The Cricket

Marjorie Benton CookeProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 352K words
Chapters: 36

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971, and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. The Cricket by Marjorie Benton Cooke. Author: Cooke, Marjorie Benton, 1876–1920. Language: English. Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature. Release Date: April 16, 2008

Editor's review

The Cricket is a novel by Marjorie Benton Cooke, now reissued as a public-domain eBook by Project Gutenberg. Cooke was active in early twentieth-century American popular fiction, and her work typically depicts family, marriage, and everyday social life in a light, humorous vein. This book follows the same path: a cricket, invested with symbolic meaning, serves as a thread linking misunderstandings, coincidences, and emotional turning points among the characters. The plot moves briskly, the dialogue is lively, and the novel has a distinctly stage-like rhythm. It does not aim for profound social critique but is notable for readability and a sense of lived life, making it a useful sample of early twentieth-century American popular fiction. Readers might note how the author uses an everyday object to drive the narrative and how domestic relations are handled in a light-comic mode; at the same time, they should recognize the period limitations of such work, whose portrayals of gender roles and class reflect the mainstream attitudes of the time and call for a critical distance today. The book is moderate in length and easy to finish in leisure time.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy early twentieth-century American popular fiction and light comedy
Casual readers looking for public-domain literature and an easy read
Students studying family themes and narrative techniques in popular fiction
English learners using it as moderately long source material for extensive reading

Not a good fit for

Serious literary readers seeking profound social critique and complex psychological characterization
Readers sensitive to early popular fiction's attitudes toward gender and class
Readers hoping for systematic research materials on the author's life and work

Reading tips

Mark the key passages where the cricket appears and observe how it links characters and plot turns
Note the humor and design of misunderstandings in the dialogue and compare them with other American light comedy of the period
After finishing, return to the opening to appreciate the foreshadowing and the echo between beginning and end
When using it for extensive reading in English, read through for plot first, then choose two or three passages for close reading of the language

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book an animal story?

It is not a fairy tale with an animal as the protagonist. The cricket is more a symbolic object and narrative thread running through the plot; the real protagonists are the characters involved in family and emotional relationships, and the story centers on human feelings and coincidence.

What is the author's writing style like?

Cooke's work is known for being light and humorous, with abundant dialogue and a fast pace; the plot often advances through misunderstandings and coincidence and has a stage-like sense of scene. It is an easy read, though limited in depth and complexity.

What background is helpful for reading this book?

Some knowledge of the publishing environment of early twentieth-century American popular fiction helps: such works were aimed at a mass readership and valued readability and entertainment. It is also worth noting that the portrayals of gender roles and class carry the attitudes of the time, which readers need only keep in critical perspective.

Is it suitable for learning English?

It can serve as extensive reading material. It is moderate in length, has a good deal of dialogue, and its sentence patterns are not very difficult, but the work is early, and some expressions are not commonly used today. It is best to read through for plot first, then select passages for close reading rather than looking up every word.

Comments

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About the author

Marjorie Benton Cooke Author · American · 1876–1920

Marjorie Benton Cooke (1876–1920) was an American writer born in Richmond, Indiana, and a graduate of the University of Chicago. She first performed as a monologue artist, known for her comic monologues, and later turned to playwriting and fiction. Her works are light and humorous, often blending romance with suffragist themes; her representative titles include Bambi, Cinderella Jane, The Cricket, and The Dual Alliance. Several of her novels were adapted into silent films, linking early cinema with popular literature. Cooke died in Manila in 1920 at the age of forty-four. Though her career was short, her work had a recognizable presence in American popular letters and on the screen of her time. Public information is limited, and details of her life remain largely unknown.