本书为日记体，记载了一个名叫安利科的四年级小男孩在都灵一所学校中度过的九个月的生活。全书没有波澜曲折的情节，而是通过这个男孩的眼睛讲述了日常生活的方方面面，以及发生在学校和家庭中的许多小事，然而在这些小事中却洋溢着丰富的童趣，生动感人，并充满了小主人公对祖国、对家乡、对人民、对父母、对师长同学以及周围所有人的深深的爱与尊重。

Cuore(The Heart of a Boy)isthefictionaldiary of a young boy’s life in a Turin school．Written by a former professional soldier in the aftermath of the Italian war for independence and the Unification of Italy in 1870．the book was intended to foster an appreciation of national identity．It has been required reading for generations of Italians to the present day．has been reprinted in more than five hundred editions and translated into twenty-five languages．

AUHOR'S PREFACE

OCTOBER

The First Day of School

Our Master

An Accident

The Calabrian Boy

My Classmates

A Noble Action

My School Mistress of the Upper First

In an Attic

The School

The Little Patriot of Padua

NOVEMBER

The Chimney Sweep

All Souls'Day

My Friend Garrone

The Charcoal Man and the Gentleman

My Brother's School-Mistress

My Mother

My Companion Coretti

The Principal of the School 

The Soldiers

The Protector of Nelli

The First of the Class

The Little Vidette of Lomdardy

The Poor

DECEMBER

The Trading Boy

The First Snow Storm

The Little Mason

A Snow Ball

The School-Mistress

In the Home of the Wounded Man

The Little Florentine Writer

Will

Gratitude

JNUARY

The Substitute

Stardi's Library

The Son of the Blacksmith

A Nice Visit

The Funeral of Vittorio Emanuele

Franti Expelled from School

The Sardinian Drummer-Boy

The Love of Our Country

Envy

Franti's Mother

Hope

FEBRUARY

A Well-Awarded Medal

Good Resolutions

The Little Railway Train

Pride

The Wounds of Work

The Prisoner

Papa's Nurse

The Workshop

The Little Clown

The Last Day of Carnival

The Blind Boys

The Sick Master

The Street

MARCH

The Evening Schools

The Fight

The Boys' Relatives

Number 78

The Little Dead Boy

The Eve of the 14th of March

The Distribution of Prizes

A Quarrel

My Sister

Blood of Romagna 

The Little Mason Seriously Ill

The Count Cavour

APRIL

Spring

King Umberto

The Infant Asylum

At the Gymnasium

My Father's Teacher

Convalescence

The Friend of the Workman

Garrone's Mother

Giuseppe Mazzini

Civic Valor

MAY

The Children with the Rickets

Sacrifice

The Fire

From the Apennines to the Andes

Summer

Poetry

The Deaf and Dumb Girl

JUNE

Garibaldi

The Army

Italy

Thirty-two Degrees Centigrade

My Father

In the Country

The Distribution of Prizes to the Workmen

My Dead School-Mistress

Thanks

A Shipwreck

JULY

The Last Page from My Mother

The Examination

The Last Examination

Farewell