SOURCE: An introduction to Pinocchio: The Adventures of a Marionette by C. Collodi, translated by Walter S. Cramp, The Heritage Press, 1937, pp. v-viii.

Van Doren is considered one of the most perceptive critics of the first half of the twentieth century. A founder of the Literary Guild and author or editor of several American literary histories, Van Doren was also a critically acclaimed historian and biographer. In the following essay, he claims that Pinocchio is "a childish allegory of the moral life."

In the heroic ages and in the nursery all stories are anonymous. Nobody knows the name of a single bard before Homer, and I never heard of a child that asked who was the author of the story of Robinson Crusoe or Gulliver or Alice or Pinocchio. Inquiring boys and girls want to be assured that what they hear is true, but it comes like the...