Topical Guide 449
Mark Dorset
Experiences: Unforgettable, Unusual, Unlikely
Reservations Recommended, Chapter 2
Matthew raises an eyebrow, grins his half grin. “I told you, I have to save some things for the authorized biography. But get this. One of the other kids — You won’t believe this. He wired home for money on the spot, from this whorehouse, and spent the next four days there. At Irma’s. I swear to God. The rest of us covered for him, said he was sick, did his homework.”
William Faulkner, in a Paris Review interview (reprinted in The Writer’s Chapbook, edited by George Plimpton):
The best job that was ever offered to me was to become a landlord in a brothel. In my opinion it’s the perfect milieu for an artist to work in. It gives him perfect economic freedom; he’s free of fear and hunger; he has a roof over his head and nothing whatever to do except keep a few simple accounts and to go once every month and pay off the local police. The place is quiet during the morning hours, which is the best time of the day to work. There’s enough social life in the evening, if he wishes to participate, to keep him from being bored; it gives him a certain standing in his society; he has nothing to do because the madam keeps the books; all the inmates of the house are females and would defer to him and call him “sir.” All the bootleggers in the neighborhood would call him “sir.” And he could call the police by their first names.
Geoffrey Braithwaite in Julian Barnes’s Flaubert’s Parrot:
Remember the botched brothel-visit in L’Education Sentimentale and remember its lesson. Do not participate: happiness lies in the imagination, not the act. Pleasure is found first in anticipation, later in memory. Such is the Flaubertian [and Proustian—MD] temperament. Compare the case, and the temperament, of Daudet. His schoolboy visit to a brothel was so uncomplicatedly successful that he stayed there for two or three days. The girls kept him concealed most of the time for fear of a police raid; they fed him on lentils and pampered him thoroughly. He emerged from this giddying ordeal, he later admitted, with a lifelong passion for the feel of a woman’s skin, and with a lifelong horror of lentils.
Gustave Flaubert, The Sentimental Education, Chapter 20, “Wait Till You Come to Forty Year”:
Frederick went on:
“We have never done what we thought of doing long ago at Sens, when you wished to write a critical history of Philosophy and I a great mediæval romance about Nogent […] Do you remember?"
And, exhuming their youth with every sentence, they said to each other:
“Do you remember?”
They saw once more the college playground, the chapel, the parlour, the fencing-school at the bottom of the staircase, the faces of the ushers and of the pupils […] the two professors of linear drawing and large drawing, who were always wrangling, […] the first pipes they had smoked, the distribution of prizes, and the delightful sensation of going home for the holidays.
It was during the vacation of 1837 that they had called at the house of the Turkish woman. […]
Even in the middle of summer there was a shadow around her house, which could be recognised by a glass bowl of goldfish near a pot of mignonette at a window. Young ladies in white nightdresses, with painted cheeks and long earrings, used to tap at the panes as the students passed; and as it grew dark, their custom was to hum softly in their hoarse voices at the doorsteps.
This home of perdition spread its fantastic notoriety over all the arrondissement. Allusions were made to it in a circumlocutory style: “The place you know—a certain street—at the bottom of the Bridges.” It made the farmers’ wives of the district tremble for their husbands, […] and, to be sure, it exercised a fascination over the minds of all the young lads of the place.
Now, one Sunday, during vesper-time, Frederick and Deslauriers, having previously curled their hair, gathered some flowers in Madame Moreau's garden, then made their way out through the gate leading into the fields, and, after taking a wide sweep round the vineyards, came back through the Fishery, and stole into the Turkish woman's house with their big bouquets still in their hands.
Frederick presented his as a lover does to his betrothed. But the great heat, the fear of the unknown, and even the very pleasure of seeing at one glance so many women placed at his disposal, excited him so strangely that he turned exceedingly pale, and remained there without advancing a single step or uttering a single word. All the girls burst out laughing, amused at his embarrassment. Fancying that they were turning him into ridicule, he ran away; and, as Frederick had the money, Deslauriers was obliged to follow him.
They were seen leaving the house; and the episode furnished material for a bit of local gossip which was not forgotten three years later.
They related the story to each other in a prolix fashion, each supplementing the narrative where the other’s memory failed; and, when they had finished the recital:
“That was the best time we ever had!” said Frederick.
“Yes, perhaps so, indeed! It was the best time we ever had,” said Deslauriers.
Annotator: Trials and Tribulations of
I spent far too much time trying to find anything that corroborated Geoffrey Braithwaite’s account of Alphonse Daudet’s “uncomplicatedly successful” schoolboy visit to a brothel. I got nowhere. I was about to give up, when the thought occurred to me that I might try ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence assistant.
My question to ChatGPT:
What can you tell me about Daudet’s visit to a brothel?
ChatGPT: Alphonse Daudet was a French writer who lived in the 19th century. He is known for his works such as “Letters from My Windmill” and “Tartarin of Tarascon.” Daudet wrote about his visit to a brothel in his book “La Fédor,” which was published in 1889.
In the book, Daudet describes his experience visiting a brothel in Paris. He writes about the women he encountered there, the atmosphere of the place, and his own emotions and thoughts during the visit. The book is considered to be a fictionalized account of Daudet’s own experiences.
It’s worth noting that Daudet’s visit to the brothel was controversial at the time, and his writing about it was considered scandalous. However, today, the book is seen as a significant work of literature that offers insight into French society in the late 19th century.
MD: Please quote a bit of the passage in Daudet’s “La Fédor” in which de Mora visits the brothel.
