Abstract
Tosi is frank concerning the challenges presented to “say something new” about the tales of Alice and Pinocchio, yet while there has been much separate study and criticism on the subjects of these iconic children’s characters, there has been no scholarly study of each text through the lens of the other (Tosi 1). Tosi discusses the impact of the Alice books and Pinocchio on a broader, global audience by introducing an idea put forth by Italian novelist Italo Calvino, namely that “classics are those books which come to us bearing the aura of previous interpretation and trailing behind them the traces they have left in the culture or cultures (or just in the languages and customs) through which they have passed” (qtd. in Tosi, 1). Calvino’s words sum up the aims of Tosi’s The Fabulous Journeys of Alice and Pinocchio, and challenge her to present compelling proof that these tales are indeed classics, fashioned by the language, culture and history of their native soils.
