It was Charles Dicken's custom to produce a "Christmas Book" when the year was in the sheaf-an aspiration which resulted in A Christmas Carol (1843), The Chimes (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), The Battle of Life (1846), and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1848). Written when Dicken's magnificent literary abilities were beginning to secure much recognition and esteem, the Christmas Books are compounded of fantasy and redemptive principles, vivid descriptions and whimsical characters from Ebenezer Scrooge to Toby Veck. Although his endeavors to produce Christmas books diminished after The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (he chose to expend his talents on larger novels), these holiday fables constitute an important part of Dicken's best loved Christmas books, and rightly so, considering the domestic aura he achieved in this tale of home sweet home, its endearing couple, the Peerybingles, and the clever twist of events that leads to the couple's reconciliation. Unlike its predecessors, The Cricket on the Hearth lacks social elements-there are no grim waifs called Ignorance and Want eliciting our sympathy for the conditions of the oppressed, as in A Christmas Carol. The book is purely a domestic "fairy tale," involving an elder husband's essaying to believe the best about his much younger wife when she is seen conversing with a mysterious stranger. First Corinthians 13 sums up its lesson: Love believes all things, hopes all things.

Dickens sets the mood beautifully by heaping on delicious effects that furnish a charming, cozy air. Outside the humble Peerybingle abode, the wider world is dark and sad. But indoors, all anticipate the arrival of their beloved master. The kettle is hissing and sputtering on the hearth. Dot Peerybingle, John's affectionate bride, is bustling to prepare tea. The cricket's "Shrill, sharp, piercing voice" resounds through the house and seems to "twinkle in the outer darkness like a star." The kettle emits a "song of invitation and welcome to somebody out of doors: to somebody at that moment coming on, towards the snug small home and the crisp fire." "Lumbering, slow, honest John," returning from his employment as a carrier, is boisterously hailed by the household members. Presently he is ushered in from the cold: "The thick mist hung in clots upon his eyelashes like candied thaw; and between the fog and fire together, there were rainbows in his very whiskers."

Home is given special emphasis, for this is a fable of the hearth. But home is not simply four walls and a ceiling, which is Gruff and Tackleton, the surly toy merchant's assessment. It is more than a place; it is a citadel of affections, loyalties, comfort, and warmth. Moreover, the Peerybingles enjoy the advantage of a cricket on their hearth. The cricket on the hearth is a leitmotif, "frequently repeated phrase, image, symbol, or situation in a literary work, the recurrence of which usually indicates or supports a theme" (Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms). When baseless suspicions are elicited regarding Dot's faithfulness, the cricket, in addition to a troupe of fairies, induces lovely visions of Dot that restore the disheartened husband to his senses. The carrier realizes that everything-from hearthstone to chimney, kettle to cradle-testifies of his wife's compassion, constancy, and radiance. Just as the Spirits in A Christmas Carol instruct Scrooge about his past, present, and future, the cricket elucidates truth to John. John, therefore, cherishes his domicile and associates the home circle with his beloved: "Her pleasant voice-Oh what a voice it was, for making household music at the fireside of an honest man!" In contrast, Tackleton is cricketless and a veritable "domestic ogre" '-Bah! what's home?' cried Tackleton. -Four walls and a ceiling! (Why don't you kill that cricket? I would. I always do. I hate their noise.)'"

The Cricket on the Hearth occurs on the eve of John and Dot's first anniversary. Joyful reminiscences, however, abate due to the arrival of sundry unexpected visitors. There is the mysterious Stranger (of an elderly visage and a deafness that renders him "the best company on earth, to talk secrets in"),who solicits lodging for the night. Tackleton, the malicious merchant who revels in making "appalling masks and vampire kites," also darkens the threshold, boasting of his impending marriage to a much younger woman, May Fielding, who has astonishingly accepted his proposal. Tackleton pervades the Peerybingle home with a decidedly ominous presence-and by the time he departs, Dot is acting very strangely indeed.

Finally there is Caleb Plummer, the dreamy, humble toymaker in Tackleton's employ. A man who has been "labouring for so many years to destroy his identity," Caleb has embellished and transformed realities into gossamer fancies for his blind daughter Bertha in an effort to dispel her cares. Dickens describes their mean residence and comments, "I have said that Caleb and his poor Blind Daughter lived here. I should have said that Caleb lives here, and his poor Blind Daughter somewhere else-in an enchanted home of Caleb's furnishing, where scarcity and shabbiness were not, and trouble never entered." Because of her father's dissembling, "The Blind Girl never knew they had a master, cold, exacting, and uninterested-never knew that Tackleton was Tackleton in short; but lived in the belief of an eccentric humourist who loved to have his jest with them, and who, while he was the Guardian Angel of their lives, disdained to hear one word of thankfulness." Under this misinformation, Bertha has fallen in love with Tackleton. Too late, Caleb realizes the ramifications of his deception: "Have I deceived her from her cradle, but to break her heart at last?"

These are the ingredients of a delightful book. At once hilarious, fanciful, and ultimately appealing, The Cricket on the Hearth promises splendid holiday reading. So, to quote Dickens, "Off with the great-coat, off with the thick shawl, off with the heavy wrappers! and a cosy half-hour by the fire!"