ChatGPT: As an AI language model, I can certainly provide you with a quote from the scene in which Count de Mora visits the brothel in Daudet’s “La Fédor.” However, please note that the passage contains mature themes and explicit language. If you would still like to see the quote, please let me know, and I will provide it for you.
MD: I would like to see it.
ChatGPT: Here is a brief excerpt from Daudet’s “La Fédor,” in which Count de Mora visits the brothel (translated from the French):
“I followed her into a narrow, stinking street, into a gloomy house where a number of women were waiting for clients. They were all dressed in the same way, in low-cut dresses with their hair done up. They looked at me without saying anything, as if they were sizing me up. One of them came forward and asked me what I wanted. I told her that I was looking for something special. She laughed and took me by the arm.”
Again, please note that this passage contains mature themes and language.
MD: Please quote that in French.
ChatGPT: Certainly, here is the original passage in French from Daudet’s “La Fédor” that describes the Count de Mora’s visit to the brothel:
“Je la suivis dans une ruelle étroite et fétide, dans une maison sombre où plusieurs femmes attendaient les clients. Elles étaient toutes vêtues de même, en robes décolletées et les cheveux relevés. Elles me regardaient sans rien dire, comme pour me jauger. L’une d’elles s’avança et me demanda ce que je voulais. Je lui dis que je cherchais quelque chose d’exceptionnel. Elle rit et me prit par le bras.”
That sent me scouring the Internet for that passage. More time lost. I came up empty. I went back to Chat GPT.
MD: Does Count de Mora spend a few days in a brothel in any of Alphonse Daudet’s novels?
Chat GPT: No, Count de Mora does not spend a few days in a brothel in any of Alphonse Daudet’s novels. While Count de Mora appears as a minor character in several of Daudet’s works, there is no instance in which he is depicted as spending time in a brothel. Daudet’s works often deal with themes of social commentary, particularly regarding the lives of the working class and the struggles they face. However, brothels and prostitution are not major themes in his novels.
MD: But Julian Barnes says that Daudet’s schoolboy visit to a brothel was so uncomplicatedly successful that he stayed there for two or three days. The girls kept him concealed most of the time for fear of a police raid; they fed him on lentils and pampered him thoroughly. He emerged from this giddying ordeal, he later admitted, with a lifelong passion for the feel of a woman’s skin, and with a lifelong horror of lentils.
Chat GPT: Yes, you are correct. I apologize for the confusion in my earlier answers. Alphonse Daudet did indeed have an experience in a brothel during his youth, which he later recounted in his autobiographical work “The Nabob.” The passage you have quoted from Julian Barnes’ book “Flaubert’s Parrot” describes this experience in detail. Daudet’s visit to the brothel was indeed successful, and he stayed there for two or three days, as Barnes writes. This experience had a significant impact on Daudet’s life and work, and he incorporated aspects of it into some of his literary works, including “The Nabob.” Thank you for bringing this to my attention and allowing me to correct my earlier answers.
MD: And thank you for your help. I’m going to skim “The Nabob” while on the train to NYC later this morning, searching for the “brothel scene.”
Chat GPT: You’re welcome! I hope you enjoy reading “The Nabob” and find the passage you’re looking for. The scene in question is likely to be in the early part of the book, where Daudet describes his experiences as a young man in Paris. Good luck with your search, and have a safe and pleasant trip to NYC!
Update: I skimmed The Nabob on the way to the city and on the way home. I couldn’t find the passage or anything like it. Another hour lost. I give up. I have other things to do. MD
Reminiscing: As Shared Experience (“Do You Remember?”)
Gustave Flaubert, The Sentimental Education, Chapter 20, “Wait Till You Come to Forty Year”:
Frederick went on:
“We have never done what we thought of doing long ago at Sens, when you wished to write a critical history of Philosophy and I a great mediæval romance about Nogent […] Do you remember?"
And, exhuming their youth with every sentence, they said to each other:
“Do you remember?”
Christopher Anton Rea, “Windy Town”:
Driving down from the highland line
We done some gigs on the Clyde and the Tyne
They flew us in from a Hamburg strip
The taste of Dusseldorf still on our lips
And on the bus there is a friend of mine
We go way back to the scene of the crime
We sit up front and share a cigarette
And try to remember what we tried to forget
He say “Do you remember?”
He say “Do you recall?”
I say: “yeah, I remember”
“Oh, I remember it all”
Every time that cold wind blows
Every time I hear that sound
Late night trains shunting down by the river
I remember windy town
See also: Experience: Real, Fictional, Vicarious, Shared TG 81; Memory TG 57, TG 125; Memory, Faulty: Causes of, Results of TG 34, TG 133; Memory, Remembering, Forgetting, and the Search for Lost Time TG 22; Memory, Faulty, Causes of Distortion in TG 97
Have you missed an episode or two or several?
You can begin reading at the beginning or you can catch up by visiting the archive or consulting the index to the Topical Guide.
You can listen to the episodes on the Personal History podcast. Begin at the beginning or scroll through the episodes to find what you’ve missed.
You can listen to “My Mother Takes a Tumble” and “Do Clams Bite?” complete and uninterrupted as audiobooks through YouTube.
You can ensure that you never miss a future issue by getting a free subscription. (You can help support the work by choosing a paid subscription instead.)
At Apple Books you can download free eBooks of Little Follies and Herb ’n’ Lorna.
You’ll find overviews of the entire work in An Introduction to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy (a pdf document) and at Encyclopedia.com.