Customer Reviews

The Adventures of Pinocchio: Story of a Puppet/Le Avventure di Pinocchio: Storia di un Burattino (The Complete Text in a Bilingual Edition with the ... Illustrations) (English and Italian Edition)

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This edition stands perfectly well on its own in either language for simple enjoyment of the story and prose. It is also a useful learning resource for the intermediate to advanced student of the language. I suggest that you listen to Il Narratore audiolibro tape or CD while you read the text in Italian and then in English. The side by side page format is perfect for this technique. I am on my second iteration and I think I am actually learning. Do not let the 1883 date of original publication bother you. The language seems contemporary and the idioms are thoroughly footnoted. Be ready for a lot of passato remoto in the first and third person singular(this is after all a literary tense) and many very colorful verbs. Forget about Disney or any English language kids' editions. This is real literary fiction. The tranlator's opening essay provides social,linguistic and historical context if you're interested.

The translator, the editor, the designer, everyone involved in this project deserves the highest praise... oh, and the author, of course! Of particularly worthwhile note is Perella's lengthy introduction, an essay on the story in context of Italian culture, and also noteworthy & insightful are his endnotes on his translation. This is so much more than a childrens' story (and SO much more than Disney's version) -- it is a story for all ages, all levels of students of Italian language and culture (a great aid to improve reading skills, incidentally) and all those in love with things Italian. Thank you, Nicolas Perella, for your great effort in bringing this landmark story of Italy to the English reader, in clearest, most straightforward style -- if I could give you an award, I would.

Since another reviewer has already stated why this edition/transation is the best one to buy, my review will focus on the story, which is a charming allegory for children, no matter what language is used to tell it.

Children identify with Pinocchio because of all his troubles. They understand what it is like to want to and mean to do well, only to fail miserably. They are also very capable of matching his extremes of emotion. Childhood is so full of humiliations that they don't think, "Oh, what an idiot not to have gotten it by now" or "He's overreacting terribly." (In fact, these are things said about _them_.) Instead, they cheer Pinocchio, who commits blunder after blunder--and is rewarded at the end of the book, for finally getting it right.

Also endearing are the puppet's "parents," old woodcarver Geppetto and the "fairy with blue hair." Despite their scapegrace's repeated failures, they forgive him again and again, giving him countless chances to redeem himself. As for the villains who prey on Pinocchio's naivete, they are perfect representations of what children find threatening. Some characters resemble playground bullies; others are more like the monsters under the bed. The talking animals are a little exasperating, but very nice.

"The Adventures of Pinocchio" is as whimsy as Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland": in both novels, anything goes. Unlike Carroll, however, Collodi injected moral lessons into the storyline. Pinocchio does not get into one humiliating episode after another just to amuse young readers; with every mistake he makes, he learns a moral lesson.

The plot structure is "poor"--which works to the book's advantage. This is what-happens-next kind of reading. Children care foremost about what new agonies a protagonist can propel himself into, and so will like the pace.

Accept no abridgements or adaptations. There are wonderful details that are often cut out for economy--or rewritten for somebody's idea of style. For the real Pinocchio, read this book.

Professor Perella's landmark translation is a must for students of Italian. For those who have studied the language in school or on their own it is a wonderful introduction to reading original material as the translation is both literate and rather literal. It is nothing less than a masterpiece. Anyone will benefit from reading it.

Consider this a masters thesis on Pinocchio. A great deal of effort was made to produce the original Pinnochio script, not the Disney version.

That said, although it's a children's book, it's not a beginners book. Don't buy this thinking it's an easy reader, it's not.

Pinocchio is a wooden pupet that wants to be a real boy.He tells everyone that he is real,but he nows that he's not real. Every time he lies his nose grows bigger and bigger.Just as his nose gets bigger a fairy god mother comes and grants his wish about being a real boy. This book is a fiction book and is out standing. Carlo Collodi makes this book a outstanding and wonderful to read. Children should love this book. I've loved this book since I was 4 years old. My parents read it to me all the time.
This book was set in a little town on a hill.Gippito is the carver of pinocchio.I truly think he did I good job at designing him. I LOVE THIS BOOK!!

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