Book Review: Heidi by Johanna Spyri

Heidi, like The Secret Garden, which I recently reviewed, is a sort of narrative catharsis perfect for todays despondent, tree-change inclined city-dweller. Like The Secret Garden, it touches on the power of nature and unencumbered, unfettered living as a way of cleansing the soul and becoming a whole person. But the emphasis and positioning of Heidi are somewhat different, with religion and spirituality playing a far more foregrounded role, and the restorative power of relationships rather less so.

Recently orphaned Heidi is sent to live with Alm Uncle, a reclusive man who lives a happily hermit-like existence in his cabin on the Swiss Alps. Despite Alm Uncles famously gruff outlook, he is quite taken by Heidi, whose free-spirited, almost sprite-like nature manifests in rather effusive fashion as she takes up in her new residence. Heidi is in her element on the mountains, and spends her days traipsing about the paths, taking in her surrounds, and generally being wholesome. Her moving to the mountains imbues her with the ability to make the most of just about any situation, and indeed Heidi comes across as a sort of environmental alchemist, transforming greenery and nature into health and happiness. Heidi promptly endears herself to the mountains few inhabitants: wizened and blind Grandmama, and sulky and possessive goatherd Peter.

But Heidis free-wheeling ways are challenged when she is sent to Frankfurt, where she is to become the companion of the ailing and wheelchair-bound Klara. Heidi is stymied by city living, and she becomes increasingly stultified and tormented by the barriers of urban life, becoming physically weak and emotionally fragile. Heidi seeks at every turn to bring nature into her new life, seeking out belfry views in the hopes that they will be a reasonable equivalent to those from her beloved mountain, and smuggling kittens into Klaras home. Despite the efforts to tame her and inure her to the reticent, obligation-bound ways of city life, Heidis dryadic streak remains, and like such a spirit she wastes away without the sustenance she has for so many years gleaned from her life on the Alps.

The contrast between the health-giving ways of rural living and the despondent and unnatural way of life involved in citing living is not exactly subtle, and things get a touch sledgehammer-like when Heidi returns to the mountains with her city wards in tow, and lo and behold everyone is about ruddy cheeks and hearty appetitesthe scale by which health is apparently measured. Even Klara is given physical salvation thanks to her belief in the transformative power of nature, as is Klaras doctor, who has long been dealing with his own personal demons.

But though Heidi and The Secret Garden both deal with the health-giving benefits of a natural life, the latter also emphasises the importance of human belonging as part of becoming an entire person, whereas I never truly got that sense'from Heidi. Indeed, though Heidi claims to want to return to the mountains for Alm Uncles sake, really she is longing to be reunited with her bucolic lifestyle. Similarly, despite claiming that she is learning to read in order to help Grandmama, her doing so feels rather more motivated by a need to justify her return to the mountains. Moreover, when Klara travels with her to the mountains, Heidi is restless and impatient by the limitations placed on her by her friend, and requests that she be allowed to take the odd moment to take in the land around her.

Heidi, then, seems to have fewer human characteristics than the character from The Secret Garden to whom Id say she is most similar: Dickon. Though both are sort of Jesus-like characters, all about love and redemption, Dickons way feels far more human than Heidis. Dickons relationships are far closer, and play a key role in his world, whereas Heidis seem to be more about allowing her to live the life of freedom that she is accustomed to. (But curiously, while both books get a touch didactic when it comes to all things God- and spirituality-oriented, The Secret Garden emphasises the power of the self when it comes to convalescence and development, whereas Heidi emphasises the role of an external being. )

While Heidi is for all intents and purposes an uplifting eco fable, I cant help but reflect on Heidis relationships and how unrequited they felt. It almost feels as though Heidi allows people to become close to her only if they are willing to become a part of the mountain life themselves, and theres certainly little compromise going on here. Perhaps this is why she tolerates thuggish Peter, needy Grandmama, and reticent Alm Uncletheir very lifestyle, rather than any actual social or personal affinity, 'makes them her kinsfolk.

My slight misgivings about the heavy-handed moralising going on here aside, I thoroughly enjoyed Heidi, and cant help but feel that its a wonderful complement to The Secret Garden, drawing as it does on so many similar themes and characters, but with altogether different emphases.

Rating: (excellent)

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