Published just prior to Christmas in 1845, The Cricket on the Hearth was Charles Dickens’s third festive story in as many years, following A Christmas Carol (1843) and The Chimes (1844). Arguably the most domestically focused of his five Christmas novellas of the 1840s, the story follows the interconnected lives of two working-class households and the uneasy relationship they share with their employer. The book marked the beginning of Dickens’s new professional relationship with the publishers Bradbury & Evans, following a break with Chapman & Hall, who would not publish another of the author’s works until 1858. The novella’s first edition featured woodcut prints by an assortment of illustrators, including well-known Victorian artists Daniel Maclise and Edwin Landseer. It is also the only Christmas book to bear a dedication, inscribed with its author’s “affection and...
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Citation: Stuart, Daniel. "The Cricket on the Hearth". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 January 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=24934, accessed 09 June 2026.]
