title: The Cricket on the Hearth
author:  Charles Dickens 
description: Charles Dickens's early childhood was happy until his father was imprisoned for debt. The 12 - year - old Dickens then began working ten - hour days in a boot - blacking factory pasting labels on the jars of thick polish. The shocking conditions of the factory made a profound impression on him. His anger at his situation and at the conditions endured by working - class people became major themes in his fiction.
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  # The Cricket on the Hearth, by Charles Dickens
  
  
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  The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cricket on the Hearth, by Charles Dickens
  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
  restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the
  terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
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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
  
  
  *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH ***
  
  
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  Produced by Jason Isbell, Emma Morgan Isbell and the Online Distributed
  Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
  
  
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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 