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Table of Contents
Title Page
History of Collins
Life & Times
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Classic Literature: Words and Phrases adapted from the Collins English Dictionary
Copyright
About the Publisher
History of Collins
In 1819, millworker William Collins from Glasgow, Scotland, set up a company for printing and publishing pamphlets, sermons, hymn books and prayer books. That company was Collins and was to mark the birth of HarperCollins Publishers as we know it today. The long tradition of Collins dictionary publishing can be traced back to the first dictionary William published in 1824, Greek and English Lexicon. Indeed, from 1840 onwards, he began to produce illustrated dictionaries and even obtained a licence to print and publish the Bible.
Soon after, William published the first Collins novel, Ready Reckoner, however it was the time of the Long Depression, where harvests were poor, prices were high, potato crops had failed and violence was erupting in Europe. As a result, many factories across the country were forced to close down and William chose to retire in 1846, partly due to the hardships he was facing.
Aged 30, William’s son, William II took over the business. A keen humanitarian with a warm heart and a generous spirit, William II was truly ‘Victorian’ in his outlook. He introduced new, up-to-date steam presses and published affordable editions of Shakespeare’s works and Pilgrim’s Progress, making them available to the masses for the first time. A new demand for educational books meant that success came with the publication of travel books, scientific books, encyclopaedias and dictionaries. This demand to be educated led to the later publication of atlases and Collins also held the monopoly on scripture writing at the time.
In the 1860s Collins began to expand and diversify and the idea of ‘books for the millions’ was developed. Affordable editions of classical literature were published and in 1903 Collins introduced 10 titles in their Collins Handy Illustrated Pocket Novels. These proved so popular that a few years later this had increased to an output of 50 volumes, selling nearly half a million in their year of publication. In the same year, The Everyman’s Library was also instituted, with the idea of publishing an affordable library of the most important classical works, biographies, religious and philosophical treatments, plays, poems, travel and adventure. This series eclipsed all competition at the time and the introduction of paperback books in the 1950s helped to open that market and marked a high point in the industry.
HarperCollins is and has always been a champion of the classics and the current Collins Classics series follows in this tradition – publishing classical literature that is affordable and available to all. Beautifully packaged, highly collectible and intended to be reread and enjoyed at every opportunity.
Life & Times
The Original Pinocchio
As one might expect, the novel Pinocchio is quite different from other picture-book and animated versions, such as the Disney film of 1940. It was originally published in 1883 as The Adventures of Pinocchio and was written in Italian, by the children’s author Carlo Collodi.
Collodi’s imaginings are very akin to those of the English author Lewis Carroll, who published Alice in Wonderland in 1865 and Through the Looking Glass in 1871. Both writers indulge in ever more weird and wonderful meanderings, aware that they have given themselves license to write whatever comes into their minds by the nature of the genre they have chosen. The 18th century was a curious time for children’s literature in this respect, as it was the style to take children into imaginary realms filled with anthropomorphic animals and mythical entities, as if realism were the preserve of adult literature.
In Pinocchio, Collodi conjured up a rather unfeeling and spiteful character in the eponymous protagonist, whom he devised as a manifestation of his own counter-conventional views on Italian society. Pinocchio is born as a boy, but – like a baby – without a moral compass, so he is disrespectful, selfish and lacking in both sympathy and empathy.
The tale begins with a rather violent slapstick routine between two characters named Maestro Cherry and Geppetto, who manage to break into verbal and then physical fights before the former gives the latter the piece of wood that will soon be carved to become Pinocchio. This sets the tone for the book in general, which is rather at odds with the traditionally accepted view of the story, which has been tamed to present Pinocchio as naughty rather than nasty.
For example, Jiminy Cricket, the much-loved companion and advisor to Pinocchio in the Disney film, is killed by Pinocchio in the original. In the novel, he is simply called the Talking Cricket and is struck by a hammer thrown by Pinocchio when he tells the wooden boy that a life of idleness will land him in the hospital or prison.
Geppetto has a reputation for being unpleasant before he creates the marionette, but he is put in his place by the demanding Pinocchio, whom he sees as his son. He tries to discipline the wooden boy and to teach him the value of selflessness. Thus, a peculiar love-hate relationship is established through their codependence. Geppetto needs Pinocchio because he is lonely and needs someone to love. Pinocchio needs Geppetto because he needs food and repair.
Having run away to the theatre, nearly been burned alive and then been swindled by a fox and a cat, Pinocchio is revisited by the Talking Cricket as a ghost. The cricket tries to give Pinocchio guidance but is rebuffed once again when he remarks that the wooden boy will come to grief if he always insists on having things his own way. Pinocchio then embarks on a fantastic and disturbing adventure, where he is pursued by assassins and left for dead, but is then rescued and revived by taking animals and fairies.
