Aristocratic ball

[alastair]

Are there any novels or short stories set at aristocratic parties, balls or dinners ?

[dfloyd]

but I can't think of any short story which is told by relating the story with a ball as a background. The Leopard by di Lampedusa features a society ball which takes place in Palermo, Sicily. The award winning movie with Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon has some great footage of the ball.

Madame Bovary meets her aristocratic seducer at a ball. She dances the waltz up and down a long room, flamked on each side with windows nearly floor-to-ceiling high. There are liveried footmen positioned beside each window, and when one of the ladies swoons, the cry is heard, "The ladies are feeling faint; break the wwindows." Each footman grabs a side chair and breaks out the tall window next to him. The movie, with Van Heflin as the muddled doctor and Jennifer Jones (?) as his wife, Madame Bovary, is in b&w but effective in portraying the ball scene.

There are various balls in War and Peace and they are filmed in color in the Audrey Hepburn movie version, and well described by Tolstoy, who as an aristocrat probably attendced his share of balls.

For fine dining in the late 19th century, read and see Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. Director Martin Scorscesi's filming of a New York society dinner is an extravaganza in elegance.

[Pryderi Agni]

It's not a novel, but Guy de Maupassant's short story The Necklace has a ball figuring prominently in it.

[mal4mac]

Pride and Prejudice - Darcy ignores Elisabeth at a ball.
Point Counter Point by Huxley - there's a big dinner party in the opening chapters with some really funny interactions (the eccentric "host" is really miffed at having his scientific experiements interrupted by such mundane matters...)

[keilj]

If you are looking for the exact definition of aristocratic - then I am not sure.

But, Tales from the Jazz Age by F Scott Fitzgerald has a few stores in it that concern parties and festivities of the rich (America's "aristocrats" of the 20's)

[Lokasenna]

Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway is all about a party, and the events leading up to it. It's a dreadful book, but that's my personal opinion!

Also, the excellently bleak A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh takes place in the high society of the 30s, including a very memorable scene at a party.

[*Classic*Charm*]

There are various balls in War and Peace and they are filmed in color in the Audrey Hepburn movie version, and well described by Tolstoy, who as an aristocrat probably attendced his share of balls.

Ah, that film is four hours of my life I'd like back. Full of eight -minute montages of marching soldiers. Even Audrey couldn't save it. Anyways, back to the point...

There are also several balls and dinner parties in Anna Karenina by Tolstoy.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway is all about a party, and the events leading up to it. It's a dreadful book, but that's my personal opinion!


Tut, tut.

Cinderella!

[kelby_lake]

Are there any novels or short stories set at aristocratic parties, balls or dinners ?

Pride and Prejudice has a ball in it

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Neck.shtml

EDIT: Someone beat me to the short story, grr!

[Lokasenna]

Tut, tut.

Ha! That made me laugh. But really, she is a dreadful author in my opinion...

[Pecksie]

'Anna Karenina' has an aristocratic ball scene in which Kitty realizes that Count Vronsky is not going to propose to her because he's fallen for Anna...

In Pushkin's 'Eugene Onegin', Eugene meets the girl who many years ago was in love with him, Tatiana, at a high society ball. But she has changed...

And this is admittedly more nouveau riche than aristocratic, but Irène Némirovsky's novella 'The Ball' revolves around a party given by a crass couple for their high society friends... :)