Charles Dickens 
The Cricket on the Hearth 

In the 1840s Charles Dickens wrote 5 short stories with strong social and moral messages. The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home, is the third of these stories. Following the home life of John Peerybingle, the story introduces the many people in John’s family and life along with a cricket that acts as the guardian angel of the family. Like its predecessors, this story also contains heavy social and moral implications. However it differs from A Christmas Carol and The Chimes, in that its main theme focuses on actions that affect the family rather than action affecting society as a whole.

About the author

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English author and social reformer. He is widely considered the greatest Victorian novelist, having written such classics as Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, and Oliver Twist. Aside from his novels, he also wrote short stories, nonfiction, poetry, plays, and countless letters.