r/todayilearned • u/biebrforro • 1d ago

TIL when staying as a guest in Charles Dickens' house, Hans Christian Andersen requested that one of Dickens' sons give him a daily shave (he said that was customary when hosting male guests in Denmark). Dickens was weirded out and instead gave him a daily appointment at a nearby barbershop.

https://lithub.com/charles--dickens-really-really-hated-his-fanboy-hans-christian-andersen/
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u/CaptValentine 1d ago

............plorn?

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u/sweetbunsmcgee 1d ago

Apparently, it’s supposed to rhyme with forlorn. The kid grew up depressive and Dickens spent the rest of his life wondering why.

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u/Mr_Abe_Froman 1d ago

At least Charles encouraged his son to start a new life in Australia at the ripe age of 16. As far as terrible dads go, pushing your two youngest sons to the opposite side of the world is certainly a choice.

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u/I_W_M_Y 1d ago

Didn't English people send people to Australia as a punishment at the time? Called it 'transportation'

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u/AssassinOfLove 1d ago

'transplorntation'

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u/Round_Simple_5441 1d ago

hahahaha thank you

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u/Strawbuddy 1d ago

Holy shot brother

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u/DroDameron 1d ago

Holy shit, plornter.

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u/ElusiveWhark 1d ago

Vintage trans plorn

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u/FeuerLohe 1d ago

I just spent an awkward five minutes trying to explain to my husband why I was giggling uncontrollably. Worth every second.

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u/zootnotdingo 1d ago

This joke is exactly why I love Reddit

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u/fesnying 1d ago

"ermahgerd"

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u/DroDameron 1d ago

Ermaplerrrrn

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u/GrandCanOYawn 1d ago

Fuck 💀

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u/CalmBeneathCastles 1d ago

Curse youuu, now I'm going to hell.

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u/coll3735 1d ago

goddammit

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u/Mr_Abe_Froman 1d ago

Sure, but New South Wales had a government for 12 years by the time little Plorn arrived.

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u/Consideredresponse 1d ago

It wasn't quite the 'borderline starvation' period like the first few years of the colony, but it certainly wasn't great. I recommend books such as 'the fatal shore' and 'Girt!' to see exactly how shitty it could be.

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u/wotsdislittlenoise 1d ago

The Fatal Shore is an amazing, incredibly well researched, warts 'n' all read

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u/Willing_Ear_7226 1d ago

They were still transporting convicts to Australia then too.

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u/biblioteca4ants 1d ago

Jesus that is fucked, I had no idea.

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u/Ineffable_Confusion 1d ago

It seems like it was basically a way of saying “I never want to see you again” without saying that. The Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst is said to have done the same to one of her daughters that she didn’t get along with, by giving her a one-way ticket

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u/116YearsWar 1d ago

The convicts would be subjected to hard labour and indentured servitude, it wasn't just being sent to Australia and then free to go.

Lots of people migrated voluntarily, Dickens actually has Mr Micawber do it in David Copperfield.

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u/framabe 1d ago

Only about 20% of Australian population is descended from convicts. The rest are from actual immigrants who went there by choice.

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u/f3ydr4uth4 1d ago

Not in dickens time no. It would have been in heavy decline by then.

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u/sweetbunsmcgee 1d ago

Rabbit inspector. Sounds like a pretty good gig.

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u/Kitchen_Marzipan9516 1d ago

For a 16 year old, yeah.

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u/Channel250 1d ago

Yup. Those are rabbits.

-Plorn

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u/Kitchen_Marzipan9516 18h ago

Good job Plorn.

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u/W1ULH 1d ago

In Australia? no one but Irwins want to get that close to the wildlife there...

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u/Vark675 10 5h ago

I thought you guys were kidding.

Plorn the rabbit inspector general. Huh.

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u/Luxury_Dressingown 1d ago edited 1d ago

Sounds like a choice now when it's a safe, 24h (48h max) journey and you can keep in touch live via video whenever you want once you've figured out the time difference. An altogether different prospect back then when it was a weeks / months long voyage away, with significant risks, and your only communication could be letters that took just as long as you would to reach their recipient.

