This is a characteristic salon piece by French composer Alfred Cottin that captures the sentimental style of the late nineteenth century. It is distinctive for its flowing, ballad-like melodic lines that demand expressive phrasing.
Focus on maintaining a seamless, singing tone in the right hand while managing the lyrical rubato.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Ballade du fou is rated Henle level 4 of 9 — intermediate repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 5–6. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 6.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 4 — meaning you can already play level 3–4 pieces cleanly. Learning it one level early is possible as a stretch piece, but more than that usually leads to months of frustration.
A typical performance of Ballade du fou lasts about 3 minutes.
Ballade du fou is available as free public-domain sheet music on IMSLP — the score is linked directly from this page.
Pieces at a comparable difficulty and character include Barcarolle by Anton Stepanovich Arensky, Albumblatt in A minor by Johannes Brahms, Albumblatt by Carl Filtsch — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.