Heidi (Sterling Unabridged Classics)

Author(s): Johanna Spyri

Classics - children

Heidi is a work of children's fiction published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, originally published in two parts as Heidi: her years of wandering and learning and Heidi : How she used what she learned. It 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. Heidi is an orphaned girl initially 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 paternal grandfather's house, up the mountain from Dörfli. He 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 'Uncle Alp'. He 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, his mother, Bridgget, and his blind maternal grandmother. With each season that passes, the mountaintop inhabitants grow more attached to Heidi. Three years later, Dete returns to take Heidi to Frankfurt to be a hired lady's companion to a wealthy girl named Clara Sesemann, who is regarded as an invalid. The girl is charmed by Heidi's simple friendliness, and delights in all the funny mishaps brought about by Heidi's lack of experience with city life. However, the Sesemanns' strict housekeeper, Fräulein Rottenmeier, views the household disruptions as wanton misbehavior, and places Heidi under more and more restraint. Soon, Heidi becomes terribly homesick, and grows alarmingly pale and thin.

$28.00 NZD

RRP $30.00 NZD (6% off)

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Product Information

General Fields

  • : 9781402726019
  • : Sterling Publishing
  • : Sterling
  • : 0.594
  • : October 2006
  • : 203mm X 154mm X 26mm
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Johanna Spyri
  • : Hardback
  • : English
  • : 833.8
  • : b&w illustrations throughout