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The Ball at Sceaux

"The Ball at Sceaux" by Honoré de Balzac is a novella published in 1830. Émilie de Fontaine has rejected countless suitors, dismissing them for lacking noble titles. When a mysterious young man appears at a village dance, she finally falls in love. But her aristocratic pride is shattered when she discovers his shocking secret profession. Years later, a twist of fate reveals what her snobbery cost her—a cautionary tale about vanity and misplaced values.

Level C1 pagesEnglish

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Categories: French Literature Novels

Readers: Adults Teens

Suggested age: 14+ (AI estimate)

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Reading guidance

Level C1

Language difficulty is an AI estimate based on sampled text.

Reader and content guidance is an AI estimate based on the title, author, source summary, contents and selected excerpts. Unseen portions have not been assessed.

Recommended age: 14+ (AI estimate)
Plot is followable with support from about 12-13, but independent enjoyment of the irony, marriage choice, social hierarchy and lifelong regret is more defensible from 14; no explicit adult content was found in samples. Based on named-book metadata and selected excerpts; unseen text was not assessed. This is guidance, not an official age rating; individual reading ability varies.

Source: Project Gutenberg · Public domain in the USA.

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