In chapter 17, we witness Pinocchio tell three lies, resulting in his nose growing enormously long, so that he becomes trapped in a cottage. His nose is then reduced in size by woodpeckers, enabling Pinocchio to escape and continue on his bizarre journey.
The climax of the Pinocchio story comes when the marionette is transformed into a real boy. After more than two years of struggle, he has finally learned enough lessons in life to know how to behave properly and to show kindness. His reward is to become flesh and blood, along with 50 gold coins. This happens after he has rescued Geppetto from incarceration in the stomach of a monstrous shark and they have returned home.
Morals from the Marionette
The allegory in Pinocchio is a matter of interpretation, in many respects. The story is so filled with fanciful nonsense that the core theme becomes rather obscured for much of the book. Collodi’s main objective seems to be a tale with a moral attached. The moral is that a happy life is more likely to come to those children who behave well and think of others before themselves. Additionally, that children only have themselves to blame for their unhappiness if they fail.
It may seem a little harsh, but that was very much the established view of fate at that time. Succeeding in life was hard work, so it was generally felt that failure resulted from weakness. Darwin had published On the Origin of Species in 1859, and people misapprehended his ‘survival of the fittest’ concept. They dismissed the notion of any disadvantage that came as a consequence of social-cultural environment and nurture, instead putting the onus entirely on the self. The message was black and white: learn to be the fittest you can be and everything else will fall into place because you’ll deserve it.
In his early adulthood, Collodi had fought for the Tuscan army in the Italian Wars of Independence, against the Austrian Empire. He had a very keen sense of right and wrong in the world and his forays into literature began with satirical sketches designed to express and disseminate his political views. He was already in his mid-fifties when he began work on Pinocchio. He died in his mid-sixties, before the story had had sufficient time to burgeon in popularity and begin to show signs of becoming the classic that we know today.
Pinocchio undoubtedly owes a lot of its mass appeal to Disney; not just for taking the story to a global audience, but also for editing and abridging the story, as well as making the characters more appealing. In the original illustrations, by Italian cartoonist Enrico Mazzanti, Pinocchio is a rather unattractive stick man, with a downward-pointing nose like that of a proboscis monkey. The Disney version is a cute little boy with an upward-pointing, fingerlike nose. Similarly, the Talking Cricket is transformed into Jiminy Cricket, dressed in tails and top hat and with four human limbs instead of an insect’s six. Disney took the basic story and used its successful formula to make Pinocchio conform to the rest of the portfolio. Some may dislike the ‘saccharin treatment’ of Disney, but one cannot deny that knew what they were doing.
In chapter 3, when Geppetto is carving Pinocchio from the piece of wood, the nose begins to grow and Geppetto is unable to prevent it from growing, no matter how much he cuts away. In chapter 17, Pinocchio’s nose grows because he tells lies. This contrast has led scholars to conclude that Collodi’s intention was that Pinocchio’s nose actually grows when he is feeling anxious, rather than simply telling lies. So the ubiquitous interpretation of Pinocchio’s nose growth as an indicator of untruths is incorrect. It just so happens that telling lies makes Pinocchio feel uneasy, which is why his nose grows. But why quibble over such a detail? The moral that telling lies will show on your face is good advice for children, which is partly why the Pinocchio tale has persisted.
The overriding message from Pinocchio is that people can change. Pinocchio himself finds compassion and consideration for others after being mistreated by other characters in the story until he realizes what he has run away from was what many children yearn for – a stable and loving home. Geppetto discovers his kindliness by learning to care for someone else apart from himself. Collodi seems to imply that the good in all of us will appear in the right circumstances and that cannot be a bad comment on the human condition in a world where the bad in many people dominates.
CHAPTER 1
How it happened that Mr Cherry, the carpenter, found a piece of wood that laughed and cried like a child
There was once upon a time …
‘A king!’ my little readers will shout together.
No, children, you make a mistake. Once upon a time there was a piece of wood.
It was not the best, but just a common piece of wood, such as is used in stoves and fireplaces to kindle the fire and warm the rooms in winter.
How it happened I cannot tell, but the fact is that one fine day this piece of wood just happened to be there in the shop of an old carpenter whose real name was Mr Antonio, but everyone called him Mr Cherry, because the tip of his nose was always as red and shiny as a ripe cherry.
As soon as Mr Cherry noticed this piece of wood, he was delighted. He rubbed his hands together joyfully and said, ‘This has come at exactly the right moment. It is just what I need to make a leg for my little table.’
Then, without hesitating a moment, he took his sharp axe to strip off the bark and the rough part of the wood. But just as he raised the axe for the first blow, he stopped with his arm in the air, for he heard a very tiny voice, begging him gently, ‘Don’t strike me too hard!’
