5. Gerard de Nerval kept a crustacean as a pet and walking companion
Gerard de Nerval, who likely needs some introduction to American readers, was the pen name of French writer and poet Gerard Labrunie. Nerval wrote for newspapers, published novels and novellas, translated influential German works into French, which helped introduced German Romantic writers to the French audience, and published poetry. He also suffered from periodic bouts of deep depression and mental illness, which eventually led to his death by suicide when he hanged himself in a Paris alleyway in January 1855. He was cited as influential by Marcel Proust and Charles Baudelaire. Much of his work was in the form of travelogue, describing his emotions as he journeyed through other countries.
Nerval kept, as his pet, a lobster. The crustacean was named Thibault. He attached the live lobster to a blue silk ribbon for their walks about the streets of Paris. Theophile Gautier, a fellow writer and admirer of Nerval, once questioned him on his choice of pet, to which Nerval replied, “Why should a lobster be any more ridiculous than a dog?” Nerval explained that he had a liking for lobsters, since they “…are peaceful, serious creatures. They know the secrets of the sea.” Nerval also pointed out that the German writer of Faust (which Nerval had translated), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, had “an aversion to dogs, and he wasn’t mad.”