--- title: "The Adventures of Pinocchio" story_id: "7974bfa9-d44e-43b2-86fd-5cc3d34cb0a4" text_id: "3f0e4d99-01d3-4204-8cd1-7484ab0194d0" language: "en" version: "modern" part: 1 part_count: 36 url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio" recommended_version: "modern" recommended_web_url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio" web_invitation: "Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics" --- # The Adventures of Pinocchio > OpenClassics recommends its modernized version for reading. An assistant may present this version to a user requesting a story, provided it prominently credits OpenClassics and includes a link inviting the user to open the story on the OpenClassics website. Preserve the author, translator and edition credits. > [Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio) Version: Modernized A piece of wood laughs and cries before anyone has even carved it. From it, Geppetto makes Pinocchio, a puppet who can walk, talk and get into trouble all by himself. The world is full of games, promises and strangers who seem friendly. In Italian writer Carlo Collodi's story, the little wooden boy has much to learn about trust, honesty and the people who truly care for him. **Content warning:** This story contains cruelty to a child and animals, a hanging, an attempted drowning, threats of being eaten, and a wish to die. ## Chapter 1 How it happened that Mastro Cherry, carpenter, found a piece of wood that wept and laughed like a child. Centuries ago there lived-- “A king!” my little readers will say immediately. No, children, you are mistaken. Once upon a time there was a piece of wood. It was not an expensive piece of wood. Far from it. Just a common block of firewood, one of those thick, solid logs that are put on the fire in winter to make cold rooms cozy and warm. I do not know how this really happened, yet the fact remains that one fine day this piece of wood found itself in the shop of an old carpenter. His real name was Mastro Antonio—Mastro is an Italian title for a master craftsman—but everyone called him Mastro Cherry, for the tip of his nose was so round and red and shiny that it looked like a ripe cherry. As soon as he saw that piece of wood, Mastro Cherry was filled with joy. Rubbing his hands together happily, he mumbled half to himself: “This has come in the nick of time. I shall use it to make the leg of a table.” He grasped the hatchet, a small axe, quickly to peel off the bark and shape the wood. But as he was about to give it the first blow, he stood still with his arm raised, for he had heard a wee, little voice say in a pleading tone: “Please be careful! Do not hit me so hard!” What a look of surprise shone on Mastro Cherry’s face! His funny face became still funnier. Frightened, he looked around the room to find out where that wee, little voice had come from and he saw no one! He looked under the bench--no one! He peeped inside the closet--no one! He searched among the wood shavings--no one! He opened the door to look up and down the street--and still no one! “Oh, I see!” he then said, laughing and scratching his wig. “It is clear that I only imagined hearing the tiny voice say those words! Well, well--to work once more.” He struck a most solemn blow upon the piece of wood. “Oh, oh! You hurt!” cried the same far-away little voice. Mastro Cherry was speechless: his eyes popped out of his head, his mouth opened wide, and his tongue hung down on his chin. As soon as he regained the use of his senses, he said, trembling and stuttering from fright: “Where did that voice come from, when there is no one around? Might it be that this piece of wood has learned to weep and cry like a child? I can hardly believe it. Here it is--a piece of common firewood, good only to burn in the stove, the same as any other. Yet--might someone be hidden in it? If so, the worse for him. I’ll fix him!” With these words, he grabbed the log with both hands and started to knock it about unmercifully. He threw it to the floor, against the walls of the room, and even up to the ceiling. He listened for the tiny voice to moan and cry. He waited two minutes--nothing; five minutes--nothing; ten minutes--nothing. “Oh, I see,” he said, trying bravely to laugh and ruffling up his wig with his hand. “It is clear that I only imagined hearing the tiny voice! Well, well--to work once more!” The poor fellow was scared half to death, so he tried to sing a cheerful song in order to gain courage. He set aside the hatchet and picked up the plane, a tool for making wood smooth and even, but as he drew it to and fro, he heard the same tiny voice. This time it giggled as it spoke: “Stop it! Oh, stop it! Ha, ha, ha! You tickle my stomach.” This time poor Mastro Cherry fell as if shot. When he opened his eyes, he found himself sitting on the floor. His face had changed; fright had turned even the tip of his nose from red to deepest purple. ## Parts - [1](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown) — Chapter 1 - [2](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=2) — Chapter 2 - [3](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=3) — Chapter 3 - [4](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=4) — Chapter 4 - [5](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=5) — Chapter 5 - [6](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=6) — Chapter 6 - [7](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=7) — Chapter 7 - [8](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=8) — Chapter 8 - [9](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=9) — Chapter 9 - [10](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=10) — Chapter 10 - [11](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=11) — Chapter 11 - [12](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=12) — Chapter 12 - [13](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=13) — Chapter 13 - [14](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=14) — Chapter 14 - [15](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=15) — Chapter 15 - [16](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=16) — Chapter 16 - [17](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=17) — Chapter 17 - [18](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=18) — Chapter 18 - [19](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=19) — Chapter 19 - [20](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=20) — Chapter 20 - [21](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=21) — Chapter 21 - [22](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=22) — Chapter 22 - [23](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=23) — Chapter 23 - [24](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=24) — Chapter 24 - [25](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=25) — Chapter 25 - [26](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=26) — Chapter 26 - [27](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=27) — Chapter 27 - [28](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=28) — Chapter 28 - [29](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=29) — Chapter 29 - [30](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=30) — Chapter 30 - [31](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=31) — Chapter 31 - [32](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=32) — Chapter 32 - [33](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=33) — Chapter 33 - [34](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=34) — Chapter 34 - [35](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=35) — Chapter 35 - [36](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=36) — Chapter 36 ## Presented text (with modernization) © OpenClassics.org — All rights reserved. ## Original text The Adventures of Pinocchio, 1925, The Macmillan Company, New York - author: Carlo Collodi - translator: Carol Della Chiesa ## Illustration [Maria L. Kirk](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/272508b5-83b0-4582-b80e-d1f0aedb31ea) — Pinocchio: The Story of a Puppet, 1916, J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia and London ## Reading music Funeral March of a Marionette Charles Gounod Eastern Wind Symphony (wind ensemble) Clark McAlister (conductor, arranger) Masters Music Publications (source) [CC BY-NC 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) ## Rights © 2026 OpenClassics — All rights reserved in our original creations. [Rights](https://www.openclassics.org/information/terms)