Beppo : $b or, The little rose-colored monkey

Beppo by Carlo Collodi is a children’s fantasy tale written in the late 19th century. Playful and satirical, it follows a mischievous rose-colored monkey whose curiosity about human ways leads him into comic scrapes and moral lessons; the likely topic is a lighthearted adventure that teaches the value of keeping promises and using good sense.

The story begins in the forest of Guess It, where Beppo’s pranks escalate from stealing a man’s pipe to teasing a crocodile, who snaps off his beautiful tail. Kidnapped in a sack and rescued by a kind boy named Alfred, Beppo is offered food, clothes, and a place as a valet for a planned voyage, but his vanity and gluttony keep tripping him up. Torn between family and promise, he’s warned by a glowing serpent and soon seized by Dry-throat, chief of assassins, who means to take him to the Fairy with the Blue Hair. Beppo flatters his captor to get supper, then outwits him at an inn by swapping places with a cat that later blinds the villain. Fleeing, he is briefly crowned Emperor of the Monkeys, finds rulership a burden, and escapes again to a house tended by a blue rabbit who reminds him that promises must be kept. Caught once more by the now-blind Dry-throat and forced to perform in a port town, Beppo is finally bought and freed by Alfred, and the two set off together at last on their long-promised journey around the world. (This is an automatically generated summary.)