Collodi, Carlo (pseudonym of Carlo Lorenzini, 1826–90), Italian writer, journalist, civil servant, and patriot, the author of Le avventure di Pinocchio (1881–3), generally regarded as the masterpiece of Italian children's literature. Pinocchio is not a traditional story reworked, but is, nevertheless, a fairy tale, a principal character being ‘the Fairy with indigo hair’ (not ‘the Blue Fairy’, which is a Disney distortion of the original). Collodi came to fairies and to children late and simultaneously, when he was nearly 50 in 1875. By then he had long been noted in his native Florence for his cultural activities for adults and for his political commitment. One of many siblings brought up in poverty, he knew both the historic city and the Tuscan countryside from boyhood; he was given a good education with priests, thanks to his parents' noble employer. Work in a prominent bookshop brought him into contact with the liberal Florentine intelligentsia. He became an ardent supporter of the ideals of the Risorgimento, eager to see the Italian states freed from foreign domination and from antiquated regimes, and able to unite as one nation. In 1848, the great year of European revolutions, he fought against the Austrians in the First War of Independence in Italy. Returning safely, he embarked on his life's twin professions, becoming a civil servant with the Tuscan legislature and launching a politico‐satirical newspaper. Because of the censorship, his journalism soon turned towards the theatre, and he began to write plays and then novels.
At 32, Collodi enlisted for the Second War of Independence, and before long Garibaldi brought about the unification of Italy (1860). In 1865, the year that Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was published, Florence briefly became Italy's capital and saw a resurgence of dynamic political and cultural activity. Ten years later Collodi, who was a passionate theatregoer, music‐lover, and journalist of mordant wit, was commissioned by the Florentine publishing house of the Paggi brothers to translate a collection of French literary fairy tales of the 17th and 18th centuries. They were Charles Perrault's eight Histoires ou contes du temps passé (Stories or Tales of Past Times, 1697) and his ‘Peau d'âne’ (‘Donkey‐Skin’), along with four stories by Mme d' Aulnoy (including ‘The Blue Bird’ and ‘The White Cat’) and two by Mme Leprince de Beaumont (including ‘Beauty and the Beast’). Among Perrault's reworkings of ancient and well‐known fairy tales (‘Cinderella’, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’) was ‘Puss‐in‐Boots’ which, through Collodi, returned to Italy from France after a circular journey of several hundred years: the earliest known versions are those of the Italian writers Giovan Francesco Straparola (Le piacevoli notti, 1550–3) and Giambattista Basile (Pentamerone, 1634–6). Collodi brought a Tuscan realism to his first children's book and first fairy book, I racconti delle fate (Fairy Tales, 1875); it made possible a new direction in his writing, which, within six years, was to result in his classic work, Pinocchio. First, however, he was commissioned to write a modernized version of an innovative children's book of 1837; his Giannettino of 1877 disguised didacticism within a more natural and playful narrative than had previously been acceptable, and its huge success led to a long series of entertaining but informative stories concerning the same central character, a lively boy who was not a model of perfect behaviour. In 1880 Giannettino began a tour of Italy in three volumes, which again demonstrated Collodi's determination to create Italians for the new Italy.
This was a period of considerable developments in journalism for children in Italy, and in 1881 Collodi was invited to contribute a serial story to a new and distinguished children's weekly paper, Il Giornale per i Bambini, published in Rome. La storia di un burattino (The Story of a Puppet) began in the first issue on 7 July 1881. It came to a premature end with the hanging of Pinocchio in October. Following clamorous requests, the serial started again in February 1882 under the definitive title, Le avventure di Pinocchio, and after a further interruption achieved its happy ending on 25 January 1883. It was immediately published as a volume with line illustrations by Enrico Mazzanti, who worked in close partnership with Collodi. While some of his other stories, such as ‘Pipì o lo scimmiottino color di rosa’ (‘Pipì or the Pink Monkey’, 1887), have some common ground with fairy tales, Pinocchio is Collodi's unique original contribution to the lore of fairies. Not surprisingly, his fairy is modelled on those of Perrault and his contemporaries, being human in scale and character and a good fairy godmother in type. Yet, despite her dark blue hair, she is modern in her ideals and tutelage, urging Pinocchio to be studious. Judged within the context of its times, Collodi's fairy tale is both illuminating and extraordinary for its social and political satire on the one hand, and on the other because of its exuberant fantasy, especially remarkable because the fairy‐tale tradition generally had only a limited impact on the development of children's literature in Italy. In the late 19th century, Italy's usual response to fairies was confined to the rewriting of folk tales from the oral tradition. Luigi Capuana's Sicilian stories for children, C'era una volta (Once Upon a Time, 1882), are a distinguished example.
Pinocchio was instantly a great popular success, the fifth edition appearing in 1890, the year of Collodi's death; the first English translation, published in 1892, heralded innumerable versions world‐wide and a vast international industry of abridgements, films, plays, toys, and other products. Pinocchio is one of the most translated books in the world and has been interpreted according to many ideologies and philosophies.
Bibliography
- Bertacchini, Renato, Il padre di Pinocchio (1993).
- Collodi, Carlo, The Adventures of Pinocchio, trans. and ed. Ann Lawson Lucas (1996).
- Fedi, R. (ed.), Carlo Collodi. Lo spazio delle meraviglie (1990).
- Traversetti, Bruno, Introduzione a Collodi (1993).
- Vitta, M., “‘Introduzione’”, in Carlo Collodi, Fiabe e racconti (1991).
— Ann Lawson Lucas
