It is about the mischievous adventures of an animated marionette named Pinocchio, which he faces many perils and temptations, meets characters that teach him about life, and learns goodness before he achieves his heart's desire of becoming a real boy.

[1] A universal icon and a metaphor of the human condition, the book is considered a canonical piece of children's literature and has had great impact on world culture.

[2] Since its first publication, it has inspired many works of fiction, such as Walt Disney's animated version, and commonplace ideas such as a liar's long nose.

[6] In Tuscany, Italy, a carpenter named Master Antonio finds a log that he plans to carve into a table leg.

Left alone, Pinocchio heads back to Geppetto's house to get something to eat, where a talking cricket warns him of the perils of disobedience and laziness.

As Pinocchio sets off for the City of Catchfools, the ghost of the Talking Cricket appears and tells him to go home and give the coins to his father.

After biting off the Cat's paw, he escapes to a white house, where he is greeted by a young fairy with turquoise hair who says she is dead and waiting for a hearse.

The Fairy has Pinocchio rescued and calls in three doctors to evaluate him - the Owl says he is alive, the Crow says he is dead, and the Ghost of the Talking Cricket says he is fine, but has been disobedient and hurt his father.

The Fairy explains that Pinocchio's lies are causing his nose to grow and calls in a flock of woodpeckers to chisel it down to size.

As Pinocchio heads out to find Geppetto, he once again meets the Fox and the Cat, who remind him of the Field of Miracles, and he agrees to go with them and plant his gold.

Fortunately, all criminals are released early when the Emperor of Catchfools declares a celebration following his army's victory over the town's enemies.

He goes to invite everyone, but he is sidetracked after meeting Candlewick, one of his closest friends, who tells him he is heading to a place called Toyland, where children play all day and never work or study.

After long months of working for the farmer and supporting the ailing Geppetto, Pinocchio goes to town with the forty pennies he has saved to buy himself a new suit.

The Adventures of Pinocchio incorporates elements similar to that of fairy tales, as it is a story about an animated puppet and boys who turn into donkeys.

With the founding of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, Collodi ceased his journalistic and militaristic activities and began writing children's books.

[8] In 1881, he sent a short episode in the life of a wooden puppet to a friend who edited a newspaper in Rome, wondering whether the editor would be interested in publishing this "bit of foolishness" in his children's section.

[9] The Adventures of Pinocchio was originally published in serial form in the Giornale per i bambini, one of the earliest Italian weekly magazines for children, starting from 7 July 1881.

In the original, serialized version, Pinocchio dies a gruesome death: hanged for his innumerable faults, at the end of Chapter 15.

At the request of his editor, Collodi added chapters 16–36, in which the Fairy with Turquoise Hair rescues Pinocchio and eventually transforms him into a real boy, when he acquires a deeper understanding of himself, making the story more suitable for children.

The Adventures of Pinocchio is the world's third most translated book (240–260 languages),[3][4] and was the first work of Italian children's literature to achieve international fame.

[11] The popularity of the story was bolstered by the powerful philosopher-critic Benedetto Croce, who greatly admired the tale and reputed it as one of the greatest works of Italian literature.

The first appearance of the book in the United States was in 1898, with publication of the first US edition in 1901, translated and illustrated by Walter S. Cramp and Charles Copeland.

The 1940 Walt Disney version was a groundbreaking achievement in the area of effects animation, giving realistic movement to vehicles, machinery and natural elements such as rain, lightning, smoke, shadows and water.

The structure of the story of Pinocchio follows that of the folk-tales of peasants who venture out into the world but are naively unprepared for what they find, and get into ridiculous situations.

Journeys to the underworld are a common feature of Eurasian literary epics: Gilgamesh, Odysseus, Aeneas, and Dante all benefit from the knowledge and power they put on after such descents.

Rebirth through metamorphosis, on the other hand, is a motif generally consigned to fantasy or speculative literature [...] These two figurative manifestations of the death-rebirth trope are rarely combined; however, Carlo Collodi's great fantasy-epic, The Adventures of Pinocchio, is a work in which a hero experiences symbolic death and rebirth through both infernal descent and metamorphosis.

And in the end Pinocchio's willingness to provide for his father and devote himself to these things transforms him into a real boy with modern comforts.

Collodi never lets the reader forget that disaster is always a possibility; in fact, that is just what Pinocchio's mentors —Geppetto, the Talking Cricket, and the Fairy— repeatedly tell him.

There are at least fourteen English-language films based on the story, Italian, French, Russian, German, Japanese and other versions for the big screen and for television, and several musical adaptations.