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The Cricket on the Hearth

Downloads: Under 100
First published: 1845
Pages: 86

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About this book

A kettle and a cricket compete for attention beside the Peerybingles' fire, giving this domestic tale its playful opening. Charles Dickens turns the sounds of a room into voices with tempers of their own, while Mrs. Peerybingle struggles with cold water and an obstinate kettle. Subtitled "A Fairy Tale of Home," the story belongs to Dickens's Christmas books and places household affection at the centre of its concerns.

John Peerybingle, a carrier, and his wife Dot share the scene with Caleb, his daughter, the awkward Tilly Slowboy and the displeased Tackleton. At a gathering among dolls and toys, Dot welcomes her old schoolfriend May, whose approaching marriage prompts memories of the husbands they once imagined. Their laughter unsettles Tackleton, May's intended husband.

About the author

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and journalist. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius.