The Cricket on the Hearth (1845) is a short novel or novella by Charles Dickens, the famous English writer of the nineteenth century. It's a tale that happens during Christmas, and actually represents the third of five Christmas books that includes, perhaps most famously, A Christmas Carol. It has since been made into various works for the stage, and for awhile was more popular than his other Christmas works. The Cricket on the Hearth leaves behind many traditional Dickens themes, like poverty and struggles in times of difficulty, and enters into fairy tale territory as a Victorian fantasy of the perfect home. John Peerybingle and his family protagonize the book as they intersect with other families and romance, drama, and suspense insues. Overall, The Cricket on the Hearth might be a good read for the holiday season and promises to be a sentimental yet interesting novel by one of the greatest authors of the nineteenth century.
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