The Cricket on the Hearth

I learned from The Cricket On The Hearth's Wikipedia page that Dickens apparently began writing the novella in the middle of October 1845 and had it finished on the 1st of December. Is this the original NaNoWriMo? Unfortunately I would say that rush job does show in the published story, but because it is Christmas and because it is Dickens I still enjoyed reading this overly schmaltzy tale! As I mentioned in my Starlight At Moonglow review, there's something I can't quite put my finger on about my traditional Christmas reading that gives it an enhanced emotional pull and, despite the events of The Cricket On The Hearth actually taking place at the end of January, the story falls into that grand tradition.

There's plenty of typical Dickens-isms in this fairytale although it isn't as strong on social commentary as many of his other works. Young women are preternaturally kind and beautiful with the blind young woman being such a paragon of goodness that I wouldn't have been surprised to learn she had already been marked for sainthood. The lonely rich man is an ogre and working class people are all true salts of the earth, happy in their poverty. And everyone is prone to overblown melodramatic speechifying at the drop of a hat. I did love Dickens portrayals of his characters though. He had an amazing ability to capture and caricature people's foibles and the Peerybingle household is a wonderful example of this. Even the kettle, which ably steals the opening scene, has its own character and I'm surprised that The Cricket On The Hearth hasn't been staple pantomime fodder over the years as I could certainly see plenty of scope for performance.

I did feel somewhat let down by the ending which, although suitably joyous and heartwarming, hinged too much on Tackleton's abrupt volte-face to be plausible. I couldn't imagine that his new found bonhomie would last much longer than the wedding cake. Perhaps I'm just too cynical!

The third of Dickens' "Christmas books" (really a short novella), though this is less overtly Christmas themed than A Christmas Carol. It's basically a little morality tale with the chirping cricket playing the part of a supernatural "spirit of the hearth" who helps guide the main characters to forgive and trust each other.

The story is very simple (spoilers): older man with younger wife is led by another to fear she has feelings for someone closer to her own age, the cricket helps him come to terms with things, and in the end it turns out that her secret "lover" is actually someone else's fiancé instead, everyone lives happily ever after and the bitter old man who sowed the first seeds of suspicion undergoes an almost Scrooge-like transformation and seems to start turning over a new leaf of more generous spiritedness.

It's not as successful as A Christmas Carol, probably because the final transformation of the miserly character is neither as full as Scrooges and nor is he the main character in the story. So it comes across as a bit preachy and a fairly straight-forward story. Still, it has a happy ending and it's an interesting read if you like Dickens.