The Story of Heidi is a most tender and touching one. When Heidi is orphaned, she is sent to live with her uncle in his simple home high up in the mountains. Heidi loves the life and her grandfather; she loves the outdoors and the fresh air and he is determined that she should be free to enjoy it all without the burden of convention or study. But Heidi’s life is turned upside down again when she is sent off to live in the city by her strict aunt. Here Heidi finds a different kind of happiness. How can she bring together the two parts of her life.
I would rather be with my grandfather on the Alp than anywhere on earth!' When Heidi is sent to live in the Swiss mountains with her bad-tempered old Grandfather, everyone in the village feels sorry for her. What will a little girl do in such an isolated home, and with such a grumpy companion? But Heidi soon discovers a secret: Grandfather isn't nearly as cross as he looks - plus she can play all day in the fields among the bright flowers. But then Heidi is whisked away again to be a companion to a injured girl in the city. She longs for her beautiful mountain home - how will she ever get back again?
Johanna Louise Heusser, the fourth of six children of Meta Schweizer (1797-1876) and Johan Jakob Heusser (1783-1859), physician, was born on 12 June 1827 in the village of Herzil, nestled in the Alps of Switzerland. She went to school and was tutored at home, then studied languages and piano in Zürich. In 1852 she married lawyer Bernhard Spyri (1821-1884) with whom she'd have a son, Bernard Diethelm (1855-1884). The couple moved to Zürich to a home overlooking the lake where she wrote her first novel, A Leaf on Vrony's Grave, which was published in 1871.