Freedom to roam in the high Swiss Alps brings great happiness in this story of Heidi and her unusual childhood high up in the Swiss Alps. When Heidi’s parents die, she is sent to live with her grandfather high up in the mountains. Everyone in the village is frightened of grandfather but Heidi soon gets used to his gruff ways and loves his simple way of life tending the goats. Summer and winter, Heidi helps her grandfather and plays outdoors, sometimes with Peter who herds his goats nearby. When interfering adults try to make changes, including taking Heidi away from her beloved home in the mountains, Heidi soon shows the restoring and healing powers of her special childhood.
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One of the most popular pieces of children's literature ever written After the death of her mother, Heidi, a rosy-cheeked six-year-old, is dropped off on the doorstep of her grandfather, who lives in the mountains above a Swiss town. Grandfather is a frightening and withdrawn old man who has no use for the antics of a young girl, but the whole town falls in love with Heidi's innocent spirit, and she in turn begins to feel affection for her grandfather. From the blooming meadows in the valley of the Swiss Alps to a ';haunted' house in Frankfurt, Johanna Spyri's classic is suffused with Heidi's warmth. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
Johanna Louise Heusser, the fourth of six children of Meta Schweizer (1797-1876) and Johan Jakob Heusser (1783-1859), physician, was born on 12 June 1827 in the village of Herzil, nestled in the Alps of Switzerland. 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) with whom she'd have a son, Bernard Diethelm (1855-1884). The couple moved to Zürich to a home overlooking the lake where she wrote her first novel, A Leaf on Vrony's Grave, which was published in 1871.