You can imagine old Mr Cherry’s surprise.
He looked round the room to see where the tiny voice had come from, but he saw nobody. He looked under the bench – nobody. He looked in the cupboard which was always shut; but there was nobody. He looked in the basket of chips and sawdust – no one. He opened the door and looked out into the street – no one! What was to be done?
‘I see,’ he said at last, laughing and scratching his wig, ‘I must have imagined that tiny voice. Now let’s to work!’
He raised his axe again, and down it went on the piece of wood.
‘Oh, you hurt me!’ complained the same tiny voice.
This time Mr Cherry was struck all of a heap. His eyes stood out of his head, his mouth was wide open, and his tongue hung out over his chin, as you see on some fountain masks.
As soon as he could speak he said, trembling and stuttering with fright, ‘But where did that tiny voice come from that cried “Oh”? There’s not a living soul here. Is it possible that this piece of wood has learnt to cry and complain like a baby? I can’t believe it. This piece of wood – just look at it! It’s nothing but a piece of firewood, like all the others; when you put it on the fire it will make a kettle boil. Well, then? Is someone hidden inside it? If there is, so much the worse for him. I’ll attend to him!’
And he took the poor piece of wood in both hands and, without mercy, started to beat it against the wall.
Then he stopped and listened to hear if any tiny voice were complaining this time. He waited two minutes – nothing; five minutes – nothing; ten minutes – and still nothing!
‘Now I understand!’ he exclaimed, laughing and pulling his wig. ‘I must have imagined that tiny voice that said “Oh!” I’d better do my work.’ And, because he was very frightened, he began singing to encourage himself.
Meanwhile he put the axe down and, taking his plane, began planing and shaping the piece of wood.
But while the plane went to and fro, he again heard that tiny voice which said, laughing, ‘Stop! you’re tickling me!’
This time, poor Mr Cherry dropped as if struck by lightning.
When he opened his eyes, he was sitting on the floor. He was so changed you could hardly have recognized him. Even the end of his nose, which was always red, had turned blue with fright.
CHAPTER 2
Mr Cherry gives the piece of wood to his friend, Geppetto, who plans a marvellous puppet that can dance, and fence, and turn somersaults in the air
At that moment somebody knocked on the door. ‘Come in!’ said the carpenter; but he was too weak to stand up.
A little, jolly old man came into the shop. His name was Geppetto, but when the boys in the neighbourhood wanted to tease him they called him by his nickname of Polendina, because of his yellow wig which looked very like a dish of polenta.
Geppetto was very short-tempered. Woe betide anybody who called him Polendina! He simply went wild, and no one could do anything with him.
‘Good morning, Mr Antonio,’ said Geppetto. ‘What are you doing down there?’
‘I am teaching the ants how to read.’
‘Much good may it do you!’
‘What brought you here, Mr Geppetto?’
‘My legs. Mr Antonio, I have come to ask you a favour.’
‘Here I am, ready to serve you,’ answered the carpenter, getting to his knees.
‘I had an idea this morning.’
‘Let us hear it.’
‘I thought I would make a fine wooden puppet – a really fine one, that can dance, fence, and turn somersaults in the air. Then, with this puppet, I could travel round the world, and earn my bit of bread and my glass of wine. What do you think about it?’
‘Bravo, Polendina!’ cried that same tiny, mysterious voice.
When he heard the name Polendina, Mr Geppetto became so angry that he turned as red as a ripe pepper. He turned to the carpenter, and said in a fury, ‘Why do you annoy me?’
‘Who is annoying you?’
‘You called me Polendina!’
‘No, I didn’t!’
‘Oh! Perhaps I did it! But I say that it was you.’
‘No!’
‘Yes!’
‘No!’
‘Yes!’
And, as they grew more and more excited, from words they came to blows. They seized one another’s wigs, and even hit and bit and scratched each other.
At the end of the fight Geppetto’s yellow wig was in Mr Antonio’s hands, and the carpenter’s grey wig between Geppetto’s teeth.
‘Give me my wig!’ said Mr Antonio.
‘You give me mine, and let us make a peace treaty!’
So the two little old men, each taking his own wig, shook hands, and promised to be good friends for ever.
‘Now, neighbour Geppetto,’ said the carpenter, to prove that they were friends again, ‘what can I do for you?’
‘I would like to have a little piece of wood to make my marionette. Will you give it to me?’
Mr Antonio, pleased as Punch, hurried to his bench, and took the piece of wood which had frightened him so much. But, just as he was giving it to his friend, it shook so hard that it slipped out of his hands, and struck poor Geppetto’s shin.
‘Ah! This is a fine way to make me a present, Mr Antonio! You have almost lamed me.’
‘Upon my honour, I didn’t do it!’
‘Oh! So I did it then!’
