The Adventures of Pinocchio (Penguin Classics)

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

About the Author

Carlo Collodi (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 The Adventures of Pinocchio.

John Hooper (translator) is Italy and Vatican correspondent of The Economist and the author of the bestseller The Italians. He has lived in Italy for more than twenty years.

Anna Kraczyna (translator) is a native of Florence, the daughter of American artists who moved to Italy. She has taught at Stanford University and Sarah Lawrence College, and divides her time among translating, interpreting, and lecturing at American university campuses in Florence on the language, literature, and society of Italy.

Author Residence: Florence, Italy

Author Hometown: England (Hooper) and Italy (Kraczyna)