At the Sign of The Cat and Racket

Age Recommendation: 13+

Honoré de Balzac’s short novel, written in 1829, is part of Scenes from Private Life. The artist Théodore de Sommervieux falls in love with Augustine Guillaume, the daughter of a cloth merchant whose house is known as The House of the Cat Playing with a Ball. Both are young and wealthy. It would seem that nothing could stand in the way of their happiness…