Heidi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Author | Johanna Spyri |
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| Country | Switzerland |
| Language | German |
| Genre(s) | children's book |
| Publisher | Mit vielen bildern von Rudolf Munger |
| Released | 1880 |
| Followed by | Heidi Grows Up |
Heidi is a story focusing on events in the life of the title character, a young orphan girl, in Switzerland. It was written as a children's book 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. All three books are now in the public domain.
The Heidi books are loved by children all over the world, and are the best known works of Swiss literature. [1] The books portray a time in Swiss history which was considered to be innocent and pure.
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[edit] Plot summary
Heidi is an orphaned girl initially raised by her aunt Dete in Maienfeld, Switzerland. Dete brings 5 year-old Heidi to her grandfather, the Alm-Grandfather(originally: Alpöhi; "Öhi" is grandfather in Swissgerman (dialect of Graubuenden)), in order to take a job in Frankfurt. Heidi has a delightful stay with her grandfather high on the mountain in his hut, and with young Peter the goat-herd.
Dete returns 3 years later to bring Heidi to Frankfurt as a companion to a 12-year-old invalid girl named Clara Sesemann. Heidi spends a year with Clara, clashing repeatedly with the Sesemanns' 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 but Heidi and Clara continue to write to each other. A healthful 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. 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 promise to ensure that Heidi never has to see her aunt Dete again.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
About 20 film or television productions of the original story have been made, including the very popular anime series Heidi, Girl of the Alps, made by the animation studio Zuiyo Eizo (which later became Nippon Animation) in 1974 and directed by Isao Takahata. The Heidi anime was popular all over the world, but the only incarnation of the series to reach the English language was a dub of the 1979 feature-length movie adaptation of the TV series, released on video in the United States in 1985.
Other versions of the story include the 1937 motion picture Heidi, which starred Shirley Temple in the title role and the 1982 animated feature film Heidi's Song. The novel was also the inspiration for a 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.
[edit] 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. [2]
[edit] The "Heidi Game"
On November 17, 1968, NBC cut off a broadcast of a minute and five seconds of a live American Football League game between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders in favor of a pre-scheduled airing of a new made-for-TV version of Heidi, omitting a stunning comeback by the Raiders and drawing the ire of millions of fans.
[edit] "Heidi" Musical
"Heidi" has been adapted as a musical drama by Shaun McKenna (Book/Lyrics), Stephen Keeling (Music), Stefan Mens (Idea and Orchestration) and John Havu (Creative Development). Anja Hauptmann created the German translation. The show was first produced as a large open-air production in Walensatdt, Switzerland in 2005, and is published by Felix-Bloch-Erben and Gallissas Theaterverlag und Mediaagentur, Berlin. 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, is scheduled for the open-air stage in Walenstadt, Switzerland in the summer of 2007. The work is published by Gallissas Theaterverlag und Mediaagentur, Berlin.
The work follows a similar idea of intertwining the life of Johanna Spyri but this time with the second Heidi novel. An interesting twist in the plot is the figure of Johanna meeting and falling in love with a long time friend in Montreux as she is writing the second novel, which nearly ends in the book having a quite different ending.
[edit] See also
- 2521 Heidi (an asteroid named after Heidi)
[edit] External links
- Heidi, available at Project Gutenberg.
- Heidi, available at Project Gutenberg. (illustrated)
- Heidi, online at Ye Olde Library
- Oakland Raiders' website history of "the Heidi Game"
- Heidi (1937) at the Internet Movie Database
- Heidi (1968) at the Internet Movie Database
- Heidi (1978) at the Internet Movie Database
- Heidi (1993) at the Internet Movie Database
- Heidi (1995) at the Internet Movie Database
- Heidi (2001) at the Internet Movie Database
- Heidi (2005) at the Internet Movie Database
