The Fabulous Journeys of Alice and Pinocchio: Exploring Their Parallel Worlds

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871) and Carlo Collodi’s Le Avventure di Pinocchio (1883) are among the most influential classics of children’s literature. Firmly rooted in their respective British and Italian national cultures, the Alice and Pinocchio stories connected to a worldwide audience almost like folktales and fairy tales and have become fixtures of postmodernism.

Although they come from radically different political and social backgrounds, the texts share surprising similarities. This comparative reading explores their imagery and history, and discusses them in the broader context of British and Italian children’s stories.

Laura Tosi is a professor of English literature at the University Ca’ Foscari in Venice, Italy. Her research is in Elizabethan drama and children’s literature. She has published works on literary fairy tales and adaptation, and co-edited the first history of English-language children’s literature written in Italian. Peter Hunt is a professor emeritus of English and children’s literature at Cardiff University, UK. He has lectured at more than 150 universities and colleges in 23 countries, and has produced 30 books and 500 papers and reviews on the subject.