The Cricket on the Hearth: and Other Christmas Stories

by Charles Dickens

Overview

With the publication of A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens almost single-handedly created the genre of the "Christmas story." And while that beloved classic remains among the best known in the field, Dickens also wrote a number of other delightful tales associated with Yuletide.
This volume features three of the best. Combining realism with fantasy, and with kindness and affection for the poor a dominant theme, they include the title story, a charming tale of a pleasant and simple home life; "The Holly-Tree," a lighthearted story of love reclaimed in a quiet country inn; and "The Haunted House," an entertaining account of a belligerent ghost's effect on the lives of those with whom he shares a home.
Written with Dickens's familiar flair for characterization, comic incident, and the picturesque, these stories will delight readers with their unusual charms and nostalgic re-creation of Victorian Christmases past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486159034
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	12/06/2012
Series:	Dover Thrift Editions
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	781 KB
Age Range:	11 Years

About the Author

Born on February 7, 1812, Charles Dickens was the second of eight children in a family burdened with financial troubles. Despite difficult early years, he became the most successful British writer of the Victorian age.

In 1824, young Charles was withdrawn from school and forced to work at a boot-blacking factory when his improvident father, accompanied by his mother and siblings, was sentenced to three months in a debtor's prison. Once they were released, Charles attended a private school for three years. The young man then became a solicitor's clerk, mastered shorthand, and before long was employed as a Parliamentary reporter. When he was in his early twenties, Dickens began to publish stories and sketches of London life in a variety of periodicals.

It was the publication of Pickwick Papers (1836-1837) that catapulted the twenty-five-year-old author to national renown. Dickens wrote with unequaled speed and often worked on several novels at a time, publishing them first in monthly installments and then as books. His early novels Oliver Twist (1837-1838), Nicholas Nickleby (1838-1839), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-1841), and A Christmas Carol (1843) solidified his enormous, ongoing popularity. As Dickens matured, his social criticism became increasingly biting, his humor dark, and his view of poverty darker still. David Copperfield (1849-1850), Bleak House (1852-1853), Hard Times (1854), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1860-1861), and Our Mutual Friend (1864-1865) are the great works of his masterful and prolific period.

In 1858 Dickens's twenty-three-year marriage to Catherine Hogarth dissolved when he fell in love with Ellen Ternan, a young actress. The last years of his life were filled with intense activity: writing, managing amateur theatricals, and undertaking several reading tours that reinforced the public's favorable view of his work but took an enormous toll on his health. Working feverishly to the last, Dickens collapsed and died on June 8, 1870, leaving The Mystery of Edwin Drood uncompleted.

Author biography from the Barnes & Noble Classics edition of David Copperfield.

Date of Birth:

February 7, 1812

Date of Death:

June 18, 1870

Place of Birth:

Portsmouth, England

Place of Death:

Gad's Hill, Kent, England

Education:

Home-schooling; attended Dame School at Chatham briefly and Wellington

Table of Contents

Contents
The Cricket on the Hearth Chirp the First Chirp the Second Chirp the Third
The Holly-Tree
I. The ·Guest
II. The Boots
III. The Bill
The Haunted House
I. The Mortals in the House
II. The Ghost in Master B.'s Room
III. The Ghost in the Comer Room