A man and his birds …

… Meet the Beloved Pet Ravens of Charles Dickens | Literary Hub, (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

How did Dickens get it so right when so many other writers seem to get it so wrong, or simply see the ravens as symbols? He lived with the birds, that’s how. He observed them. He spent time with them. As he explained in the preface to Barn­aby Rudge, “The raven in this story is a compound of two great originals, of whom I was, at different times, the proud possessor.” Scholars believe that during his lifetime Dickens in fact kept three or four ravens, the first of whom, Grip, liked to nip the ankles of Dickens’s children, whereupon he was barred from the house and banished outside. Unfortunately, just a few weeks after Dickens wrote about his idea of put­ ting a raven in a novel, Grip died, as a result of having drunk or eaten some lead paint.

I did not know that Dickens's raven was here in Philadelphia. I must pay him a visit.