As I wrote in an earlier blog, Walt Disney did not invent Pinocchio. Carlo Collodi did. Well, actually Perrault did, but Collodi made it famous when he translated the fairy tale into Italian. He eventually rewrote it as a modernized version, later even publishing several sequels. Pinocchio was "originally serialized in a children's newspaper, with resounding success, and was published as a book in 1883." How cool is that!
This book also includes an introduction and notes on Collodi's work, as well as the wonderfully funny originally illustrations. (I only wish the illustrations were larger!)
If you want to read the REAL story of Pinocchio, now is your chance. (TPB, 1996, $1.75) Look for it in the classics section. Av. 9/20.
(Actually, now that I think of it, isn't it too bad we usually don't know where the Disney stories originate from? Other than Hans Christian Anderson and the Grimm Brothers, who have we heard of? Were you even aware that Anderson actually wrote his own stories, while the Grimms went out and collected them?)
