Heidi - The Original Classic Edition. Spyri Johanna

      HEIDI

       GIFT EDITION

       WAVING HER HAND AND LOOKING AFTER HER DEPARTING FRIEND TILL HE SEEMED NO BIGGER THAN A LITTLE DOTToList

       Page 228

       HEIDI BY

       JOHANNA SPYRI

       TRANSLATED BY ELISABETH P. STORK

       WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

       CHARLES WHARTON STORK, A.M., Ph.D.

       14 ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR BY MARIA L. KIRK

       GIFT EDITION

       PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

       1919

       COPYRIGHT, 1915. BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS AND DECORATIONS

       COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

       1

       PRINTED BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.

       [5] INTRODUCTION

       Unassuming in plot and style, "Heidi" may none the less lay claim to rank as a world classic. In the first place, both background and characters ring true. The air of the Alps is wafted to us in every page; the house among the pines, the meadows, and the eagle poised above the naked rocks form a picture that no one could willingly forget. And the people, from the kindly towns-folk to the quaint and touching peasant types, are as real as any representation of human nature need be. Every goat even, has its personality. As for

       the little heroine, she is a blessing not only to everyone in the story, but to everyone who reads it. The narrative merits of the book

       are too apparent to call for comment.

       As to the author, Johanna Spyri, she has so entirely lost herself in her creation that we may pass over her career rather rapidly. She was born in Switzerland in 1829, came [6]of a literary family, and devoted all her talent to the writing of books for and about children.

       Since "Heidi" has been so often translated into English it may well be asked why there is any need for a new version. The answer lies partly in the conventional character of the previous translations. Now, if there is any quality in "Heidi" that gives it a particular charm, that quality is freshness, absolute spontaneity. To be sure, the story is so attractive that it could never be wholly spoiled; but has not the reader the right to enjoy it in English at least very nearly as much as he could in German? The two languages are so different in nature that anything like a literal rendering of one into the other is sure to result in awkwardness and indirectness. Such a book must be not translated, but re-lived and re-created.

       To perform such a feat the writer must, to begin with, be familiar with the mountains, and able to appreciate with Wordsworth

       The silence that is in the starry sky,[7] The sleep that is among the lonely hills.

       The translator of the present version was born and reared in a region closely similar to that of the story. Her home was originally in the picturesque town of Salzburg, and her father, Franz von Pausinger, was one of the greatest landscape painters of his country and generation. Another equally important requisite is knowledge of children. It happens that this translator has a daughter just the age

       of the heroine, who moreover loves to dress in Tyrolese costume. To translate "Heidi" was for her therefore a labor of love, which means that the love contended with and overcame the labor.

       The English style of the present version is, then, distinctive. It has often been noticed that those who acquire a foreign language often learn to speak it with unusual clearness and purity. For illustration we need go no further than Joseph Conrad, a Pole, probably the greatest master of [8]narrative English writing to-day; or to our own fellow-citizen Carl Schurz. In the present case, the writer has lived seven years in America and has strengthened an excellent training with a wide reading of the best English classics.

       Many people say that they read without noticing the author's style. This is seldom quite true; unconsciously every one is impressed in some way or other by the style of every book, or by its lack of style. Children are particularly sensitive in this respect and should, therefore, as much as is practicable, read only the best. In the new translation of "Heidi" here offered to the public I believe that most readers will notice an especial flavor, that very quality of delight in mountain scenes, in mountain people and in child life generally, which is one of the chief merits of the German original. The phrasing has also been carefully adapted to the purpose of reading aloud--a thing that few translators think of. In conclusion, the author, realising the [9]difference between the two languages, has endeavored to write the story afresh, as Johanna Spyri would have written it had English been her native tongue. How successful the attempt has been the reader will judge.

       Charles Wharton Stork

       Assistant Professor of English at the

       University of Pennsylvania

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       CONTENTS

       PART I

       HEIDI'S YEARS OF LEARNING AND TRAVEL CHAPTER PAGE

       I Going up to the Alm-Uncle 17

       II. With the Grandfather 38

       III. On the Pasture 50

       IV. In the Grandmother's Hut 67

       V. Two Visitors 83

       VI. A New Chapter with New Things 95

       VII. Miss Rottenmeier Has an Uncomfortable Day 104

       VIII. Great Disturbances in the Sesemann House 119

       IX. The Master of the House Hears of Strange Doings 129

       X. A Grandmama 136

       XI. Heidi Gains in Some Respects and Loses in Others 146

       XII. The Sesemann House is Haunted 153

       XIII. Up the Alp on a Summer Evening 165

       XIV. On Sunday When the Church Bells Ring 183

       PART II

       HEIDI MAKES USE OF HER EXPERIENCE XV. Preparations for a Journey 199

       XVI. A Guest on the Alp 207

       XVII. Retaliation 219

       XVIII. Winter in the Village 229

       XIX. Winter Still Continues 243

       XX. News from Distant Friends 252

       XXI. On Further Events on the Alp 268

       XXII. Something Unexpected Happens 276

       XXIII. Parting to Meet Again 293

       ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE

       Waving Her Hand and Looking After Her Departing Friend till He Looked No Bigger than a Little Dot Frontispiece

       She Undid the Heavy Shawl and the Two Little Dresses 30

       Here a Neat Little Bed Was Prepared 41

       She Handed Him Also the Whole Slice of Cheese 57

       Off they Started at Such a Pace that Heidi Shouted for Joy 71

       When Heidi Heard that She Struggled to Get Free 92

       Off they Started, and Soon Heidi Was Pulling the Door-Bell 116

       There She Would Remain, Eating Her Heart Away with Longing 152

       Throwing Herself in Her Grandfather's Arms, She Held Him Tight 179

       With Heidi's Hand in His They Wandered Down Together 192

       They Are Coming, Oh, the Doctor is Coming First 211

       The Two Children Were Already Flying Down the Alp 241

       3

       He Watched His Fallen Enemy Tumbling Downwards, Downwards 277

       Peter Shot Off and Rushed Down the Mountainside, Turning Wild Somersaults on His Perilous Way 298

       Part I

       Heidi's Years of Learning and Travel

       [17] HEIDI