The Adventures of Pinocchio

Though one of the best-known books in the world, Pinocchio at the same time remains unknown--linked in many minds to the Walt Disney movie that bears little relation to Carlo Collodi's splendid original. That story is of course about a puppet who, after many trials, succeeds in becoming a "real boy." Yet it is hardly a sentimental or morally improving tale. To the contrary, Pinocchio is one of the great subversives of the written page, a madcap genius hurtled along at the pleasure and mercy of his desires, a renegade who in many ways resembles his near contemporary Huck Finn.

Pinocchio the novel, no less than Pinocchio the character, is one of the great inventions of modern literature. A sublime anomaly, the book merges the traditions of the picaresque, of street theater, and of folk and fairy tales into a work that is at once adventure, satire, and a powerful enchantment that anticipates surrealism and magical realism. Thronged with memorable characters and composed with the fluid but inevitable logic of a dream, Pinocchio is an endlessly fascinating work that is essential equipment for life.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: New York Review of Books
Published: 11/18/2008
ISBN: 9781590172896
Pages: 208
Weight: 0.47lbs
Size: 7.97h x 5.01w x 0.46d

Review Citations: London Review of Books 01/01/2009 pg. 21
New York Review of Books 04/30/2009 pg. 22

Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 25833 / Pinocchio
Reading Level: 5.3 / Interest Level: Middle Grade / Point Value: 6