The Cricket on the Hearth is one of Charles Dickens' Christmas novellas (the most famous of these being A Christmas Carol). However, there is nothing about Christmas in it! It does take place in a cold month, perhaps it was December, though I can't recall if the month was mentioned.
It is definitely a fairy tale, as there is a wise but mysterious cricket who sings when important things are about to happen. And household fairies visit people in their dreams to set things aright.
As I was reading this for my Christmas Literary Challenge, I realized I had already read it! I must have long ago because as I read it, it was very familiar to me. But I had forgotten the ending (as I so frequently do in these cases). We come into the seemingly happy home of the Carrier (kind of like the UPS guy in our day) John Peerybingle and his new wife, Dot, their newborn baby and their little servant girl. We also meet their neighbors, Caleb the poor toymaker and his blind daughter Bertha. Their sour, rather sinister boss who is the Tackleton of Gruff and Tackleton, toy purveyors. Tackleton, oddly enough, is about to marry the beautiful May Fielding for some reason we cannot discern as the reader. We also meet an old, deaf Stranger who throws everything into confusion.
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| You can actually buy a metal cricket to keep on your hearth. |
It's a charming story as far as it goes, but honestly, I found it a bit hard to understand and grew impatient with the over the top coyness and the rather cloying sentimentality. I think Dickens might have been tippling the Christmas punch as he wrote this!
I was googling around to find out more about The Cricket on the Hearth and I came across a really kitschy 1967 animated retelling (which takes great liberties with the story) staring Danny Thomas and Marlo Thomas. I could only get through the first few minutes but it was a blast from the past!
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You are part of a search and rescue for lost Catholics.
ReplyDeleteRegular updates to the countdown to the Day of the Lord by the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven at :
http://risen-from-the-dead.forumotion.com/
What to expect in the final days :
https://www.tldm.org/news/darkness-11-13-98.htm
http://miraculousrosary.blogspot.com/p/three-days-of-darkness.html
I was guided to think, for a while, using the "1335 = 2300" methodology, explained here :
http://risen-from-the-dead.forumotion.com/t369-1335-2300-methodology
We are less than 11 days away from prophetic history : the completion of the 2300 day cleansing period of Daniel 8:14. When Jesus said to me, "Give in now, John, until it comes time to fulfill all justice", He was referencing that point in time between "this age" and "the age to come". That point in time is between December 29, 2018 A.D. and December 30, 2018 A.D. There is no changing this by human means.