Heidi, with eBook

Name: Heidi, with eBook
Brand: Tantor Audio
Availability: InStock
Rating: 5 (1 reviews)
Author: Johanna Spyri
ISBN: 9781400178834

Author: Johanna Spyri

Narrator: Frances Cassidy

Unabridged: 5 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/15/2008

Categories: Children's Fiction

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

Orphaned at an early age and taken in by her young aunt Dete, Heidi is soon in the way. Dete has a new and better job where Heidi is not welcome, so the child must live with her curmudgeon of a grandfather high on the Alm Mountain in the Swiss Alps. Everyone calls him the Alm-Uncle because he never comes down to the village, even in the coldest winter, and he's developed a reputation as an evil, godless old hermit. But Heidi soon finds that things are not always what others say they are, makes friends with the Alm-Uncle, and happily runs wild in the glorious mountains with the goat boy, Peter, and his goats.

Suddenly, Dete appears again, and Heidi finds herself confined in a stone house in a stone city where she is expected to be companion to the invalid Clara. Dete sees this as a great opportunity for Heidi, one that will provide her with an education and polish. But, bitterly unhappy away from her grandfather and the outdoor life she has grown to love, Heidi at last makes her way back to the Alm. How Klara finally comes to the mountains as well, and the surprising events that follow, form the heartwarming ending to a story that has been loved for generations by children all over the world.

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 emma on November 05, 2019

I don't know what it is about this book, but I just...didn't like it that much? And I really like classics. And I really like children's books. And I REALLY like children's classics. I also really, REALLY liked the other three books (A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables) in this......more