It was always my belief (assumption) that Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio (1882) began with Geppetto making a wooden puppet of a boy because he wanted a son. Little did I know that it was the carpenter Mastro Antonio (aka Mastro Ciliegia, trans. as Cherry) who had a piece of wood drying out in his workshop and one day decided to make from it a table leg. But just as he raised his axe to shape it, a voice called out, "Don't strike me too hard!" Mayhem ensues, with Antonio at one point beating the wood against a wall. More mayhem, and the next thing Antonio knows he is waking up on the floor, "He was so changed you could hardly have recognized him." Geppetto shows up at the beginning of Chapter Two and takes the wood home with him. The rest is puppetry.
Illustrations: Gioia Fiammenghi
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