The Cricket on the Hearth (with biography of Charles Dickens and plot summary)

Charles Dickens classic novel with a biography about the life and times of Dickens, and a plot summary.

John Peerybingle, a carrier, lives with his young wife Dot, their baby, their nanny Tilly Slowboy, and a mysterious old stranger with a long white beard. A cricket constantly chirps on the hearth and acts as a guardian angel to the family, at one point assuming a human voice to warn John that his suspicions that Dot is having an affair with the mysterious lodger are wrong.