Though one of the best-known books in the world,Pinocchioat the same time remains unknownlinked in many minds to the Walt Disney movie that bears little relation to Carlo Collodi's splendid original. That story is of course about a puppet who, after many trials, succeeds in becoming a "real boy." Yet it is hardly a sentimental or morally improving tale. To the contrary, Pinocchio is one of the great subversives of the written page, a madcap genius hurtled along at the pleasure and mercy of his desires, a renegade who in many ways resembles his near contemporary Huck Finn. Pinocchiothe novel, no less than Pinocchio the character, is one of the great inventions of modern literature. A sublime anomaly, the book merges the traditions of the picaresque, of street theater, and of folk and fairy tales into a work that is at once adventure, satire, and a powerful enchantment that anticipates surrealism and magical realism. Thronged with memorable characters and composed with the fluid but inevitable logic of a dream,Pinocchiois an endlessly fascinating work that is essential equipment for life.

Carlo Collodi (1826—1890) is the pen name of Carlo Lorenzini. He worked as a journalist before publishing The Adventures of Pinocchio in 1883. Translated into more than ninety languages, Pinocchio has never been out of print.

Umberto Eco is an Italian philosopher and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose (Il nome della rosa) and his many essays.

Geoffrey Brock is a poet and translator. His translations have received Poetry’s John Frederick Nims Memorial Prize, the ATA’s Lewis Galantière Award, the PEN Center USA Translation Award, the MLA’s Lois Roth Award, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Translation Prize, the Academy of American Poets’ Raiziss/de Palchi Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He teaches in the University of Arkansas Programs in Creative Writing and Translation in Fayetteville, where he lives with his wife, the writer Padma Viswanathan, and their children.