Collodi, Carlo - M. L. Rosenthal (essay date 1989)
M. L. Rosenthal (essay date 1989)
SOURCE: "The Hidden Pinocchio: Tale of a Subversive Puppet," in Literature and Revolution, edited by David Bevan, Rodopi, 1989, pp. 49-61.
[In the following essay, Rosenthal discusses the political views Collodi expressed in Pinocchio.]
The Adventures of Pinocchio: Tale of a Puppet, by Carlo Lorenzini (who used his mother's birthplace, Collodi, as his pen-name), is a glorious book. Its glories have been obscured for many by Disney's syrupy treatments: his charming animated film that is nevertheless untrue to the sardonic, sometimes anarchic side of the original story; and his "book" version, a tiny, shameless bit of baby-talk.
In 1979 the late Rolando Anzilotti, that gracious man, asked me on behalf of the Collodi Foundation to try my hand at a new translation of Pinocchio in time for the book's 1983 centenary. He knew I had little or no Italian, but thought he...
[The entire page is 5276 words long]
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