Heidi ( , ) is a work of children's fiction published between 1880 and 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, originally published in two parts as Heidi: Her Years of Wandering and Learning () and Heidi: How She Used What She Learned () by Friedrich Andreas Perthes of Gotha. It is a novel about the events in the life of a five-year-old 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).
Heidi is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature.
Following his service in the army of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in Naples, the younger of two Swiss brothers moves to Dörfli ('small village' in Swiss German) in the municipality of Maienfeld with his son Tobias. The villagers are distrustful of newcomers, spreading rumors about the father's life in Naples, and the man becomes known as the Alm-Uncle, as he lives in seclusion on the mountain alm. Tobias marries a village girl called Adelheid and has a daughter, also named Adelheid but affectionately nicknamed Heidi, but tragically both parents are killed soon after. The Alm-Uncle holds this against God and becomes bitter, rarely coming down the mountain from then on.
Heidi is raised by her maternal grandmother and aunt Dete in Maienfeld following the deaths of her parents. Shortly after her grandmother passes, Dete takes five-year-old Heidi to live with the Alm-Uncle so she can take advantage of a job offer. Though he is at first resentful of Dete leaving the child with him out of nowhere, Heidi's intelligence and cheerful yet unaffected demeanour soon win her grandfather over. Heidi goes on to befriend her new neighbours: young Peter the goatherd, his mother Brigitte, and his blind maternal grandmother called Granny. Time passes and the mountaintop inhabitants, especially Peter and Granny, grow more attached to Heidi, and she to them. However, due to his past treatment by the townsfolk, the Alm-Uncle refuses to allow Heidi to attend school.
Three years later, Dete returns to forcefully take Heidi to Frankfurt to be a hired lady's companion to the wealthy invalid girl Klara Sesemann, who is unable to walk. The friendly Klara is charmed by Heidi and her descriptions of life on the Alm, and delights in all the funny mishaps brought about by Heidi's naïvety with city life, but the Sesemanns' strict housekeeper, Fräulein Rottenmeier, places the free-spirited Heidi under more and more restraint, adding to Heidi's homesickness for the Alm. Her one diversion is learning to read and write using a collection of Biblical stories, guided by Klara's kindly grandmother Frau Sesemann.
Heidi's homesickness leads to episodes of sleepwalking, which the household initially takes as the work of ghosts. The family doctor recommends she be sent home before she becomes seriously ill and Heidi is jubilant to learn she is being sent home to her beloved Alm.
Heidi returns to the Alm the next day, bringing presents for her friends and the book from Frau Sesemann. Everyone is overjoyed to have her back, most of all her grandfather and Peter's Granny, and she puts her new ability to read to work in reading hymns to Peter's blind grandmother, who can no longer do so for herself. Her faith in God speaks to something in the Alm-Uncle. One day Heidi reads to him "The Prodigal Son" from a book Frau Sesemann gave her. That night Alm-Uncle prays for the first time in years. He accompanies Heidi to church, and that winter takes accommodation in the village so that she can attend school.
Heidi and Klara continue to keep in touch and exchange letters. A visit by the doctor to Heidi leads him to recommend that Klara visit Heidi, believing that the mountain environment and the wholesome companionship will do her good. Klara makes the journey the next season and spends a wonderful summer with Heidi, becoming stronger on goat's milk and fresh mountain air. Peter, jealous of Heidi's and Klara's friendship, pushes her empty wheelchair down the mountain. He is soon wracked with guilt about what he did and ultimately confesses to it. Without her wheelchair, Klara has no choice but to learn to walk; she attempts to do so and is gradually successful. Her grandmother and father are overcome with joy to see Klara walking again. The Sesemann family promises to provide permanent care for Heidi, if there ever comes a time when her grandfather is no longer able to do so.
