Classic Book Reader
Cover of Beppo

Beppo

by Carlo Collodi (1826–1890)

  • Free to read
  • 50 min read
  • 14 chapters

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.

Read free now No app, no sign-up. Your place is saved automatically. Or download for your e-reader ↓
  • Adventure stories
  • Monkeys

Read the opening

Chapter I

In the famous forest of “Guess It” there lived at one time a family of seven monkeys,—papa, mamma, and five little monkeys as large as pineapple cheeses.

This family lived among the branches of a giant tree, in the middle of the forest, and paid fifteen plums’ rent every year to an old overbearing gorilla, who had taken it into his head to be a proprietor.

Four of these little monkeys had skin and hair the color of chocolate, but the other, the smallest of them all, whether it might be a trick of nature or no, the fact was that he was covered all over, except his little face, with a fine hair that was fleshy red, just like the leaves of a rose. For this reason, even in his home and amongst the neighbors, they all called him Beppo,—a word that means, in the spoken language of monkeys, rose-colored.

Beppo did not resemble either his brothers or the other monkeys in the neighborhood. He had a quick and intelligent face, a pair of cunning eyes that never stood still a minute, a small mouth that always laughed, and a dry and flexible personality, like the stem of a bulrush. He was, in fact, as it is customary to say, a “perfect little monkey.”

Keep reading Beppo →

Contents

  1. Chapter I
  2. Chapter II
  3. Chapter III
  4. Chapter IV
  5. Chapter V
  6. Chapter VI
  7. Chapter VII
  8. Chapter VIII
  9. Chapter IX
  10. Chapter X
  11. Chapter XI
  12. Chapter XII
  13. Chapter XIII
  14. Chapter XIV

Download for your e-reader

Files are provided by Project Gutenberg. On a Kindle, the simplest route is to send the EPUB with Amazon’s Send to Kindle. Downloaded copies don’t sync with your place on Classic Book Reader.

About this edition

This free edition of Beppo by Carlo Collodi comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #78089, released 2026-03-02. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

More by Carlo Collodi