The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home

Although a best seller in its day, The Cricket on the Hearth is seen by many of this generation as standing in the shadow of Charles Dickens’ more popular volume A Christmas Carol.

Undeservedly so!

A more-than-delightful trace through a Victorian Christmas, Dickens tells the story of a kindly couple and their mysterious lodger, a poor toymaker and his blind daughter, a lost son, and a parsimonious toy merchant set upon marrying a virtuous young maiden against her better desires.

But as you’d e...