Pinocchio

The book has the manic energy of ‘Candide’, as it rushes from one extreme situation to another. The new translation by Geoffrey Brock is wonderfully faithful to Collodi’s speed and vigour. Until now, the best-known modern translation has been Ann Lawson Lucas’s… Judged purely as a translation, however, Brock’s version is more natural and engaging with a better feeling for how to turn colloquial 19th Century Tuscan into colloquial modern English. Brock is better at the humour, and unlike Lucas doesn’t use quaint idioms or over translate. Sentence by sentence, Brock’s Pinocchio has better rhythms. London Review of Books Disney’s sentimental depiction of Pinocchio bears little resemblance to Collodi’s unscrupulous puppet. This new translation revives the sardonic wit and black humour of the original. Times

Carlo Collodi (1826-1890) was the pen name of Carlo Lorenzini. Born in Florence, his father served as the cook for an aristocratic family, and his mother, though qualified as a schoolteacher, worked as a chambermaid for the same family. Lorenzini took the name Collodi from his mother’s hometown, where he was sent to attend school. A volunteer in the Tuscan army during the 1848 and 1860 Italian wars of independence, Collodi founded a satirical weekly, Il Lampione, which was suppressed for a time by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He became known as the author of novels, plays, and political sketches. His translation of Charles Perrault’s fairy tales was published in 1876. In 1881, his Storia di un burratino (Story of a Puppet) was published in installments in the Giornale per i bambini, and appeared two years later in book form as The Adventures of Pinocchio. Collodi, whose writings include several readers for schoolchildren, died in 1890, unaware of the vast international success that his creation Pinocchio would eventually enjoy.

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