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iv |
INTROD UCTION |
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The conversations are vivacious and natural, and the primitive life on the Alpine pastures is happily contrasted with the more conventional existence of the wealthy city home, into which the little unsophisticated mountain maiden comes like a breath of upper air. Her experiences are charmingly portrayed, and one entirely forgets that" one is not reading a transcript from real life, so vivid is the characterization, so perfect the realism, so consistent the narration. The cultured German merchant, his serene and patient little invalid daughter, his wise and energetic mother, the precise and formal governess, the pert chambermaid, the kind-hearted serving man, the noble and generous doctor, Heidi and her much misunderstood but picturesque old grandfather, the Aim-Uncle, the village pastor, the blind old woman in her shaky hovel, and her dull and devoted grandson, Peterli, and, last but not least, the carefully individualized goats are all drawn with an unerring hand.
The author began her literary activity rather late in life and was led to waiting stories for children through the solicitations of a friend Her first book was published in 1870, during the time ot the Franco-Prussian War, and the proceeds of if were given in aid of the wounded. All her earlier works were anonymous. " Heidi's Years of Learning and Travel " was the third in the series of Stories for Children and those that love Children, which began in 1879 and has continued till the present time. It finally became known that the author of these charming tales was the wife of |
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