• ISBN13: 9788121218252
• Binding: Paperback
• Subject: N/A
• Publisher: Gyan Publishing House
• Publisher Imprint: Gyan Publishing House
• Publication Date: January 1, 2019
• Pages: 100
• Original Price: INR 200.0
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 240 grams
• BISAC Subject(s): N/A

The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home is a novella by Charles Dickens, published by Bradbury and Evans, and released on 20 December 1845 with illustrations by Daniel Maclise, John Leech, Richard Doyle, Clarkson Stanfield and Edwin Henry Landseer. Like Dickens’ other Christmas books, it was published in book form, not as a serial. 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' 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). The book was sold briskly into the New Year. Seventeen stage productions opened during the Christmas season 1845. Dickens read the tale four times in public performance. It has been dramatised in numerous languages and for years was very popular on stage.

Charles Dickens, born on February 7, 1812, at Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian era. Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and nonfiction articles, lectured and performed readings extensively. Dickens enjoyed a great popularity during his lifetime. Much in his work could appeal to the simple and the sophisticated, to the poor and to the queen, and technological developments as well as the qualities of his work enabled his fame to spread worldwide very quickly. The range, compassion, and intelligence of his apprehension of his society and its shortcomings enriched his novels and made him both one of the great forces in 19thcentury literature and an influential spokesman of the conscience of his age.