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<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:podcast="https://podcastindex.org/namespace/1.0" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" version="2.0"><channel><title>Ball at Sceaux</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ball-at-sceaux--7088450</link><description><![CDATA[The novella “The Ball at Sceaux” is part of Balzac’s great life work — the expansive fiction series titled “The Human Comedy.” The central character is Émilie de Fontaine, youngest daughter of a noble but impoverished family in post-revolutionary France. Her hapless father hopes to find her a good marriage, but Émilie, spoiled and willful, has repeatedly turned away suitors. She has a list of requirements for any prospective husband, one of which is that he must, of course, be “the son of a peer of France.” (The peerage was an elite aristocratic distinction.) She holds firm to this resolve, but events have a way of turning out surprisingly. Balzac was a master of irony and realism and his writings were hugely influential in the development of European fiction. - Summary by Bruce Pirie]]></description><atom:link href="https://www.spreaker.com/show/7088450/episodes/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><language>en</language><category>Books</category><copyright>Copyright Literary Fiction Genre</copyright><image><url>https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/23bc1c8a1e841c5ca35229b02193504f.jpg</url><title>Ball at Sceaux</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ball-at-sceaux--7088450</link></image><lastBuildDate>Sun, 07 Jun 2026 09:18:03 +0000</lastBuildDate><itunes:author>Honoré de Balzac</itunes:author><itunes:owner><itunes:name>Literary Fiction Genre</itunes:name><itunes:email>spreaker64@podcastlibrary.org</itunes:email></itunes:owner><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/23bc1c8a1e841c5ca35229b02193504f.jpg"/><itunes:subtitle>The novella “The Ball at Sceaux” is part of Balzac’s great life work — the expansive fiction series titled “The Human Comedy.” The central character is Émilie de Fontaine, youngest daughter of a noble but impoverished family in post-revolutionary...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[The novella “The Ball at Sceaux” is part of Balzac’s great life work — the expansive fiction series titled “The Human Comedy.” The central character is Émilie de Fontaine, youngest daughter of a noble but impoverished family in post-revolutionary France. Her hapless father hopes to find her a good marriage, but Émilie, spoiled and willful, has repeatedly turned away suitors. She has a list of requirements for any prospective husband, one of which is that he must, of course, be “the son of a peer of France.” (The peerage was an elite aristocratic distinction.) She holds firm to this resolve, but events have a way of turning out surprisingly. Balzac was a master of irony and realism and his writings were hugely influential in the development of European fiction. - Summary by Bruce Pirie]]></itunes:summary><itunes:category text="Arts"><itunes:category text="Books"/></itunes:category><itunes:category text="Fiction"/><itunes:category text="Fiction"><itunes:category text="Comedy Fiction"/></itunes:category><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:type>episodic</itunes:type><item><title>Ball at Sceaux - Honore de Balzac</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/ball-at-sceaux-honore-de-balzac--72389441</link><description><![CDATA[The novella “The Ball at Sceaux” is part of Balzac’s great life work — the expansive fiction series titled “The Human Comedy.” The central character is Émilie de Fontaine, youngest daughter of a noble but impoverished family in post-revolutionary France. Her hapless father hopes to find her a good marriage, but Émilie, spoiled and willful, has repeatedly turned away suitors. She has a list of requirements for any prospective husband, one of which is that he must, of course, be “the son of a peer of France.” (The peerage was an elite aristocratic distinction.) She holds firm to this resolve, but events have a way of turning out surprisingly. Balzac was a master of irony and realism and his writings were hugely influential in the development of European fiction. - Summary by Bruce Pirie]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/72389441</guid><pubDate>Sat, 06 Jun 2026 15:55:26 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72389441/ball_at_sceaux_honore_de_balzac.mp3" length="78556096" type="audio/mpeg"/><podcast:transcript url="https://transcription.spreaker.com/starship/c0e1dc8c-6607-400f-8961-325092c5b44c/c0e1dc8c-6607-400f-8961-325092c5b44c.srt" type="application/x-subrip" language="en"/><podcast:transcript url="https://transcription.spreaker.com/starship/c0e1dc8c-6607-400f-8961-325092c5b44c/c0e1dc8c-6607-400f-8961-325092c5b44c.txt" type="text/plain" language="en"/><podcast:transcript url="https://transcription.spreaker.com/starship/c0e1dc8c-6607-400f-8961-325092c5b44c/c0e1dc8c-6607-400f-8961-325092c5b44c.vtt" type="text/vtt" language="en"/><itunes:author>Honoré de Balzac</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>The novella “The Ball at Sceaux” is part of Balzac’s great life work — the expansive fiction series titled “The Human Comedy.” The central character is Émilie de Fontaine, youngest daughter of a noble but impoverished family in post-revolutionary...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[The novella “The Ball at Sceaux” is part of Balzac’s great life work — the expansive fiction series titled “The Human Comedy.” The central character is Émilie de Fontaine, youngest daughter of a noble but impoverished family in post-revolutionary France. Her hapless father hopes to find her a good marriage, but Émilie, spoiled and willful, has repeatedly turned away suitors. She has a list of requirements for any prospective husband, one of which is that he must, of course, be “the son of a peer of France.” (The peerage was an elite aristocratic distinction.) She holds firm to this resolve, but events have a way of turning out surprisingly. Balzac was a master of irony and realism and his writings were hugely influential in the development of European fiction. - Summary by Bruce Pirie]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>9820</itunes:duration><itunes:keywords>ball,balzac,expansive,france,literary,milie,peerage,prospective,sceaux,willful</itunes:keywords><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/23bc1c8a1e841c5ca35229b02193504f.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item></channel></rss>
