Heidi

Aunt Dete hurrying away after leaving Heidi with her grandfather

Heidi[6] is an orphaned girl initially raised by her maternal grandmother and aunt Dete in Maienfeld, in the Grisons, after the early deaths of her parents, Tobias and Adelheid (Dete's brother-in-law and sister). Shortly after the grandmother's death, Dete is offered a good job as a maid in the big city, and takes 5-year-old Heidi to her paternal grandfather's house, up the mountain from the Dörfli ('small village' in Swiss German). He has been at odds with the villagers and embittered against God for years and lives in seclusion on the alm, which has earned him the nickname 'The Alm-Uncle'. He briefly resents Heidi's arrival, but the girl's evident intelligence and cheerful yet unaffected demeanour soon earn his genuine, if reserved, love. Heidi enthusiastically befriends her new neighbours, young Peter the goatherd, his mother Brigitte, and his blind maternal grandmother. With each season that passes, the mountaintop inhabitants, especially Peter and the grandmother, grow more attached to Heidi, and she to them. However, the grandfather refuses to allow Heidi to attend school, and quarrels with the local pastor and schoolmaster, who try to encourage him to do so, and Heidi is illiterate as a result.

Three years later, Dete returns to take Heidi to Frankfurt to be a hired lady's companion to a wealthy girl named Klara Sesemann, who is unable to walk and regarded as an invalid. Klara is charmed by Heidi's simple friendliness and her descriptions of life on the Alm, and delights in all the funny mishaps brought about by Heidi's naïvety and lack of experience with city life. However, the Sesemanns' strict housekeeper, Fräulein Rottenmeier, views the household disruptions as wanton misbehaviour, and places the free-spirited Heidi under more and more restraint. Soon, Heidi becomes terribly homesick for the Alm, and grows alarmingly pale and thin. Her one diversion is learning to read and write, motivated by Klara's grandmother, who shows her trust and affection, and encourages her to believe in God and to pray.

Heidi's intractable homesickness leads to episodes of sleepwalking where she goes downstairs and opens the front door, which the household initially takes as the work of ghosts, and the family doctor recommends she be sent home as a matter of urgency before she becomes seriously ill. She returns to the mountains laden with presents for her friends, but finds one of her greatest pleasures is reading hymns to Peter's blind grandmother, who can no longer do so for herself. Her faith in God speaks to something in the Alm-Uncle, and he returns to the Christian faith. He accompanies Heidi to church, and that winter takes accommodation in the village so that she can attend school.

Heidi and Klara continue to keep in touch and exchange letters. A visit by the doctor to Heidi leads him to eagerly recommend that Klara visit Heidi, feeling assured that the mountain environment and the wholesome companionship will do her good. Klara makes the journey the next season and spends a wonderful summer with Heidi, becoming stronger on goat's milk and fresh mountain air. But Peter, who grows jealous of Heidi's and Klara's friendship, pushes her empty wheelchair down the mountain to its destruction, although he is soon wracked with guilt about what he did and ultimately confesses to it. Without her wheelchair, Klara has no choice but to learn to walk; she attempts to do so and is gradually successful. She is not very strong, often relying on Heidi or the grandfather to stay standing and not collapse, but it marks an end to her time as a lonely, shut-in invalid. Her grandmother and father are amazed and overcome with joy to see Klara walking again. The Sesemann family promises to provide permanent care for Heidi, if there ever comes a time when her grandfather is no longer able to do so.

• Adelheid "Heidi": A joyful and free-spirited young girl who is orphaned as a toddler. She loves the beauty and fresh air of the mountains.
• Grandfather: Heidi's grandfather, a cantankerous loner who lives in a hut high in the mountains.
• Klara Sesemann: A lonely, frail girl who cannot walk. Spelled "Clara" in some translations.
• Peter: A goat herder who lives with his mother and grandmother.
• Herr Sesemann: Klara's father, a successful businessman who travels often.
• The Doctor: Friend of Herr Sesemann.
• Grandmama: Herr Sesemann's mother.
• Adelheid: Heidi's mother died from fever soon after her husband Tobias died. Spelled "Adelaide" in some translations.
• Tobias: Heidi's father who was killed when a beam fell on his head when Heidi was a baby.
• Dete: Heidi's selfish and insensitive aunt. Spelled "Deta" in some translations.
• Brigitte: Peter's mother who takes care of Peter and her mother. Spelled "Brigitta" in some translations.
• Fräulein Rottenmeier: The strict and arrogant housekeeper at Herr Sesemann's home who antagonizes Heidi.
• Sebastian: A manservant in the Sesemann household.
• Tinette: A maidservant in the Sesemann household.

