Heidi: A delightful story for children about life in the Alps

By Johanna Spyri

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 6-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. 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dnl Media
• Release date: Jun 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9788418754142

Johanna Spyri

Johanna Spyri was born in a small village called Hirzel, southeast of Zurich, Switzerland, on June 12, 1827, as the daughter of a country doctor. She went to school and was tutored at home, then studied languages and piano in Zürich. In 1852 she married lawyer Bernhard Spyri (1821-1884) and they had a son, Bernard (1855-1884). In 1871 Spyri started to write stories to raise money for refugees from the Franco-Prussian war, and her first full length story, Heidi, was published in 1881. She wrote many other stories and though some were successful, none of them matched Heidi for popularity or longevity. She died in Zurich on July 7, 1901.