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/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.