Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
The Cricket on the Hearth
Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics
Quick Facts
In full:
The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home
See all related content
Britannica AI Icon
Adding us as a Preferred Source tells Google you trust our content, so our articles show up more often in your Google Search, Discover feed, and AI Overviews.
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites

The Cricket on the Hearth

work by Dickens
Also known as: “The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home”(Show More)
Written and fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

The Cricket on the Hearth, short tale written by Charles Dickens as a Christmas book for 1845 but published in 1846.

The title creature is a sort of barometer of life at the home of John Peerybingle and his much younger wife Dot. When things go well, the cricket on the hearth chirps; it is silent when there is sorrow. Tackleton, a jealous old man, poisons John’s mind about Dot, but the cricket through its supernatural powers restores John’s confidence and all ends happily.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.