Pinocchio was a character created by Carlo Collodi (pen name of Italian writer and journalist Carlo Lorenzini), who published The Adventures of Pinocchio in 1883. It’s about a wooden puppet carved by Geppetto, brought to life by a fairy, and then turned into a real little boy. Although this story sounds familiar to everybody, most people only remember the Disney version, which has an entirely different plot from the original book.

In Carlo Collodi’s novel, Pinocchio is a rude and naughty little boy who often lies. His nose gets longer every time he does so, and a piece of wood is jamming his jaw shut, making it almost impossible for him to speak the truth. The story has some powerful moral messages; among other things, it’s warning kids to stay away from drugs (a cricket offers Pinocchio some “happy leaves” which make him act like a maniac) and telling them they should study hard to avoid ending up as ignorant fools (The Fairy with Turquoise Hair makes Pinocchio smart only because she feels sorry for him).

There’s a sad ending in Carlo Collodi’s novel when Pinocchio realizes all his mistakes and tries to make amends with everybody. He goes back to find the Fairy with Turquoise Hair, who immediately forgives him and takes him to a place with lots of other happy children. In the novel, Pinocchio is an actual child who dies due to his many mistakes, not like in Disney’s version where he comes alive again after saying that he learned his lesson.

As you can see, the famous story of Pinocchio is entirely different from its original version. In this case, we can say that Disney did a great job adapting it to a broader audience, but Carlo Collodi’s work remains much more complex and less predictable than everybody thinks.

The name “Pinocchio” is a place name in Italy. It’s the name of an Italian commune, an administrative division that roughly corresponds to a “town.” Pinocchio (the place) is in Emilia-Romagna, in the Province of Forlì-Cesena.

Carlo Collodi’s house where he wrote The Adventures of Pinocchio is located in the commune of Collodi, which is part of the Province of Florence.

Since 1999, The Adventures of Pinocchio has been registered on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme Book for being “the most famous work in children’s literature.” Other books included are Hans Christian Andersen’s Complete Fairy Tales and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland.