Heidi

Johanna Spyri Other

A story for children and those that love children.
Translated by Helen B.Dole
(1880)
As a little girl with no parents, Heidi was raised in the beautiful mountains where her grandfather and grandmother lived. She had a happy and naive life, spending time with the old pair and her only friend, an 11 year old boy named Peter. But as the girl grew older and was sent to school, she began to understand how great and valuable, and so gentle, home had been. A pretty story that readers will find themselves reading over and over again in times to come.--Submitted by Molly.
Originally published in two parts as Heidi's years of learning and travel (German: Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre) and Heidi makes use of what she has learned. (German: Heidi kann brauchen, was es gelernt hat) This is a novel about the events in the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care, in the Swiss Alps. It was written as a book "for children and those who love children" (as quoted from its subtitle). Heidi is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature.
Adelheid ("Heidi") is a girl who has been raised by her aunt Dete in Maienfeld, Switzerland after the early deaths of her parents, Tobias and Adelheid (Dete's sister and brother-in-law). Dete brings 5-year-old Heidi to her grandfather (her father's father), who has been at odds with the villagers and embittered against God for years and lives in seclusion on the alm. This has earned him the nickname Alp- hi ("Alm-Uncle" in the Graub nden dialect). Alm-Uncle briefly resents Heidi's arrival, but the girl's evident intelligence and cheerful yet unaffected demeanor soon earn his genuine, if reserved, affection. Heidi enthusiastically befriends her new neighbors, young Peter the goatherd and his mother and blind grandmother. With each season that passes, the mountaintop inhabitants grow more attached to Heidi.

Unfold