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Pinocchio Book Review

Pinocchio (also known as The Adventures of Pinocchio) is an 1883 children’s fantasy novel by Italian author Carlo Collodi. It is one of the most iconic children’s books of all time.

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“Don’t trust those who promise to make you rich in a day.

Usually they are either mad or rogues“

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It is about a wooden marionette and his mischievous adventures away from home as he has to learn the importance of honesty, loyalty and facing consequences for terrible actions. This book was so famous and popular that it influenced countless adaptations in different media, films being the prime focus. Disney’s 1940 version is the best adaptation of them all, but Guillermo del Toro’s take came pretty close as well.

Reading the book for the first time ever after all these movies, I was taken aback by how different the novel is. First off, the significantly darker tone is most evident. There is the famous example of Pinocchio apparently murdering the Talking Cricket that everybody talks about when discussing this book, but you also have the villains meeting horrible fates and Lampwick dying in a truly heartbreaking moment near the end.

Pinocchio isn’t just a fantasy novel, but it’s also very much a fairy tale as it’s framed with those morality tales from centuries past that are meant to teach values to children and how to behave properly. This is why the book is timeless as it should be a reading staple for all parents to read to their children to instill in them the importance of morality and how bad behavior has its consequences.

Greed, dishonesty and laziness are just some of the terrible behavior that Pinocchio exhibits and Collodi tells us that all of these undesirable personality traits should be combated from very early on and not let it fester and pertain into adulthood. The importance of valuing what you have instead of wishing to have what you don’t have is also wonderfully shown here.

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So yes, Pinocchio himself is truly a horrible person in this novel, much worse than in any other iteration of this story. He eventually does become a better person, but it took him a sweet time to get there, which was frustrating at times. There lies the biggest issue of the original literary work – being framed as a fairy tale made it feel too episodic, which resulted in its pace and structure being somewhat repetitive. It is hard to feel empathy or to root for the guy when he would constantly choose the wrong path for himself and only learn better at the very end.

Geppetto is a tragic figure, but also a wonderful representation of fatherhood and all the sacrifices that it entails. The Coachman is a truly reprehensible, horrifying villain while the Fox and the Cat are also very memorable as these recurrent foils for the protagonist. Other strong side characters include The Fairy, who has a much bigger and more important role in the book than in any of the movies, The Green Fisherman, who is this very memorable obstacle near the end, and Lampwick, a friend of Pinocchio’s who ended up meeting a very tragic fate.

Carlo Collodi’s writing is certainly an acquired taste, but it worked in the context of this story that is after all a fairy tale that was inspired by those tales from previous centuries. The dialogue is simple, but effective at conveying its themes and what the characters feel. The emotional engagement is strong throughout while the tone that ranges from comedic and light to very dramatic and dark is deftly utilized.

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The chapters are quite short and can be easily digested and the same goes for the entire novel, but Pinocchio still felt too repetitious, slight and badly paced at times that its problematic structure took away from the enjoyment of the story quite a bit. It’s still a classic book, but one that was improved quite a bit with some movie adaptations.