"Nothing would be pleasanter than to read in a well-written book of an open-air ball that took place a century ago"?

CRome Yellow by Aldous Huxley

Crome Yellow turned 100 this year:-)

Origin: French Meaning: Devotee of Dionysos

Being the bad boy of Mt. Olympus, he was perhaps
 the most colourful of the Olympian Gods

"Beautiful," Denis agreed. "But what about the desirable human
contacts, like love and friendship?"

The black silhouette against the darkness shook its head. "The
pleasures even of these contacts are much exaggerated," said the
polite level voice. "It seems to me doubtful whether they are
equal to the pleasures of private reading and contemplation.
Human contacts have been so highly valued in the past only
because reading was not a common accomplishment and because books
were scarce and difficult to reproduce. The world, you must
remember, is only just becoming literate. As reading becomes
more and more habitual and widespread, an ever-increasing number
of people will discover that books will give them all the
pleasures of social life and none of its intolerable tedium. At
present people in search of pleasure naturally tend to congregate
in large herds and to make a noise; in future their natural
tendency will be to seek solitude and quiet. The proper study of
mankind is books."

"I sometimes think that it may be," said Denis; he was wondering
if Anne and Gombauld were still dancing together.

"Instead of which," said Mr. Wimbush, with a sigh, "I must go and
see if all is well on the dancing-floor."

Early Origins of the Stone family

Chapter 28 of Crome Yellow

I can't help thinking that there is a more occult (as in hidden) story written here the more I listen and read through the book published 100 years ago this year.

And is this reviewer below just taking the piss out of it?-)

Mere Mortals Book
Reviews Podcast

Skeptiko, the Caesars and Huxley ... and Who Really Knows Anything These Days?

And it seems even more ironic reading this book in 2021 in an unfolding pandemic.

Not to mention quite synCHROMystic?-)

The two young woman in the story being named Anne and Mary?-)

2. according to Christian tradition, the
mother of the Virgin Mary: her day is July 26

Born on July 26th?-)

Crome Yellow (1921) is Aldous Huxley's first novel. Crome is the name of the country house in which it is set. The title puns on the pigment chrome yellow, and evokes the novel's bright pastoral mood as well as the sun that shines for the duration of the narrative, which unfolds over a period of three weeks from July to August 1921.
Huxley's protagonist is the 23-year-old author Denis Stone, who has recently published a “slim volume” of poetry. Denis has fallen in love with Anne, the glamorous, man-baiting niece of Henry and Priscilla Wimbush, the aristocratic owners of Crome. While Denis longs to be a dashing man of action, he is instead an introspective intellectual who, like so many of Huxley's subsequent heroes,…

Chrome yellow is a pigment in paints
using monoclinic lead(II) chromate (PbCrO4)

The cult of Dionysos became a significant part of the Greek religion in Athens from the 6th century BCE and the Dionysia festival of Athens and other cities would later evolve into the Bacchanalia of Rome.

The island of Naxos was a particularly important sanctuary to the god. There is evidence of a cult to Dionysos dating from the Mycenaean period (14th century BCE) and the site continued to be important right into the Roman period.

Something to crow about, you reckon?-)

Crow Mellow by Julian Davies,
Phil Day (Illustrator)

Crome Yellow/Crow Mellow?

From a September 14th, 2021 Queensland newspaper?

700 Years Since Dante's Passing ... into Where?

Norm makes a cameo as himself in this 2009 film

Life Can Be Funny ... Sometimes?