The Cricket on the Hearth

The Cricket on the Hearth is a novella by Charles Dickens, released on 20 December 1845 with illustrations by several artists. Like his other Christmas books it appeared in book form rather than as a serial. It was illustrated by five artists and its chapters are short by the standards of his novels.

John Peerybingle is a slow but honest carrier, and he lives with his young wife Dot, their baby boy and their nanny, Tilly Slowboy. A cricket chirps on the hearth, and in the story it acts as a guardian angel to the family.

The household is disturbed by the arrival of a mysterious elderly stranger, who comes to visit and takes up lodging at the Peerybingles' house for a few days. What follows is domestic rather than spectacular, which is how the author described the book himself when he called it quiet and pretty.

It is the third of Dickens's five Christmas books, after A Christmas Carol and The Chimes, and its chapters are called Chirps in the same way the earlier books used Staves and Quarters.