There is a moment in almost everyone's childhood when they encounter Pinocchio. But Carlo Collodi's puppet—born in installments in a Florentine newspaper between 1881 and 1883—is much more than a children's fairy tale. It is a coming-of-age story that is both fierce and tender, in which lies have short legs but the road to humanity is paved with falls, deceptions, and redemptions.

Pinocchio wants to become a real boy. And in wanting it with all his wooden soul, he becomes something more: a mirror in which every reader—child or adult—finds their own imperfection, their own desire to be different and better.

This Macmillan Collector's Library edition, bound and designed to last, restores the text in its classic English version—a gift to keep or to give, for those who love books as much as the stories they contain.