Incest story by Pinocchio author published in English for the first time
Carlo Collodi’s version of Donkey Skin, by French author Charles Perrault, will appear in a new collection of Italian fairytales
Carlo Collodi is remembered today for Pinocchio, his 1881 children’s story about a puppet who turns into a real boy, immortalised on screen by Disney. Now another magical tale from the author is set to be published in English for the first time, in a new volume collecting Italian fairytales from the turn of the 20th century.
All but one of the stories in the forthcoming The Pomegranates and Other Modern Italian Fairy Tales have never been published in English before. The book, which is due out from Princeton University Press on 19 October, collects 20 fairytales published between 1875 and 1914, following Italy’s political unification. It brings together stories from Collodi, Domenico Comparetti (regarded as the Italian Grimm for his work gathering fairytales from around the country), and Grazia Deledda, the only Italian woman to have received the Nobel prize in literature.