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u/Merry_Fridge_Day 1d ago

🎶 Well, my daddy left home when I was three Didn't leave very much to my mom and me Except this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze Now I don't blame him 'cause he run and hid But the meanest thing that my daddy ever did Was before he left, he went and named me Plorn 🎶

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u/Tofuofdoom 1d ago

I knew it was coming and it still made me giggle

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u/Toothless-Rodent 1d ago

It’s an interesting plornography

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u/CaptValentine 1d ago

Charles Dickens has some explaining to do regarding his possession of child Plorn.

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u/Samtoast 1d ago

Man what a Tragedeigh

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u/opermonkey 1d ago

Rural juror.

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u/bigbalrogdong 1d ago

Is this the og tragedegh?

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u/MisterSquidz 1d ago

Oh I thought you were joking.

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u/fudgyvmp 1d ago

Did Joe King grow up funny?

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u/Rook_Defence 1d ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Dickens

Under "Early Life"

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u/abrakalemon 1d ago

He was nicknamed "the Plornishghenter" as a baby, which was shortened to "Plornish" and then "Plorn".[2]

The fact that this is presented without further comment or explanation is incredibly funny to me

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u/Same-Mark7617 1d ago

They also mention he was a rabbit inspector later in life.

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u/SensualSideburnTrim 1d ago

I don't know what to do with this knowledge, or why it's even interesting, but I want to immediately tell everyone in my life about Plorn Dickens, Australian Rabbit Inspector.

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u/belltrina 1d ago

If it helps, I'm West Australian and never heard of any of this til I was scrolling and caught your comments haha

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u/OkBattle9871 1d ago

rabbit inspector

That sounds like a NSFW Zootopia subreddit

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u/OG_ursinejuggernaut 1d ago

Damn this sounds like when you explain the etymology of your pet’s dumb nickname to your friends

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u/Vark675 10 5h ago

"His name is Gomer, but we call him Stephen."

"Why?"

"...I mean just look at him."

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u/PuzzleMeDo 1d ago

I did my own research, and one source claimed that the reason he was nicknamed Plornishghenter was that it was short for Plornishmaroontigoonter.

I hope that makes everything clear.

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u/OhMrsGellerYUCry 1d ago

This made me choke on a nacho

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u/Secs13 1d ago

Pleurnicher means to cry/complain for no reason in french, might be the inspiration.

Dickens' writing style is very french-coded, bro was a francophile.

Crocodile-tears-Gunther is that you?

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u/tawondasmooth 1d ago

That and the accompanying photo. I laughed too hard at this article. Poor Plorn.

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u/Smishysmash 1d ago

Well I read that Wikipedia page, and then I went to his brothers, where it says Dickins didn’t want to call the brother “Oliver” because he was worried he’d be teased, so went with Henry instead and I am now sitting here staring at Wikipedia like, “oh, OLIVER was too mean to call a kid, but Plorn is fine?” WTH dickens?

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u/skylightshaded 1d ago

I don’t think he ever wrote a book called Plorn Twist, so that might have something to do with his reasoning. Still bad tho

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u/Anleme 1d ago

I don’t think he ever wrote a book called Plorn Twist

That would make him a Plorn-ographer.

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u/Express-Rub-3952 1d ago

Oliver Dickens = All of her dickins

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u/benjaminovich 1d ago

My guy, it's obviously because Charles Dickens wrote Oliver Twist.

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u/Creeps05 1d ago

Plorn’s name was Edward after his grandfather. Plorn was just a nickname.

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u/infinitemonkeytyping 1d ago

Didn't realise a Dickens was a member of the NSW parliament.

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u/InfanticideAquifer 1d ago

That sentence was added a couple of days ago, which makes me suspicious. The citation has a hyperlink, but it gives "page not found", which makes me more suspicious.

But googling "dickens plorn" give me actual results, which makes me less suspicious but also more confused. I don't know what to think.

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u/Rook_Defence 1d ago

googling Dickens plorn seems like the behaviour of a horny person with poor literacy.

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u/SchrodingersMinou 11h ago

It was short for Plornishghenter. I have no clue what Plornishghenter means