Book Summary: Heidi




Heidi is a two-volume novel written by Johanna Spyri (born in 1827 in a small village, died in the city of Zurich in 1901), was published in 1879/1880, became a world-wide success story already towards the end of the 19th century and children do still like it today- as a book, as a radio play and as a movie.

The orphan child Heidi first lives with her aunt Dete, but Dete would like to concentrate on her career. So she brings Heidi to her grandfather, a queer old man living in an alpine cottage far from the next village (he is therefore called Alm-Uncle, Alpöhi or Almöhi in German).

 Alm-Uncle is good-hearted but mistrusts anybody and wants to keep the child from all evils of the world. So he refuses to send Heidi to school; instead she goes to the pastures, together with Peter, a shepherd boy looking after the goats (Geissenpeter = goat-Peter in German). This (all too harmonious) apine idyll finds a sudden end when aunt Dete comes in again and brings Heidi to Frankfurt (Germany) where she shall stay with Clara, the paralyzed daughter of a rich family, and learn something.

Thanks to the grandmother of Clara, Heidi learns to read but she can't get acquainted to the strict discipline in a bourgeois upper class house (personified by governess Fraulein Rottenmeier). She is very lonesome and gets depressed by the gray anonymous city. Heidi becomes ill of homesickness, she starts to walk in her sleep.

 * Point of View:
         - This book is telling a story where good people are rewarded and where love and honesty triumph.
         - It is a simple narrative of love between a girl and her grandfather, of the joy of helping others, of the beauty of nature, and of reverence for God.

 * Closing Statement:
         This is one of those classic books that I would highly recommend to anyone. It taught me about the power of friendship and the main character of Heidi is definitely my favourite: a jovial, radiant, chirpy girl who is always grateful and contented, no matter what her situation. Also the descriptive language about the Swiss Alps really inspired me to visit the land of Heidi and perhaps see those mountain goats for myself.

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