Heidi

Heidi
Author	Johanna Spyri
Country	Switzerland
Language	German
Genre(s)	Children's novel
Publication date	1880
Media type	print (hardback & paperback)
ISBN	NA
Followed by	Heidi Grows Up

Heidi's Years of Wandering and Learning (German: Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre), usually abbreviated Heidi, is a novel about the events in the life of a young girl in her 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 in 1880 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. Two sequels, Heidi Grows Up and Heidi's Children, were not written by Spyri, but by her English translator, Charles Tritten.

The Heidi books are among the best-known works of Swiss literature.^[1][2]

Plot summary

Aunt Dete hurrying away after leaving Heidi with the Alm-Öhi.

Adelheid (final letter pronounced as a "t" sound), alias Heidi, is an orphaned girl initially raised by her aunt Dete in Maienfeld, Switzerland. In order to get a job in Frankfurt, Dete brings 5-year-old Heidi to her grandfather, who has been at odds with the villagers for years and lives in seclusion on the alm. This has earned him the nickname Alp-Öhi ("Alp-grandfather" in the Graubünden dialect). He at first resents Heidi's arrival, but the girl manages to penetrate his harsh exterior and subsequently has a delightful stay with him and her best friend, young Peter the goat-herd.

Dete returns three years later to bring Heidi to Frankfurt as a companion of a 12-year-old disabled girl named Clara Sesemann. Heidi spends a year with Clara, clashing repeatedly with the Sesemanns' strict housekeeper Miss Rottenmeier and becoming more and more homesick. Her one diversion is learning to read and write, motivated by her desire to go home and read to Peter's blind grandmother. Heidi's increasingly failing health and several instances of sleepwalking (it is implied that she has inherited a propensity to epilepsy from her mother) prompt Clara's doctor to send her home to her grandfather. Her return prompts the grandfather to descend to the village for the first time in years, marking an end to his seclusion.

Heidi and Clara continue to write to each other. A visit by the doctor to Heidi and her grandfather convinces him to recommend that Clara journey to visit Heidi. Meanwhile, Heidi teaches Peter to read and write. Clara makes the journey the next season and spends a wonderful summer with Heidi. Clara becomes stronger on goat's milk and fresh mountain air, but Peter is jealous of Clara and pushes her wheelchair down the mountain to its destruction. Without her wheelchair, Clara attempts to walk and is gradually successful. Clara's Grandmother and Father are amazed and overcome with joy to see Clara walking. Clara's wealthy family promises to provide a shelter for Heidi, in case her grandfather will no longer be able to do so.

Film, television and theatrical adaptations

About 20 film or television productions of the original story have been made, including the very popular 52-episode anime series, Heidi, Girl of the Alps, made by the animation studio Zuiyo Eizo in 1974 and directed by Isao Takahata. The Heidi films were popular all over the world, becoming a huge hit and an iconic animation series in several countries around the world. The only incarnation of the series to reach the English language was a dub of the 1979 feature-length movie adaptation of the television series, released on video in the United States in 1985. Although the original book describes Heidi to have dark, curly hair, she most popularly portrayed as a blonde.

Other versions of the story include:

• Heidi, a 1937 motion picture which starred Shirley Temple in the title role; the most famous film version of the story
• Heidi, a 1952 Swiss film version in German, with English subtitles, starring Elsbeth Sigmund (reportedly the most faithful film version up to then, filmed on location in Switzerland, and followed by a sequel, Heidi and Peter, in 1955, also starring Ms. Sigmund)
• Heidi, a 1968 television movie which starred Jennifer Edwards with Maximillian Schell and Michael Redgrave (and infamously preempted the decisive final minutes of a televised American football game)
• Heidi, (1978). A 26 episode Swiss/German television series, starring Katia Polletin as the young heroine, which was dubbed into various languages, including English, and shown widely throughout the world. Arguably the most definitive and famous dramatisation of the Heidi story with an instantly recognisable theme tune, this faithful adaptation of the story was largely filmed in the Engadin region of Switzerland.
• Heidi's Song, a 1982 animated film
• Heidi, a 1993 live action film. Newcomer Noley Thornton starred as Heidi. Co-stars included Jane Seymour as the spiteful Miss Rottenmeier, Jason Robards as Grandfather and Lexi Randall as Clara.
• Heidi, a 1996 animated film
• Heidi, a 2005 animated film

The novel was also the inspiration for Ralph Senensky's 1978 television film, The New Adventures of Heidi starring Katy Kurtzman, in which Heidi visits New York; and 1990 motion picture Courage Mountain, which was a sequel of sorts to the original book and features a teenage Heidi.

A 1999 BBC Radio 4 radio play of Heidi, with Hollyoaks actress Ciara Janson in the title role, is available as an audio book.

Heidiland

Maienfeld, the main town in Heidiland

Heidiland, named after the Heidi books, is one of the main tourist areas in Switzerland, in particular for the Japanese. Maienfeld is situated near the Liechtenstein border in Kanton Graubünden. It is home to around 40,000 people, and still has the spectacular alpine views of Heidi's day. ^[3]

Differences between Heidi and the sequels

There are some major differences between the original Heidi by Johanna Spyri and Heidi Grows Up and Heidi's Children by Charles Tritten. These include;

• 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 goats have English names, 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.

The "Heidi Game"

On November 17, 1968, NBC cut off a live broadcast of an American Football League game between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders with 65 seconds remaining in favour of a scheduled airing of a new made-for-television version of Heidi, omitting a surprising comeback by the Raiders and drawing the ire of millions of fans.

"Heidi" musicals

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"Heidi" has been adapted as a musical drama by Shaun McKenna (lyrics), Stephen Keeling (music), Stefan Mens and John Havu. Anja Hauptmann created the German translation. The show was first produced as a large open-air production in Walenstadt, Switzerland in 2005. The musical returned to Walenstadt in 2006 and a new theater production was performed in Dessau, Germany in 2006-2007.

The plot is an intertwining of Johanna Spyri's first Heidi novel with the life of the author. In a commitment to her dying son Bernhard, Johanna promises to set down her childhood remembrances in a novel. Parallels of action occur between the real world of Johanna and the fictitious world of Heidi with moments where the two worlds collide. The work does not rely on the normal clichés associated with Heidi adaptations but provides insights into the life and times of the author.

A sequel to the above mentioned musical written by the same team, with a German translation by Stefan Huber, premiered on the open-air stage in Walenstadt, Switzerland in the summer of 2007. The work follows a similar idea of intertwining the life of Johanna Spyri but this time with the second Heidi novel. A twist in the plot is the figure of Johanna meeting and falling in love with a long time friend Conrad Ferdinand Meyer in Montreux as she is writing the second Heidi novel, which nearly ends in the book having a quite different outcome. The musical ends with the death of Johanna Spyri and the reappearance of Heidi who leads Johanna "home".

The musicals are published by Gallissas Theaterverlag und Mediaagentur, Berlin.

See also

• 2521 Heidi (an asteroid named after Heidi)

Footnotes

External links

• Heidi at Project Gutenberg
• Heidi at Project Gutenberg (illustrated)
• Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre at Project Gutenberg (in German)
• Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre Original Audiobook by Johanna Spyri^{[dead link]}
• Heidi, online at Ye Olde Library
• Heidi, human-read audio mp3 and m4b files at Free Classic Audio Books
• Heidi free downloads in PDF, PDB and LIT formats
• Heidi's Land, The official Web site (in French) for the 1980s television show with Katia Polletin (Heidi) and Stefan Arpagaus (Peter)