Johanna Spyri
2 books
- You get a less sugary Spyri here: Cornelli is prickly, lonely, and often genuinely difficult after being left in a boarding school. The pleasure is watching patient adults reach her without pretending kindness fixes everything at once, though the old-fashioned moralizing can feel a little heavy.
- You get Heidi’s openhearted stubbornness, her grandfather’s guarded tenderness, and the clean, lively feel of life in the Alps. It’s openly sentimental and sometimes moralizing, but the friendship with Clara and Heidi’s homesickness give it more emotional weight than its sunny reputation suggests.