"The Cricket on the Hearth" and Its Place in Christmas Books

"The Cricket on the Hearth", one of Dickens's Christmas Books, was written and published in 1846, and was very popular and sold better than either of its predecessors, "A Christmas Carol" and "The Chimes". It was felt to be just suitable for the Christmas season with its abundant humour and pathos. As for its artistic quality, however, we cannot pass judgment easily. It is a little too melodramatic or sentimental, its supernatural element 'the cricket' is not intrinsically related to the theme, or it may rather be regarded as a sort of imitation of "A Christmas Carol". Since it was written when the author was at an important turning point in his writing, it is natural that we should expect from it something different, something new as well as something old. This is the aim of this paper, that is, to examine the work closely and make clear what are the main characteristics and how they are related to each other and to those of the other Christmas Books