Mmm seriously yummy little wooden boy :-) My Hubbin, being the wonderful guy that he is has been buying me all of the movies, books, and TV shows that include all of these great characters. Once of the books was the original Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. This story is a bit different from the normal fairy tales because instead of a short story it is a full blown book. It is a bit crude and a bit out there, but I found myself enjoying it immensely.
The story starts out in Master Cherry's work shop where a bit of wood starts being very rude. Shocked at this woods behavior he sells it to his friend Geppetto who then carves it into a puppet. This puppet is Pinocchio. Alas our little puppet boy is a very selfish creature demanding food and clothes. even though the woodcarver is desperately poor, he supplies his puppet son with paper clothing and what food is in the house. Geppetto sends Pinocchio to school, selling his own cloth coat to buy his puppet son a proper school book. Pinocchio is told to go straight to school, but is enticed to sell his book to get admittance into a puppet show. Pinocchio makes friends with the other puppets. He is then caught by Fire Eater, the puppet master who intends to us him for fire wood. Pinocchio's friends implore Fire Eater to release him, which he does, but informs them that he will use another puppet instead. The horrified Pinocchio will not allow this and offers himself in the other puppets stead. Moved by this loyalty Fire Eater decides not to burn any of the puppets and sends Pinocchio on his way with five gold pieces. Pinocchio is very excited to bring the gold home to his Papa Geppetto, so that he can buy a new coat and have food in the house. Along the way the
hapless puppet meets up with Fox and Cat who convince him to plant his gold pieces in a special field that will grow a tree full of gold. Pinocchio thinks that this sounds like a good idea and goes off with the unsavory duo. The trio stop at an inn, where the Fox and Cat order a feast and tell the puppet that they will start their journey at midnight. Alas when the puppet is woken at midnight by the landlord of the inn, he informs him that Fox and Cat have already left without paying for their board or meal. Pinocchio gives the innkeeper a gold piece and hurries after his supposed friends. While out he is accosted by a hooded duo who try and rob him, thinking quickly Pinocchio puts the gold pieces in his mouth and refuses to open it. The shadow figures hang Pinocchio in a tree and wait for him to die so that they can get to the gold. Luckily for Pinocchio the beautiful Child with the blue hair spots him and sends help. He is taken to her house and put to bed. He is seen by multiple doctors who come to the conclusion that he must drink a bitter medicine or die. The naughty puppet does everything he can to not drink his medicine, until they begin preparing for his funeral, which is just what he needs to finally take his medicine. Pinocchio then proceeds to start lying to the Child and his nose starts to grow, with every lie he tells his nose gets bigger and bigger until he is trapped. After finally confessing to the lies the Child has birds come in and peck Pinocchio's nose back to its normal size. Pinocchio vows to be a good boy and the Child tells him that his Papa Geppetto is coming to live with them. The excited Pinocchio begs to go meet him. Along the way he runs into Fox and Cat, who once again convince him to go and plant his gold in the fields. Of course this is all a ruse and when he goes to check his gold is gone. Heartbroken the puppet gets into a couple more scrapes and ends up in jail. Upon his release he sadly discovers that the Child has died of a broken heart and his Papa Geppetto has gone off in search of his missing puppet son. Pinocchio sets of to find his Papa and ends up in a small town trying to beg food. He is not willing to do any work, so nobody will give him anything to eat. Eventually he agrees to help a woman who turns out to be the Child grown up into the Fairy with the blue hair. Pinocchio does his best to be good and worthy of the Fairy and applies himself to his school work diligently. The Fairy informs him that because of his hard work he will be turned into a real boy the following day as long as behaves. On his way to invite his friends to his real boy party,
My synopsis can not do justice to the flavor of the writing of this book. It is hilarious. It does not read like a children's book at all, even though that was the intended audience. There is a lot of violence and insolence and all around mayhem. Doing some research the book was initially supposed to end with the naughty Pinocchio being hung from the tree until he died as a warning to children, but the editors wisely thought that might be a bit much and so the second redemptive half was written. The version I have has the original font and illustrations which are just really weird and wonderful all at the same time. I'm not sure what else to say about it other then I recommend it on its oddities alone. Seriously go read it :-)
How do you think children's tales have changed over time? Do you like the more gruesome original tales for kids, or do you think they need the less violent versions? How old is old enough to learn some of these harsh realities? How crazy are the 19th century Italians?!?
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