Fun Facts About Tolstoy (or, Happy Ending?)

Did you know?

Tolstoy was taken to a brothel by his brothers to gain his first sexual experience; afterwards he is said to have stood by the side of the bed and wept.

Now is this the paradigmatic for loss-of-virginity scene for Dead White Male authors or what? Seems YPTR has heard this or a similar story told over and over when reading biographical information about writers, especially the Europeans. Proust, for example, bollixed his first attempt at losing his virginity in a house of ill-repute. Anyone know of other wacky brothel misadventures involving our literary heroes?

Comments

[Alyx L]

I seem to remember a story about Oscar Wilde being taken to a (female) brothel in France and commenting that it had been "like chewing on cold mutton", but I don't think this was his first experience.

[tlon]

Borges.