Book Review : The Cricket on the Hearth

This is the third of Dickens’s five Christmas books and was written in 1845.

John Peerybingle is married to his beloved wife Dot and they have a son. Dot is much younger than John, but she loves him dearly. Yes, a cricket chirps on the hearth, reflecting the family’s contentedness with their home and life.

One night, John gives a lift in his cart to a mysterious elderly stranger who invites himself to lodge with the family.

Caleb Plummer is a poor toymaker employed by the toy merchant Tackleton who has a desire to marry one of Dot’s old schoolfriends, May. Caleb has a son who disappeared in South America years previously.

As you might imagine, Tackleton is the antagonist in this book and he draws John’s attention to an assignation between Dot and the lodger, who it transpires is a young man in disguise. John is devastated and he wonders whether he shouldn’t murder the young man.

And now, the cricket plays the role of the bells in ‘The Chimes’ bringing a sense of perspective to John’s thoughts. The cricket chirps and shows John visions of his wife’s history from her school days onwards, always emphasising her faithfulness and love for him. John’s desire for revenge fades during a sleepless night.

In the morning, the lodger is revealed to be Caleb’s son, Edward, who has disguised himself as an old man in order to discover whether his former sweetheart, May, had forgotten him. She hasn’t and Dot recognised him straight away hence the assignation. Dot knew her husband well enough to know that he wouldn’t be able to keep the secret.

Edward marries May and Tackleton admits defeat. Similar to Scrooge, Tackleton joins in the festivities and the cricket chirps away on the hearth.