The Tribulations of Pinocchio: How Social Change Can Wreck a Good Story

Abstract

length novel in 1883. Pinocchio's tribulations, alas, did not end with the story's final chapter; a long series of quite different mishaps awaited him in North America. The first of these entailed the actual process of getting into print in the United States. English audiences first met the puppet at Christmas time, 1891, when Fisher Unwin (London) published Mary Alice Murray's translation (Collodi 1891). The little book was decorated with Enrico Mazzanti's sketches, borrowed from the 1883 Italian edition. Murray's direct, rather literal translation of the novel was fortunate: the play it granted Collodi's ironic wit could charm English adults even if, as was likely, it went over the heads of their children. Pinocchio's hurried trip across the Atlantic to the United States a year later, however, was less fortunate. The choice of an American distributor proved poor. Cassell (New York) had arranged to bind and market the Fisher Unwin printed sheets under its own name, and they released the novel in October 1892 (Collodi 1892). Then, due to embezzlement by its president, Cassell was declared insolvent just eight months later. Pinocchio's introduction to the United States, therefore, required a second debut. As befits the spirit of Collodi's adventure