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The Cricket on the Hearth

Charles Dickens

Book Overview: 

John Peerybingle, a carrier, lives with his wife Dot (who is much younger than he), their baby, their nanny Tilly Slowboy, and a mysterious lodger. A cricket constantly chirps on the hearth and acts as a guardian angel to the family, at one point assuming a human voice to warn John that his suspicions that Dot is having an affair with the lodger are wrong.

The life of the Peerybingles frequently intersects with that of Caleb Plummer, a poor toymaker employed by the miser Mr. Tackleton. Caleb has a blind daughter Bertha and a son Edward, who traveled to South America and seemingly never returned.

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Book Excerpt: 
. . .The first time I heard its cheerful little note, John, was on that night when you brought me home—when you brought me to my new home here; its little mistress. Nearly a year ago. You recollect, John?"

Oh, yes! John remembered. I should think so!

"Its chirp was such a welcome to me! It seemed so full of promise and encouragement. It seemed to say, you would be kind and gentle with me, and would not expect (I had a fear of that, John, then) to find an old head on the shoulders of your foolish little wife."

John thoughtfully patted one of the shoulders, and then the head, as though he would have said No, no; he had had no such expectation; he had been quite content to take them as they were. And really he had reason. They were very comely.

"It spoke the truth, John, when it seemed to say so: for you have ever been, I am sure, the best, the most considerate, the most affectionate of husbands to me. This has been a happy home, John;. . . Read More

Community Reviews

With its many footnotes, this Barnes and Noble edition is great. A Christmas Carol is so much better than any movie rendition. The Chimes should be better known.

This is one book I purchased because of its cover! I saw this illustrated hardbound beauty sitting on the roadside, priced at a pittance - and of course I had to buy it!

A Christmas Carol is, of course, one of my favourite tales ever since I read it in middle school. It must be one of the most heart

Three books in one A Christmas Carol is the story, about a tight fisted bitter and selfish miser in 19th century London, who despises all that brings joy and comfort, has a plethora of adaptations but is best in it's original.
Ebenezer Scrooge is visited on Christmas Eve by three ghosts who show him

2023: This year’s reading had me being a little more contemplative. I loved the description toward the end of Stave Two of how the narrator valued the woman he was observing. He says, ”I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest license of a child, and yet to have been man enough to

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