The Cricket on the Hearth

The Cricket on the Hearth
	Frontispiece of second edition, 1846
Author	Charles Dickens
Illustrator	Daniel Maclise; John Leech; Richard Doyle; Clarkson Stanfield; Edwin Landseer
Country	England
Language	English
Genre	Novella
Publisher	Bradbury and Evans
Publication date	20 December 1845
Media type	Print
Preceded by	The Chimes
Followed by	The Battle of Life
Text	The Cricket on the Hearth at Wikisource

The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home is a novella by Charles Dickens, published by Bradbury and Evans, and released 20 December 1845 with illustrations by Daniel Maclise, John Leech, Richard Doyle, Clarkson Stanfield and Edwin Henry Landseer.^[1] Dickens began writing the book around 17 October 1845 and finished it by 1 December. Like all of Dickens's Christmas books, it was published in book form, not as a serial.^[2]

Dickens described the novel as "quiet and domestic [...] innocent and pretty."^[2] It is subdivided into chapters called "Chirps", similar to the "Quarters" of The Chimes or the "Staves" of A Christmas Carol. It is the third of Dickens's five Christmas books, preceded by A Christmas Carol (1843) and The Chimes (1844), and followed by The Battle of Life (1846) and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1848).

^ Kitton, Frederic G. (1900). The Minor Writings of Charles Dickens. London: Elliot Stock. p. 48.
^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference oxford was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[1] Kitton, Frederic G. (1900). The Minor Writings of Charles Dickens. London: Elliot Stock. p. 48.

[oxford-2] Cite error: The named reference oxford was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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