Like the deceitful little marionette himself, the tale of Pinocchio has been severed from its original strings. Disney's cute-as-a-button poster boy and his talking cricket-cum-superego are an inescapable cultural touchstone, but like so many popular children's stories, the original version was more barbaric than redeeming. Geoffrey Brock's new English translation of the subversive parable revives Carlo Collodi's sardonic wit and pitch-black humor, while bringing to life the poverty, moral vacuity, and uncensored violence of late-19th-century Europe.

Collodi wrote Pinocchio in serialized installments for a popular children's magazine during the 1880s. Though the story was largely improvised, this structure affords an episodic momentum that complements the adventures and obstacles of the picaresque plot. Like his contemporary Tom Sawyer, Pinocchio is a rebellious and willful protagonist whose stubborn selfishness is the very thing that makes him both irritating and interesting. It's hard not to be fascinated by Pinocchio's peccadilloes, which are more disturbing than those of his literary peers. He is aggressive (during a tantrum, he smashes his cricket pal with a mallet) and malicious (he tricks the police into arresting Geppetto, an event that establishes Collodi's view on the effectiveness of the law), but ultimately remains unapologetic for his actions. Pinocchio only transforms from transgressive twerp to dutiful boy via the consequences of his behavior: he is enslaved, eaten alive, and — in the intended ending — killed by hanging. One of the points of all this darkness is to deliver a stark moral message — lest we forget, Pinocchio was all written for the education and entertainment of children.

In this new translation, Brock — known for his award-winning translations of authors such as Umberto Eco and Cesare Pavese — strips away the sentimental veneer to reveal the original haunting fairy tale. Readers will be familiar with many of the characters, as well as the story's major plot points, but this version thankfully bears little resemblance to most modern interpretations. Pinocchio may have cast off his own strings, but Brock beautifully restores the historical knot.

-Chelsea Bauch