go beyond the limit that would cause the loss of its ideological influence on the lower classes, since it always represented a valid and useful tool as a bulwark against the political awakening of the petty bourgeois and working-class masses of the city. It was a phenomenon that was becoming even more evident under the pontificate of Leo XIII (rising to the papal throne in 1878), when the moderate bourgeoisie entrenched itself in the concept of poverty as an insuperable fact, while developing the theory of organic paternalism With regard to subordinates, which also relied on the use of religious education as less than the preservation of social order.

In those years, various textbooks or books in support of popular education, or publications for the youth were an expression of this spirit, which were to be inserted in the wake of Luigi Alessandro Parravicini's Giannetto, all tending to conciliation and compromise between national aspirations and religious traditions. However, in the Eighties, another literature for youth resisted and still leapt, in which the parish priest's doctrine was absent and which had its highest and most significant moments in the well-known Heart of De Amicis and in the work by Collodi.

In his Pinocchio, in fact, there is a constant that we could define secular ethics, summarized in the words of the dog Alidoro, when he says to the puppet: in this world we must help each other''; or in the behavior of the Columbus who carries Pinocchio to the seashore, in search of poor Geppetto, and who goes away quickly, having done the precious service, without waiting or soliciting thanks. As can also be identified in the concept of work that in the end rewards and gives the fruits that can never be given by stolen money". Like a secular ethics, it can be seen in the various invocations that Pinocchio expresses during the development of the story, all aimed at something transcendent, which, however, never identifies with God, but rather more generically in the image of Heaven (or Sky).

During the Adventures of Pinocchio we come across many textual passages in which the word moves Pinocchio's path and conditions his choices. Among the many possible, the example of the Talking Cricket and that of Geppetto: the former is the repository of an indisputable but ineffective centuries-old wisdom, because it is formulated in a predictive way; the second, on the contrary, manages to overcome Pinocchio's resistance by relying on the awareness of not knowing and resorting to an impersonal formulation of the teachings. The rhetoric of pedagogical references is therefore essential in determining the reactions or responses of the puppet.

In completing the tiring journey, Pinocchio demonstrates that he possesses that arduous esoteric method of free, intimate research. He wanted to make a mistake with his head, rather than accept the prefabricated advice of the talking cricket, aspiring bricklayer, he is subject of desire and curiosity not willing to sacrifice his anxiety for knowledge to the uncritical acceptance of advice that resembles religious precepts revealed or to the unveiling of a hierophant (supreme priest assigned to show sacred objects or formulas). The perseverance demonstrated will lead him to the final prize, after having trodden that black and white checked floor that is life in its eternal contradiction between Good and Evil.

Evil and Good, moreover, who disguise themselves at first sight, even reversing their roles to better deceive the one who stops at appearances.

CHAPTER 1

How it happened that Mastro Cherry, carpenter, found a piece of wood that wept and laughed like a child.

Once upon a time...

A king! my little readers will say immediately.

No, children, you are mistaken. Once upon a time there was a piece of wood. It was not an expensive piece of wood. Far from it. Just a common block of firewood, one of those thick, solid logs that are put on the fire in winter to make cold rooms cozy and warm.

I do not know how this really happened, yet the fact remains that one fine day this piece of wood found itself in the shop of an old carpenter. His real name was Mastro Antonio, but everyone called him Mastro Cherry, for the tip of his nose was so round and red and shiny that it looked like a ripe cherry.

As soon as he saw that piece of wood, Mastro Cherry was filled with joy.

Rubbing his hands together happily, he mumbled half to himself: This has come in the nick of time. I shall use it to make the leg of a table.

He grasped the hatchet quickly to peel off the bark and shape the wood.

But as he was about to give it the first blow, he stood still with arm uplifted, for he had heard a wee, little voice say in a beseeching tone: Please be careful! Do not hit me so hard!

What a look of surprise shone on Mastro Cherry’s face! His funny face became still funnier.

He turned frightened eyes about the room to find out where that wee, little voice had come from and he saw no one! He looked under the bench, no one! He peeped inside the closet, no one! He searched among the shavings, no one! He opened the door to look up and down the street and still no one! Oh, I see! he then said, laughing and scratching his Wig. It can easily be seen that I only thought I heard the tiny voice say the words! Well, well, to work once more.

He struck a most solemn blow upon the piece of wood.

Oh, oh! You hurt! cried the same far-away little voice.

Mastro Cherry grew dumb, his eyes popped out of his head, his mouth opened wide, and his tongue hung down on his chin.

As soon as he regained the use of his senses, he said, trembling and stuttering from fright: Where did that voice come from, when there is no one around? Might it be that this piece of wood has learned to weep and cry like a child? I can hardly believe it. Here it is, a piece of common firewood, good only to burn in the stove, the same as any other. Yet, might someone be hidden in it? If so, the worse for him. I’ll fix him!

With these words, he grabbed the log with both hands and started to knock it about unmercifully. He threw it to the floor, against the walls of the room, and even up to the ceiling.

He listened for the tiny voice to moan and cry. He waited two minutes, nothing; five minutes, nothing; ten minutes, nothing.

Oh, I see, he said, trying bravely to laugh and ruffling up his wig with his hand. It can easily be seen I only imagined I heard the tiny voice! Well, well, to work once more!

The poor fellow was scared half to death, so he tried to sing a gay song in order to gain courage.

He set aside the hatchet and picked up the plane to make the wood smooth and even, but as he drew it to and fro, he heard the same tiny voice.

This time it giggled as it spoke:

Stop it! Oh, stop it! Ha, ha, ha! You tickle my stomach.

This time poor Mastro Cherry fell as if shot. When he opened his eyes, he found himself sitting on the floor.

His face had changed; fright had turned even the tip of his nose from red to deepest purple.

CHAPTER 2

Mastro Cherry gives the piece of wood to his friend Geppetto, who takes it to make himself a Marionette that will dance, fence, and turn somersaults.

In that very instant, a loud knock sounded on the door. Come in, said the carpenter, not having an atom of strength left with which to stand up.

At the words, the door opened and a dapper little old man came in. His name was Geppetto, but to the boys of the neighbourhood he was Polendina, on account of the wig he always wore which was just the color of yellow corn.

Geppetto had a very bad temper. Woe to the one who called him Polendina! He became