Thirteen English translations were done between 1882 and 1959, by British and American translators: Louise Brooks, Helen B. Dole, H.A. Melcon, Helene S. White, Marian Edwardes, Elisabeth P. Stork, Mabel Abbott, Philip Schuyler Allen, Shirley Watkins, M. Rosenbaum, Eileen Hall, and Joy Law. As of 2010, only the Brooks, Edwardes and Hall translations are still in print. The preface of the 1924 English translation was written by Adeline Zachert.
In April 2010, a Swiss scholar named Peter Otto Büttner, uncovered a book written in 1830 by German author entitled Adelaide: The Girl from the Alps (German: Adelaide, das Mädchen vom Alpengebirge). The two stories share many similarities in plotline and imagery. Spyri's biographer said it was entirely possible that Spyri may have been familiar with the story, as she grew up in a literate household with many books.
About 25 film or television productions of the original story have been made. The Heidi films were popular far and wide, becoming a huge hit, and the Japanese animated series became iconic in several countries around the world. The only incarnation of the Japanese-produced animated TV series to reach the English language was a dubbed feature-length compilation film using the most pivotal episodes of the television series, released on video in the United States in 1985.
Versions of the story include:
Two new separate upcoming German-language television productions were announced in 2025 in the context of the upcoming 200th birthday of Johanna Spyri in 2027.
A stage musical adaptation of Heidi with book and lyrics by Francois Toerien, music by Mynie Grové and additional lyrics by Esther von Waltsleben, premiered in South Africa at the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival in 2016. Directed by Toerien with musical direction by Dawid Boverhoff, the production starred Tobie Cronjé (Rottenmeier), Dawid Minnaar (Sesemann), Albert Maritz (Grandfather), Ilse Klink (Aunt Dete), Karli Heine (Heidi), Lynelle Kenned (Klara), Dean Balie (Peter), Jill Middlekop and Marlo Minnaar. Puppets for the production were created by Hansie Visagie.
A stage musical adaptation of Heidi of the Mountain (music and lyrics by Claude Watt, book by Claude and Margaret Watt) was performed in Sidney, BC, Canada by Mountain Dream Productions, premiering in 2007 at the Charlie White Theatre, and has been performed again several times since then. The 2007 production starred Claude Watt (Grandfather), Margaret Watt (Rottenmeier), Rianne Craig (Heidi) and Katrina Brindle (Klara).
There have been two Heidi computer games released for mobile devices, with the most recent being Heidi: Mountain Adventures. Both games are based on the Studio 100 TV series of 2015 and are aimed at young children, with educational elements and a series of mini-games.
Heidiland, named after the Heidi books, is an important tourist area in Switzerland, popular especially with Japanese and Korean tourists. Maienfeld is the center of what is called Heidiland; one of the villages, formerly called Oberrofels, is actually renamed "Heididorf". Heidiland is located in an area called Bündner Herrschaft; it is criticized as being a "laughable, infantile cliché" and "a more vivid example of hyperreality".
Between 1933 and 1955, French publishing company Flammarion published a new edition of Heidi along with a series of new original sequels. Despite being all published under Johanna Spyri's name, these books were neither written nor endorsed by Spyri, but were adapted from her other works by her French translator, Charles Tritten in the 1930s and 1940s, many years after she died, while the last one was written by Nathalie Gala. The series is composed of a total of 7 books, 2 translated from Spyri's works and 5 original. Only two of them were published in English.
There are some major differences between the original Heidi and the Tritten sequels. These include:
In 1990, screenwriters Weaver Webb and Fred & Mark Brogger, and director Christopher Leitch, produced Courage Mountain, starring Charlie Sheen and Juliette Caton as Heidi. Billed as a sequel to Spyri's story, the film is anachronistic in that it depicts Heidi as a teenager during World War I, despite the fact that the original novel (where Heidi is only five years old) was published in 1881.
The book has been criticised for black-and-white character portrayals and an idealization of pastoral life.
In Japan, since its first Japanese translation in 1906, the book has been influential upon the general, stereotypical image of Switzerland for the Japanese, especially its tourists, many visiting the Heidi's Village park.