happyinsmallways

happyinsmallways t1_jcriru1 wrote

Reply to comment by Important_Collar_36 in TIL Charles Dickens had a talking pet raven named Grip, who terrorized his dog, buried valuables in the yard, and died eating "a pound or two" of lead paint. As a character in one of his novels, Grip is believed to have inspired Poe's famous poem, and is on display in a Philadelphia public library by jableshables

Makes sense to me! He was surrounded by death growing up so I can imagine there were complicated feelings there

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happyinsmallways t1_jcrhao1 wrote

Reply to comment by Important_Collar_36 in TIL Charles Dickens had a talking pet raven named Grip, who terrorized his dog, buried valuables in the yard, and died eating "a pound or two" of lead paint. As a character in one of his novels, Grip is believed to have inspired Poe's famous poem, and is on display in a Philadelphia public library by jableshables

I watched an old lecture on Poe and the speaker suggests that when Poe realized that there had been a death in the Dickens family and that it was a raven he was THRILLED lol he was obsessed with death. According to this lecturer anyway, but his body of work does support that lol

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happyinsmallways t1_jcpgmdm wrote

Reply to TIL Charles Dickens had a talking pet raven named Grip, who terrorized his dog, buried valuables in the yard, and died eating "a pound or two" of lead paint. As a character in one of his novels, Grip is believed to have inspired Poe's famous poem, and is on display in a Philadelphia public library by jableshables

My understanding is that Dickens and Poe actually met. I’ve heard two versions. One where Poe actually met Grip and one where Grip had recently died from the paint and Dickens told Poe about it.

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