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The Cricket on the Hearth, by Charles Dickens
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Title: The Cricket on the Hearth
Author: Charles Dickens
Illustrator: George Alfred Williams
Release Date: March 10, 2007 [EBook #20795]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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[Transcriber's note: Italic sections are surrounded by underscores (i).]
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH By CHARLES DICKENS
ILLUSTRATED BY GEORGE ALFRED WILLIAMS
New York THE PLATT & PECK CO.
Copyright, 1905, by THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY
INTRODUCTION
The combined qualities of the realist and the idealist which Dickens possessed to a remarkable degree, together with his naturally jovial attitude toward life in general, seem to have given him a remarkably happy feeling toward Christmas, though the privations and hardships of his boyhood could have allowed him but little real experience with this day of days.
Dickens gave his first formal expression to his Christmas thoughts in his series of small books, the first of which was the famous "Christmas Carol," the one perfect chrysolite. The success of the book was immediate. Thackeray w