English: Thirteen English translations were done between 1882 and 1959, by British and American translators: Louise Brooks, Helen B. Dole, H.A. Melcon, Helene S. White, Marian Edwardes, Elisabeth P. Stork, Mabel Abbott, Philip Schuyler Allen, Shirley Watkins, M. Rosenbaum, Eileen Hall, and Joy Law.[7] As of 2010, only the Brooks, Edwardes and Hall translations are still in print.[8]

Maienfeld, the main town in Heidiland

Heidiland, named after the Heidi books, is an important tourist area in Switzerland, popular especially with Japanese and Korean tourists.[16] Maienfeld is the center of what is called Heidiland; one of the villages, formerly called Oberrofels,[17] is actually renamed "Heididorf".[18] Heidiland is located in an area called Bündner Herrschaft; it is criticized as being a "laughable, infantile cliché"[16] and "a more vivid example of hyperreality."[19]

The five sequel books, Heidi and Her Friends, Heidi Grows Up, Heidi's Children, Heidi grand-mère 1941 (Heidi as grandmother) and Au Pays de Heidi 1952 (In Heidi's land), were neither written nor endorsed by Spyri, but were adapted from her other works by her French translator, Charles Tritten in the 1930s, many years after she died.[20][21][22][23]

There are some major differences between the original Heidi and the Tritten sequels. These include;

• Heidi, the original story by Spyri, shows the simple life of Heidi imbued with a deep love of children and childhood. Spyri mentioned that the work was "for children and those who love children". The sequels portray Heidi in a different manner, as she grows up and gets married.
• Heidi in the first book, Heidi, is described as having "short, black curly hair", when she is around five to eight years of age. In Heidi Grows Up, when she is fourteen, her hair is long, straight and fair.
• In some English editions of Heidi the names of the goats are translated into English (Little Swan and Little Bear), while other editions use their original Swiss-German names, Schwanli and Baerli. In Heidi Grows Up only the names Schwanli and Baerli are used.

In 1990, screenwriters Weaver Webb and Fred & Mark Brogger, and director Christopher Leitch, produced Courage Mountain, starring Charlie Sheen and Juliette Caton as Heidi. Billed as a sequel to Spyri's story, the film is anachronistic in that it depicts Heidi as a teenager during World War I, despite the fact that the original novel (where Heidi is only five years old) was published in 1881.

In April 2010, a Swiss professorial candidate, Peter Buettner, uncovered a book written in 1830 by the German author Hermann Adam von Kamp. The 1830 story is titled "Adelaide: The Girl from the Alps" (German: Adelaide, das Mädchen vom Alpengebirge).[24] The two stories share many similarities in plot line and imagery.[25] Spyri biographer Regine Schindler said it was entirely possible that Spyri may have been familiar with the story as she grew up in a literate household with many books.

Heidi on a CHF 50 Swiss commemorative coin, 2001.

The book has been criticised, even in its day, for its religiously conservative positions,[26] and later for black-and-white character portrayals and an idealization of pastoral life.[27]

In Japan, since its first Japanese translation in 1906, the book has been influential upon the general, stereotypical image of Switzerland for the Japanese, especially its tourists, many visiting the Heidi's Village park.

• 2521 Heidi (an asteroid named after Heidi)
• Alpine people and culture
• Alpine transhumance (the traditional practice of moving grazing herds in the Alps between winter valleys and summer mountain pastures)
• History of the Alps
• Swiss folklore

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Heidi

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Heidi.

• Heidi at Project Gutenberg
• Heidi at Project Gutenberg (illustrated)
• Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre at Project Gutenberg (in German)
• Heidi public domain audiobook at LibriVox
• Heidi (in English) free downloads in multiple ebook formats
• Heidi's Land, The official Web site (in French) for the 1980s television show with Katia Polletin (Heidi) and Stefan Arpagaus (Peter)
• Remembering Heidi: Swiss Pride at its best, by Dr. Anton Anderssen
• Swiss Heidi may in fact be German
• Johanna Spyri's stolen Alps story?(in German)