A revelatory new annotated edition of the most translated Italian book
in the world--the basis for two new 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.
For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher
of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than
2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best
works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers
trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by
introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary
authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning
translators.
