Showing results for "On Cricket" in Classics

The holidays are upon us, and this year Audible is very happy to present to our members one of Charles Dickens’ most popular Christmas stories, The Cricket on the Hearth. This holiday classic (original subtitle: “A Fairy Tale of Home”) tells the innocent, picturesque, and charming story of a poor family and their would-be guardian angel; in short, a delightful vision of Victorian Christmas. As always, a great story calls for a great voice, so we’ve brought in legendary actor and record-breaking Audie and Grammy award-winning narrator Jim Dale ( The Night Circus). Happy holidays and happy listening!

A young boy named Edward comes of age in a tale filled with warmth, humor, and the quiet wisdom of everyday life. Dickens follows him—and a spirited cast of friends, neighbors, and family—as they move through the tender joys and small heartbreaks of childhood in a close-knit English village. Through dramatic twists of fate, comic misunderstandings, and unexpected acts of kindness, Edward learns the timeless lessons of love, honesty, and forgiveness.

The Cricket on the Heart is a novella by Charles Dickens, published by Bradbury and Evans, and released 20 December 1845. Dickens began writing the book in October 1845 and finished it by December. Like all of Dickens’s Christmas books, it was published in book form, not as a serial. Dickens described the novel as “quiet and domestic innocent and pretty.” It is subdivided into chapters called “Chirps”, similar to the “Quarters” of The Chimes or the “Staves” of A Christmas Carol.

A timeless holiday classic, The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens is a heartwarming tale of love, family, and redemption. Set in a cozy Victorian home, the story follows John Peerybingle and his wife Dot, whose simple yet contented lives are disrupted by a series of misunderstandings, mysterious arrivals, and surprising revelations. A seemingly ordinary cricket, chirping beside their hearth, becomes a symbol of warmth, hope, and the unseen forces that guide us through hardship.

The cricket of the title in this story comes to represent the life and home of John Peerybingle and his younger wife, Dot. When things go well, the cricket on the hearth chirps; it is silent when there is sorrow. Tackleton, a jealous old man, poisons John's mind about Dot, but the cricket, through its supernatural powers, restores John's confidence and all ends happily.

The Cricket on the Hearth, published in 1845, is the third in Charles Dickens' series of "Christmas Books." The story centers around the hearth and home of the good-hearted carrier, John Peerybingle, and his young wife Mary—affectionately called Dot by her husband. Their baby boy is cared for by a clumsy nanny, Tilly Slowboy. The household is completed by Boxer the dog and the cricket on the hearth, who acts as a guardian angel to the family. When disaster looms following the arrival of an elderly stranger, the cricket appears in fairy form to save the day.

Mrs. Peerybingle is bright and sharp as a tack. Her husband John is a carrier, a profession as lumbering and sturdy as he is himself. When the crafty Tackleton seeks to cause mischief to forward his own nefarious plans, John’s steady heart is sorely wounded. Luckily there is a cricket on the hearth to act as a guardian angel for all of them. A huge commercial success when it was first published in 1845, this Christmas fantasy is a lovely portrait of Victorian life.

Dickens gave his first formal expression to his Christmas thoughts in his series of small books, the first of which was the famous "Christmas Carol." There followed four others: "The Chimes," "The Cricket on the Hearth," "The Battle of Life," and "The Haunted Man." The five are known today as the "Christmas Books." Of them all the "Carol" is the best known and loved, and "The Cricket on the Hearth," although third in the series, is perhaps next in popularity, and is especially familiar to Americans through Joseph Jefferson's characterisation of Caleb Plummer.

The Perrybingles, Caleb Plummer, his blind daughter, and a cricket, find truth, beauty and the true spirit of Christmas through each other.

A Dickens short written specifically for Christmas, "The Cricket on the Hearth" beautifully combines Dickens' masterful critique of social ills with a typically captivating narrative. In the Peerybingle family house, a cricket constantly chips, and acts as their guardian angel. Then, one day, a mysterious, elderly stranger takes lodge with the family. Complete and unabridged, this is a must-buy for Christmas, and will bring to your family the festive cheer and seasonal warmth only Dickens could provide.

There is the warmest of Christmas fires in this hearth. It was reportedly written in a matter of weeks to catch the Christmas deadline. Unlike his other seasonal stories, this is not a supernatural tale but one of the perfect domestic scene with which Dickens was so obsessed throughout his writing. It is all here: the warmth of home, the loving little woman, the children, the food and the laughter. All the things that go to make an idealised Christmas are rolled into one very warming story.

In the 1840s, Charles Dickens wrote five 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.

Pinocchio is the best puppet story ever. Listeners will quickly be caught up in Carlo Collodi's impish creation as they are swept along at an action-packed pace. From the day when Geppetto first carves Pinocchio from a piece of wood to the final happy ending - with many exciting and dangerous adventures along the way - Pinocchio will charm and captivate. The story also has a strong moral throughout, which is as suitable for children (and adults!) today as when the original book was written.