The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home is a novella by Charles Dickens, published by Bradbury and Evans, and released on 20 December 1845 with illustrations by Daniel Maclise, John Leech, Richard Doyle, Clarkson Stanfield and Edwin Henry Landseer. Like Dickens' other Christmas books, it was published in book form, not as a serial. It is subdivided into chapters called "Chirps", similar to the "Quarters" of The Chimes or the "Staves" of A Christmas Carol. It is the third of Dickens' five Christmas books, preceded by A Christmas Carol (1843) and The Chimes (1844), and followed by The Battle of Life (1846) and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1848). The book was sold briskly into the New Year. Seventeen stage productions opened during the Christmas season 1845. Dickens read the tale four times in public performance. It has been dramatised in numerous languages and for years was very popular on stage.