Heidi, Johanna Spyri
Heidi, Johanna Spyri
List: $11.25 | Sale: $7.88
Club: $5.62

Heidi

Author: Johanna Spyri

Series: Puffin Classics

Narrator: Gemma Whelan

Unabridged: 6 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/06/2019

Synopsis

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Heidi by Johanna Spyri, read by Gemma Whelan.

Little Heidi goes to live with her grandfather in his lonely hut high in the Alps and she quickly learns to love her new life. But her strict aunt decides to send her away again to live in the town. Heidi cannot bear being away from the mountains and is determined to return to the happiness of life with her grandfather.

About Johanna Spyri

Johanna Spyri (1827-1901) was an author of children's stories and is best known for writing Heidi. Born Johanna Louise Heusser in the rural area of Hirzel, Switzerland, as a child she spent several summers in the area around Chur in Graubunden, the setting she would later use in her novels.

In 1852, Johanna married Bernhard Spyri, a lawyer. While living in Zurich, she began to write about life in the country. Her first book, A Leaf on Vrony's Grave, was published in 1871, and the following year further stories by Spyri—for both adults and children—appeared, among them the tale of Heidi that became an instant and enduring success. Heidi, the story of an orphan girl who lives with her grandfather in the Alps, is famous not only for its vivid portrayal of the landscape but also for its understanding of how children see life and experience their feelings.

Johanna's husband and her only child, a son named Bernhard, both died in 1884. Alone, she devoted herself to charitable causes and wrote over fifty more stories before her death in 1901. An icon in Switzerland, Johanna's portrait was placed on a postage stamp in 1951 and on a twenty-CHF (Swiss franc) commemorative coin in 2001.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Tharindu on May 03, 2021

"I would a thousand times rather be with grandfather on the mountain than anywhere else in the world.” I love this book. I love it more and more every time I re-read it, for, there is very little else I found relaxing and make me feel great, than reliving the life of Heidi among the beautiful mountai......more

Goodreads review by Ruby on June 08, 2021

I can't believe I've only just read this! This is such a charming children's book with utterly beautiful descriptions of the mountains which fill you with gratitude and wonder and wish you were in the countryside.......more

Goodreads review by Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ on May 12, 2021

Heidi, a Swiss book originally published in German in 1881, was one of those books I grew up with: my mother had a simplified, abridged version of it that I read many times and loved as a child. When I realized the GR group "Catching up on the Classics" was doing it as a group read, I jumped in, exc......more

Goodreads review by Justin on August 30, 2018

The most feel-good story of all time? Possibly. Heidi’s infectious pleasantness carries easily over the Swiss alps and into my life, nearly 140 years later. Despite a plot of idealized happiness, the cast of characters are not without flaw. The moments of conflict, though never described in severe t......more

Goodreads review by Miranda on October 28, 2025

Orphaned Heidi is on her third home. Her parents are dead, her aunt has a better job in the city and so little Heidi is sent to live with her grandfather in the Swiss mountains and the surrounding village is reeling. Heidi's grandfather has a bit of a reputation as an old curmudgeonly man, someone wh......more

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