Heidi author Johanna Spyri By Johanna Spyri
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 collection.
But I...did not care for this.
It was just very boring, I didn't think the writing was that pretty, and I didn't care for the characters that much.
Being a 22 year old writing a semi-negative review of a children's book from 150 years ago feels absurd.
Bottom line: Not for me!
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i love plotless 19th century children's classics as much as the next girl...
but i still could have used a bit more plot in this one.
review to come / 2.5 stars
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honestly how could i NOT read a book with a cover this pretty 352 This book was utterly charming and adorable! It's truly one of the sweetest and most wholesome stories I have ever read.
I've been a huge fan of Heidi since I was a young child, since my mother first introduced me to the fantastic Anime adaption from 1974. The show was one of my absolute favorites and its been dear to my heart ever since. Having watched the episodes over and over again throughout the years, I've become very familiar with the storyline, so nothing in this book was new or a surprise to me. But that's not a bad thing at all! It was still exciting to experience this tale in its original written form for the first time.
For a children's book, these characters are incredible well developed and versatile. All of them are amazing in their own way, and all of them contribute to the story. But Heidi, without a doubt, is one of the best and cutest characters I have ever encountered. She's just so nice and friendly, joyful and open-minded.
The plot is relatively simple, but it's executed in a way that makes it exciting and suspenseful for young and older readers alike.
I wish I would have read this sooner, while I was still a child, because I just know I would have adored it so much and it would have made a big impression on me. I think I could have learnt some valuable life lessons from it (for example, that good things take time or to find joy in little things). Of course the Anime also includes and teaches these values, but the book still goes a bit deeper and further with it.
Oh well, thankfully you're never too old to learn something! And now I'm at an age where I can say that I'm looking forward to reading this book to my future children some day, because I know 100% this Heidi will be in their collection. 352 Heidi's Ten Life Enriching Lessons for Grownups:
I normally read children's books during Christmastime. Not only to catch up with my Reading Challenge (I am behind by 10 books as of this writing), but also, most of children's books have life lessons that can be good reminders for the coming year. New Year always means new beginning, new hope. Do you remember when you were still in school and after reading a story in class, the teacher asked you what was the lessons you learned from it? So, in this year's series of children's books, I will try to list the ten lessons I was reminded while reading a certain book.
1) Prayer is powerful. Sometimes we feel helpless and all we have left is to pray. Sometimes God does not give what we ask for because it may not be good for us yet or there is something else, a better one, that He will give us.
2) Nature was once a sight to behold. Never been to Swiss Alps, the setting of this novel but one of my favorite movies is The Sound of Music and that opening scene where Maria is singing on top of the mountain is gloriously beautiful. With the global warming and the continuous degradation of forests worldwide, I wonder how that mountain looks like now.
3) Your conscience can haunt you. The goat shepherd boy, Peter, did something unforgivable and the little man inside him haunts him that he could not eat, sleep and he becomes suspicious of all men who go up to the mountain as he thinks his uncle will give him in to the police. Until he decides to tell the truth. In this world of chaos, full of deceits and treachery, it is nice to be reminded that no alibis or justifications can cover up misdeeds and injustices. We should all come clean and the sooner the better.
4) Nothing compares to doing good deeds. These all sound like motherhood statements and pies in the sky. Cliches. However, Heidi has nothing in her heart but to love her grandfather, grandmother, Peter, Clara and all the characters in the book. In the end, she becomes happy. If only life is as simple as this. However, we all know that we reap what we sow, so why resist? It is better to be in the bright, happy side.
5) Fresh air, fresh food, clean water, happiness galore. Most sickness are psychological. Most diseases are caused by the environment. Pollution. Too much stress. Processed food. Fast food. Clara, the invalid, gets well when she stays with her positive friend Heidi atop the mountain. This part reminded me of the boy in The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. But this book, Heidi was first published in 1880 and The Secret Garden in 1910 so this must be the original.
6) Children can be wiser than grownups. This is a much-used plot in children's books but still holds true. We grownups, we parents, have many things to learn from our children. If you are a parent, you know this. No debates.
7) Goats can be endearing. My mother and father love dogs, cats, fowls, birds, monkeys, etc. So, when I was growing up in the province, our backyard was like a zoo. However, I did not know that goats can be nice to take care too. Goat meat is one of the favorites of some men here in Manila to go with their booze.
8) Don't resist change. Rather, embrace it. Heidi did not go back to the mountain to resist studying. Rather, she brings her writing materials and books to the mountain and study there with her friend Clara. She even teaches Peter to read.
9) Words can be powerful especially if the one who is sending it has the credibility. Heidi has not done a nasty thing in her life so when she speaks even the stubborn Peter pays attention. The grandmother's frail body and gloomy world suddenly bright up when Heidi is around.
