Pinocchio  
By Carlo Collodi
136 pages; New York Review of Books

Just be glad he's not yours: that prevaricating boy toy with a nose for mischief. Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio, first published serially in Italy from 1881 to 1883, is short on Disneyesque sentimentality (there is a talking cricket, but Pinocchio squashes him), long on satire and farce. Geoffrey Brock's superbly crafted translation and Umberto Eco's introduction bring to life this tale of gumption and greed.