The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens is a Fairy Tale of Home. This novella published by Bradbury and Evans, and released 20 December 1845 with illustrations by Daniel Maclise, John Leech, Richard Doyle, Clarkson Stanfield and Edwin Henry Landseer. Dickens began writing the book around 17 October 1845 and finished it by 1 December. Like all of Dickens s Christmas books, it was published in book form, not as a serial. John Peerybingle, a carrier, lives with his young wife Dot, their baby boy and their nanny Tilly Slowboy. A cricket chirps on the hearth and acts as a guardian angel to the family. The title creature is a sort of barometer of life at the home of John Peerybingle and his much younger wife Dot. When things go well, the cricket on the hearth chirps; it is silent when there is sorrow. One day a mysterious elderly stranger comes to visit and takes up lodging at Peerybingle s house for a few days. The jealous old man, Tackleton, poisons John s mind about Dot, but the cricket through its supernatural powers restores John s confidence and all ends happily.