ABSTRACT
Having sold over fifty million copies, Johanna Spyri’s Heidi (1881) is one of the bestselling girls’ books ever written. When it was translated into English in 1884, the book became a transatlantic sensation, performing just as well abroad as it did at home. Inherently situated in its Swiss and German setting of the late nineteenth century, Heidi intriguingly mirrors themes and structures in contemporary famous American novels. However, Heidi refuses some of the feminine trappings and sentimental expectations of the girls’ book genre in America, questioning its premises of feminine emotionality, submissiveness, and rural piety that many of those novels hinged on for their success. This chapter explores how Spyri altered the genre of American sentimental fiction and considers why and how Heidi has retained its popularity through multiple generations even as other similar American novels waned in both influence and readership.
