Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date.
For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now.
Available within 2 business hours
Heidi, a young orphan girl, is sent by her aunt to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps. A reclusive man, he is known as the Alm-Uncle by the townsfolk he avoids and disdains. Although initially wary of Heidi’s presence, he soon softens, learning to love the young girl and to appreciate her inherent goodness and unusual intelligence. Although she wants to go to school, he refuses on account of his distrust of the town and its people. Despite this, Heidi befriends a neighboring family—a young goatherd named Peter, his mother Brigitte, and her elderly mother—who eventually accept her as one of their own. When her aunt Dete returns to take her to Frankfurt, however, her newfound life in the country is exchanged for one of service in the city. There, she works as a companion for Clara, the crippled daughter of a wealthy family. The two become fast friends, and in exchange for her love and affection, Heidi is encouraged to learn reading and writing, as well as to study the teachings of Christianity. She misses the countryside, however, and longs to return to the Swiss Alps once more. Beloved by readers around the world for well over a century, Johanna Spyri’s Heidi is a classic tale of faith and friendship with lessons for children and adults alike.
This edition of Johanna Spyri’s Heidi is a classic of Swiss literature and children’s fiction reimagined for modern readers.
Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.
With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.
| ISBN-13: | 9781513220208 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Mint Editions |
| Publication date: | 12/01/2020 |
| Series: | Mint Editions (The Children's Library) |
| Pages: | 144 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.38(d) |
| Age Range: | 8 - 13 Years |
From the old and pleasantly situated village of Mayenfeld, a footpath winds through green and shady meadows to the foot of the mountains, which on this side look down from their stern and lofty heights upon the valley below. The land grows gradually wilder as the path ascends, and the climber has not gone far before he begins to inhale the fragrance of the short grass and sturdy mountain-plants, for the way is steep and leads directly up to the summits above.
On a clear sunny morning in June two figures might be seen climbing the narrow mountain path; one a tall, strong-looking girl, the other a child whom she was leading by the hand, and whose little cheeks were so aglow with heat that the crimson color could be seen even through the dark, sunburnt skin. And this was hardly to be wondered at, for in spite of the hot June sun the child was clothed as if to keep off the bitterest frost. She did not look more than five years old, if as much, but what her natural figure was like, it would have been hard to say, for she had apparently two, if not three dresses, one above the other, and over these a thick red woollen shawl wound round about her, so that the little body presented a shapeless appearance, as, with its small feet shod in thick, nailed mountainshoes, it slowly and laboriously plodded its way up in the heat. The two must have left the valley a good hour's walk behind them, when they came to the hamlet known as Dorfli, which is situated half-way up the mountain. Here the wayfarers met with greetings from all sides, some calling to themfrom windows, some from open doors, others from outside, for the elder girl was now in her old home. She did not, however, pause in her walk to respond to her friends' welcoming cries and questions, but passed on without stopping for a moment until she reached the last of the scattered houses of the hamlet. Here a voice called to her from the door: "Wait a moment, Dete; if you are going up higher, I will come with you."
The girl thus addressed stood still, and the child immediately let go her hand and seated herself on the ground.
"Are you tired, Heidi?" asked her companion.
"No, I am hot," answered the child.
"We shall soon get to the top now. You must walk bravely on a little longer, and take good long steps, and in another hour we shall be there," said Dete in an encouraging voice.
They were now joined by a stout, good-natured-looking woman, who walked on ahead with her old acquaintance, the two breaking forth at once into lively conversation about everybody and everything in Dorfli and its surroundings, while the child wandered behind them.
"And where are you off to with the child?" asked the one who had just joined the party. "I suppose it is the child your sister left? "
"Yes, " answered Dete. " I am taking her up to Uncle, where she must stay."
"The child stay up there with Alm-Uncle! You must be out of your senses, Dete! How can you think of such a thing! The old man, however, will soon send you and your proposal packing off home again!"
"He cannot very well do that, seeing that he is her grandfather. He must do something for her. I have had the charge of the child till now, and I can tell you, Barbel, I am not going to give up the chance which has just fallen to me of getting a good place, for her sake. It is for the grandfather now to do his duty by her."
"That would be all very well if he were like other people," asseverated stout Barbel warmly, "but you know what he is. And what can he do with a child, especially with one so young! The child cannot possibly live with him. But where are you thinking of going yourself?"
"To Frankfurt, where an extra good place awaits me," answered Dete. "The people I am going to were down at the Baths last summer, and it was part of my duty to attend upon their rooms. They would have liked then to take me away with them, but I could not leave. Now they are there again and have repeated their offer, and I intend to go with them, you may make up your mind to that! "
"I am glad I am not the child!" exclaimed Barbel, with a gesture of horrified pity. " Not a creature knows anything about the old man up there! He will have nothing to do with anybody, and never sets his foot inside a church from one year's end to another. When he does come down once in a while, everybody clears out of the way of him and his big stick. The mere sight of him, with his bushy gray eyebrows and his immense beard, is alarming enough. He looks like any old heathen or Indian, and few would care to meet him alone."
"Well, and what of that?" said Dete, in a defiant voice, "he is the grandfather all the same, and must look after the child. He is not likely to do her any harm, and if he does, he will be answerable for it, not I"
"I should very much like to know," continued Barbel, in an inquiring tone of voice, " what the old man has on his conscience that he looks as he does, and lives up there on the mountain like a hermit, hardly ever allowing himself to be seen. All kinds of things are said about him. You, Dete, however, must certainly have learnt a good deal concerning him from your sister-am I not right? 11
"You are right, I did, but I am not going to repeat what I heard; if it should come to his ears I should get into trouble about it."
Johanna Spyri was born in 1827 in Hirzel, Switzerland. In 1852, she moved to Zürich, where she began to write stories about life in the country. Heidi’s Years of Wandering and Learning, usually abbreviated as Heidi, is by far the most well known. Published throughout the world, it has inspired more than twenty film or television productions, a musical drama, and a tourist area—Heidiland—in Switzerland. Johanna Spyri died in 1901.
Maja Dusíková was born in Piestany, Czechoslovakia, and now lives in Florence, Italy. One of the most celebrated children’s book illustrators in Europe, she has a pet rabbit named Cici that runs under her table while she paints and doesn’t like carrots.
Becoming a grandparent is a remarkable experience that many people report as rejuvenating, bringing fresh purpose to people who have otherwise achieved their life goals and settled into a quieter time (Lesley Stahl recently published a whole book studying the phenomenon of grandparenting, researching its role throughout history and in the modern day, and it’s […]
