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PINOCCHIO: WITH REFLECTIONS ON A FATHER'S LOVE BY FRANCO NEMBRINI

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Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio: The Story of a Puppet was first published in 1840 in serial form in the children’s magazine, Giornale per i Bambini. The original story ended at Chapter XV with Pinocchio hanging from a tree, dead at the hands of assassins. The young readers of Italy would have none of it though, for Pinocchio had become their hero. They flooded the magazine with letters begging for more, and so the editor wrote to Collodi demanding that he “resurrect” the puppet. In its final form, the novel sheds its status as a simple morality tale and transfigures Pinocchio’s singular trajectory into the story of every human being—the tremendous and inescapable “adventure” we are all asked to take together. The destination is at once simple and profound: for our end is to become really real. 

This timeless tale is so familiar that it is easy to miss the rich significance of Pinocchio’s story—his creation at the hands of the father Geppetto, who, as yet ignorant of the latent spark of life, names this wooden puppet Pino (pine, in Italian) -occhio (eye, in Italian), “a piece of wood with eyes.” Geppetto’s sacrificial love is undying despite Pinocchio’s pride and the puppet’s delinquent disappearance and descent into an underworld of misbehavior and humiliation. In a great reversal, the prodigal Pinocchio undertakes his own sacrificial, and saving, acts of love for the man who made him, quickening his transformation into a real boy at last.

This edition, brought to you through the collaboration of Well-Read Mom and Wiseblood Books, pairs the original story with a commentary by the Italian writer, teacher, and Dante expert Franco Nembrini. By looking broadly and deeply at Collodi’s life, both his personal obsessions and disappointments, and by bringing his poetic vision into tension with the historical and cultural circumstances that existed when he was alive, Nembrini locates the uncompromising truth rooted at the core of this adventure: we were made by and for God, the Father who loves us and seeks us, who forgives us, and waits patiently for our return to him. 

Franco Nembrini
Franco Nembrini is dedicated to furthering the education of youth, and has been constantly involved in educational initiatives. He helped found a private school in Calcinate and has served in various advisory capacities on educational commissions, particularly those serving Catholic schools. He has been a member of the Vatican Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life since October 2018.


Carlo Collodi
Carlo Lorenzini was born on November 24, 1826, in Florence, Italy. His mother hailed from the town of Collodi, and it was from this place that Carlo would adopt his pseudonym, Carlo Collodi. After the unification of the Italian states, Collodi turned his attention to writing children’s literature. At the age of fifty-three, Collodi began to write a story in parts for Giornale per i Bambini, a periodical for children. His work, The Story of a Marionette, was published in weekly episodes, to the delight of the general public. Collodi later published the tale of his little puppet in a single volume titled The Adventures of Pinocchio.