Charles Dickens, The Cricket on the Hearth

Daniel Stuart (Texas Tech University)

Ed. by Grace Moore, University of Otago
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1845

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novella

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Recommended Reading

Published just prior to Christmas in 1845,

TheCricket 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…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2490 words

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 23 April 2024.]

View recommended reading for this article

Save this article