Pinocchio

Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio (1883) is one of the most beloved children's stories ever written — and one of the strangest. A puppet carved by the kind toymaker Geppetto dreams of becoming a real boy. But Pinocchio is mischievous, easily led astray, and has a talent for getting into terrible trouble. Each lie makes his nose grow; each bad decision brings a new adventure. The story is funnier, darker, and more wonderful than any film adaptation. Stream the English translation free.

About Pinocchio

Pinocchio began as a serial story in an Italian children's newspaper in 1881, written by Carlo Collodi — a Florentine journalist with a gift for combining moral lessons with wild, comic invention. The original story was so popular it ran for two years before being published as a complete book in 1883.

The original Pinocchio is very different from the 1940 Disney film. The puppet is more impulsive and self-centred, the adventures more bizarre, and the consequences more severe. The Blue Fairy is a ghostly figure who dies and comes back; the Cricket (Jiminy's original) is killed early on; Pinocchio's journey to becoming real is hard-won through genuine suffering and growth.

This English translation captures all the humour and strangeness of Collodi's original — perfect for children and for grown-ups who think they know the story. It has never been out of print, and for good reason: Pinocchio is one of those rare stories that gets better every time you read it.