'The Adventures of Pinocchio'

Carlo Collodi

Much longer, more complex, and darker than the fairy tale versions, this novel first published in the 1880s tells a picaresque tale of growing up poor and Italian. Pinocchio starts out life as a stick of wood. When carpenter Master Anthony strikes the stick with an axe, it cries out. Master Anthony gives the stick to impoverished Gepetto who makes it into a marionette. No sooner has Gepetto fashioned a mouth than Pinocchio sticks out his tongue. An aggressive, rebellious child, he runs away, but it's Gepetto who ends up imprisoned. Finally Pinocchio meets the Talking Cricket who tells him if he doesn' shape up, he'll become a jackass. Pinocchio becomes angry and kills the messenger. Throughout the novel, Pinocchio changes — from stick of wood to wooden puppet to watchdog to donkey, and finally to a boy. One assumes Collodi was turning over in his grave when this wonderful, rich story got Disney-fied.