10) Grumpy old men need young girls. No, I don't mean the dirty way. The grumpy hermit-like grandfather living alone on top of the mountain because he hates the world is convinced by Heidi to go back to the town. She has that very positive influence to everyone around her including his now-cynic grandfather.
Very positive novel. Said to be the one of the most-read most-loved ever book in Switzerland. This has been translated to 60 languages and read by all people around the world.
You are not well-read if you have not read this. (This sound like coming from my grumpy side, don't you think?) 352 Heidi: Her Years of Wandering and Learning = Heidi, Johanna Spyri
Heidi is a work of children's fiction published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. It is a novel about the events in the life of a young girl in her paternal grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps. It was written as a book for children and those who love children (as quoted from its subtitle).
تاریخ نخستین خوانش ترجمه فارسی روز بیست و دوم ماه سپتامبر سال1967میلادی
عنوان: هایدی؛ نویسنده: یوهانا اشپیری؛ از سری کتابهای طلایی یازده؛ تهران، انتشارات امیرکبیر، سازمان کتابهای طلائی، چاپ دوم، سال1345؛ در35ص؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان سوئیس - سده19م
عنوان: هایدی؛ نویسنده جوهانا اسپری؛ مترجم زهرا حصارپرور؛ بازنویس جواد داعی
عنوان: هایدی؛ نویسند: جوانا اسپنسر (یوهانا اسپیری)؛ مترجم: ثریا قیصری
عنوان: هایدی؛ نویسنده: یوهانا اشپیری؛ مترجم: آتنا عبدینژاد؛
عنوان: هایدی؛ نوشتهی: یوهانا اسپایری؛ مترجم: فاطمه مهرزادصدقيانی؛
و بسیاری دیگر
عنوان اصلی کتاب: «سالهای خانه به دوشی و یادگیری هایدی» است، که معمولاً به اختصار «هایدی» نامیده میشود؛ این رمان به زندگی دختر نوجوانی میپردازد که در «آلپ سوئیس»، از پدربزرگ خود نگاهبانی میکند؛ این داستان نخستین بار در سال1880میلادی، در قالب کتابی با عنوان «برای بچه ها و آنهایی که بچه ها را دوست دارند» نوشته شد؛ دو کتاب دنباله ی این داستان، با عنوانهای «هایدی بزرگ میشود»، و «بچه های هایدی»؛ توسط «چارلز تریتن»، مترجم انگلیسی اثر اصلی، نوشته شدند؛ کتابهای «هایدی» از معروفترین آثار ادبیات «سوئیس» در جهان، به شمار میروند؛ این اثر افزون بر شهرت جهانی، در ایران نیز بسیار مشهور است؛ «هایدی» تاکنون در حدود بیست بار به زبان فارسی ترجمه، و منتشر شده است؛ تاکنون فیلمها، مجموعه های تلویزیونی، انیمیشینها (مانند: هایدی، دختر آلپ) و بازیهای ویدیویی بسیاری بر پایه داستان «هایدی» ساخته شده اند؛ همچنین یک منطقه توریستی در «سوئیس»، به نام «هایدی لند» نامگذاری شده است
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 15/04/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 18/02/1401هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی 352 Mostly during primary school my chosen prospective career was saint.
Ah, but then there was the period where I discovered Heidi and as I read and reread it a bunch of times, I most fervently wanted to become a goatherd, with all that this entailed. The bell. The sleeping snuggled into warm hay in the attic. The eating of too much cheese.
So taken was I with the idea of Switzerland that when we were asked, about grade 6, where we were going for the term holiday, I – who had never been on a holiday because we were way too poor – said Switzerland. I just might have gotten away with this but for the fact that my mother taught in the senior school. Since I had further elaborated when pressed, that we were going by boat – another fixation I had throughout childhood, seafaring – and the term holiday was a mere fortnight, news soon spread through the school that my mother was leaving her teaching job. In case you don’t get the plot so far, I was weaving this fantasy in Australia where I was born and raised.
Never mind the trouble I got into for this, it didn’t in the least affect my taste for anything Swittish.
Since then, as an adult I’ve been able to visit Switzerland five times, mostly Geneva. By no means goatherd territory, but still. You can see Geneva as a straightforwardly beautiful city. You can see it through Australian eyes as having that aesthetic qualities of age that our cities so lack, not to mention the mountain backdrop the like of which we would never see at home. Or you can see it, I discover, as a young child would whose dreams were always of other places. I confess as I’ve wandered about the city, staring at those snow-capped mountains, to feeling that I have come home in some way that I’m sure derives from the profound effect this utterly magical book had on me when I read it so long ago.
I don’t know if other people wonder if they have let down the small bundles of hopes and dreams they once were, but I do. It breaks my heart, the idea that I might have disappointed that little hopeful dreaming thing I was once, and I have found it a very emotional experience being in this dream I once went to sleep with every night. I really can’t remember, but I hope she – I – did always believe dreams come true. Yeah, well. Sometimes they do.