‘It’s all the fault of this piece of wood –’
‘Yes, I know the wood hit me, but you threw it at my legs!’
‘I did not throw it at you!’
‘That’s a lie!’
‘Geppetto, don’t insult me! If you do, I shall call you Polendina.’
‘Blockhead!’
‘Polendina!’
‘Donkey!’
‘Polendina!’
‘Ugly monkey!’
‘Polendina!’
When he heard himself called Polendina for the third time Geppetto, blind with rage, rushed at the carpenter, and the second fight was worse than the first.
When it was over, Mr Antonio had two more scratches on his nose, and Geppetto two buttons less on his jacket. Honours thus being even, they shook hands again, and vowed to be good friends for ever. Then Geppetto took the piece of wood and, thanking Mr Antonio, went limping home.
CHAPTER 3
Geppetto goes home and makes his puppet; he calls him Pinocchio; the puppet gets into mischief
Geppetto’s little room on the ground floor was lit by a window under the stairs. His furniture could not have been simpler. An old chair, a tottering bed, and a broken-down table. At the back of the room you could see a fireplace, with the fire lit; but the fire was painted, and over the fire was painted a kettle boiling merrily, with a cloud of steam that was just like real steam.
As soon as he arrived home, Geppetto took his tools and began to make his puppet.
‘What shall I call him?’ he asked himself. ‘I think I shall call him Pinocchio. That name will bring him good luck. I once knew a whole family of Pinocchios: there was Pinocchio the father, and Pinocchia the mother, and Pinocchii the children, and they all got along splendidly. The richest of them was a beggar.’
Having thought out a name for his puppet, he started his work with great determination. He made his hair, his forehead, and his eyes in a very short time.
As soon as the eyes were finished, imagine his bewilderment when he saw them moving and looking at him!
When Geppetto saw those two wooden eyes looking at him, he did not like it at all, and he said angrily, ‘Naughty wooden eyes, why are you staring at me?’
But no one answered.
After the eyes, he made the nose; but as soon as it was finished, it began to grow. It grew, and it grew, and in a few minutes’ time it was as long as if there was no end to it.
Poor Geppetto worked fast to shorten it; but the more he cut it off, the longer that insolent nose became.
After the nose, he made the mouth; but before he had finished it, it began to laugh and poke fun at him.
‘Stop laughing!’ said Geppetto; but he might as well have spoken to the wall.
‘Stop laughing, I say!’ he shouted, menacingly.
The mouth stopped laughing, and stuck out its tongue.
However, as Geppetto did not want to spoil the puppet, he pretended not to see it, and continued his work.
After the mouth, he made the chin, then the neck, the shoulders, the stomach, the arms, and the hands.
As soon as the hands were finished, Geppetto’s wig was snatched from his head. He looked up, and what should he see but his yellow wig in the puppet’s hands.
‘Pinocchio! Give me back my wig at once!’
But Pinocchio, instead of giving back the wig, put it on his own head, and was almost hidden under it.
This cheeky, mocking behaviour made Geppetto feel sadder than ever before in his life. He turned to Pinocchio, and said, ‘You scoundrel of a son! You are not even finished, and you already disobey your father! That’s bad, my boy – very bad!’ And he wiped away a tear.
There were still the legs and feet to make.
When Geppetto had finished the feet, he received a kick on the nose.
‘It serves me right,’ he said to himself. ‘I should have thought of it before. Now it is too late.’
He took the puppet in his hands, and put him down on the floor to see if he could walk; but Pinocchio’s legs were stiff, and he did not know how to move them. So Geppetto led him by the hand, and showed him how to put one foot before the other.
When the stiffness went out of his legs, Pinocchio started to walk alone, and run around the room; and finally he slipped through the door into the street and ran away.
Poor old Geppetto ran after him as quickly as he could, but he did not catch him, for the little rascal jumped like a rabbit, and his wooden feet clattered on the pavement, making as much noise as twenty pairs of wooden shoes.
‘Catch him! Catch him!’ cried Geppetto.
But when the people saw that wooden puppet running as fast as a racehorse, they looked at him in amazement, and then laughed, and laughed, and laughed, until their sides were aching.
At last, by some lucky chance, a policeman came and when he heard the clatter, he thought somebody’s horse had run away from its master. So he courageously stood in the middle of the street with his legs apart, in order to stop it, and prevent any more trouble.
From far away, Pinocchio saw the policeman barricading the street, and he decided to run between his legs; but he failed dismally.
The policeman, without moving from his place, picked him up by the nose – that ridiculous, long nose, that seemed made on purpose to be caught by policemen – and returned him to Geppetto, who wanted to pull his ears to punish him for his naughtiness. Imagine what he felt when he could not find any ears! And do you know why? Because he had made him in such a hurry that he had forgotten his ears.