The Adventures of Pinocchio, a novel for…
1876 CE
The Adventures of Pinocchio, a novel for children by Carlo Collodi, is first published complete in book form in Italy in 1883.
The first half was originally a serial between 1881 and 1883, and then later completed as a book for children in February 1883.
It is about the mischievous adventures of Pinocchio, an animated marionette, and his poor father, a woodcarver named Geppetto.
Today considered a classic of children's literature, it has spawned many derivative works of art, such as Disney's 1940 animated movie of the same name, and commonplace ideas such as a liar's long nose.
In the original, serialized version, Pinocchio dies a gruesome death—hanged for his innumerable faults, at the end of Chapter 15.
At the request of his editor, Collodi had added chapters 16–36, in which the Fairy with Turquoise Hair (or "Blue Fairy", as the Disney version names her) rescues Pinocchio and eventually transforms him into a real boy, when he acquires a deeper understanding of himself, making the story suitable for children.
In the second half of the book, the maternal figure of the Blue Fairy is the dominant character, versus the paternal figure of Geppetto, in the first part.
Children's literature is a new idea in Collodi's time, an innovation in the nineteenth-century.
Thus, in content and style, it is new and modern, opening the way to many writers of the following century.