352
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, excited for the chance to revisit Heidi and her simple, joyous life in the Swiss alps with her grandfather.
Heidi, a 5 year old orphan, has been raised by her mother's sister Dete, who resents the imposition. When Dete gets a good job offer, she marches Heidi up to the Swiss village where she was raised, the (fictional) village of Dörfli (little village) and then even further up the mountain, to dump little Heidi on her unsuspecting grandfather, an embittered recluse. Despite being taken aback, the grandfather quickly takes to Heidi, admiring her intelligence and enthusiasm. She thrives in the lovely Swiss alps and country life, immediately shedding her more citified clothing and ways, and helping the local goatherd Peter.
The Falknis mountain, with its two towers, near where Heidi and Peter tend the goats
Everyone around Heidi grows to love her: her grandfather, Peter, Peter's grandmother. The only problem is that Alm-Uncle, her grandfather, has such a deep distrust of people and town life that he refuses to even send her to the village school. Heidi is growing up happy and uncivilized when her aunt Dete suddenly reappears after three years, determined to take Heidi to Frankfurt to be the companion of Clara, a rich but sickly and invalid girl. Our bouncy, enthusiastic girl starts to feel desperately unhappy, cooped up in the big city. But Heidi has lessons to learn, and God has a plan.
I loved the detailed descriptions of the lovely Alps and life there in olden times. I suppose Heidi is a bit of a Mary Sue character, but her exuberant nature, jumping around all the time like a young goat, was charming. And - continuing the animal metaphors - I really felt for her when she felt like a trapped bird in Frankfurt, though the wasting away thing was a bit over the top.
The Alm-Uncle's character, bitter toward mankind generally but loving toward his bright granddaughter, seemed entirely believable to me, and honestly I got a bit teary as he began, like the prodigal son in Christ's parable, to find his way back to harmony with God and with his fellow men. Clara's devout grandmamma is a paragon of saintliness but has a little humor to leaven her spiritual lessons to Heidi; Peter's ailing, blind grandmother is equally devout but would fit in well with other Victorian-era sickly but wise characters.
The preachiness got a little too heavy-handed toward the end, although I did appreciate the message of continuing to trust God even when your prayers aren't answered immediately, and at the same time needing to take action to improve your own circumstances, as much as you can. I also can't help but be charmed with the notion that country living, with lots of fresh goat milk and toasted goat cheese on bread, brisk mountain air and the beauty of nature, heals pretty much everything.
Mmmmm! ... okay, actually I don't like goat cheese, toasted or otherwise, but I have to say Heidi tempts me to give it another shot.
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Heidi and her friends again, after many years apart. I recommend Heidi to readers who like old-fashioned children's classics, like Anne of Green Gables, and don't mind a healthy dose of religious content in their reading.
A note on English translations: Since this book is over 100 years old, it's out of copyright and there are several free English versions available. I read parts of Heidi in German and did some comparisons between the three English versions I found on Project Gutenberg. None of them completely satisfied me, but I thought this one was the best, closest to the original German text without being unbearably awkward: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1448. I'm sure there are better translations out there, but I was working with what I could find free online. Whatever version you pick up, make sure you get both halves of the story, which was originally published in two parts (the second half has Clara visiting Switzerland). 352 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 terms, are the kind of dilemmas that transcend time and place. And the mountain, the healing mountain, is the perfect setting to mend.
Purely from a style perspective, I was equally impressed with Spyri’s writing chops. Heidi has one of the most dynamite, blockbuster opening chapters I’ve ever read. Journeying up a mountainside, destined to live with a strange, fearful uncle. It’s got it all. You can’t NOT finish a book that starts this good. 352 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. 352 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 mountains, and in the cozy little house of grand pa.
How simply and innocently she sees the world, enjoying all the great things the Nature has to offer, while surrounded by a few caring, humble and interesting set of characters in her grandfather's home. Spyri does an incredible job with her simple, yet enchanting style of writing which captivated me from the very first page.
After each time I read this book, I have found it to give a so amazing and relaxing feeling, something that I cannot properly express in words. And I don't know many other books capable of engaging me that way, a book I believe could be enjoyed by readers of any age. There's a separate shelf for this book, for I read it more than once each year.
“I am going to let her grow up and be happy among the goats and birds; with them she is safe, and will learn nothing evil.” 352 One of my all time favourite books. As a child I longed to live in the Swiss Alps after reading Heidi, daydreaming about wandering among the spring flowers, to the magical accompaniment of cow bells. Still a wonderfully uplifting read all these years later. 352
Little orphan Heidi goes to live high in the Alps with her gruff grandfather and brings happiness to all who know her on the mountain. When Heidi goes to Frankfurt to work in a wealthy household, she dreams of returning to the mountains and meadows, her friend Peter, and her beloved grandfather. Heidi author Johanna Spyri