  The nucleon generalized polarizabilities (GPs), probed in virtual Compton
scattering (VCS), describe the spatial distribution of the polarization density
in a nucleon. They are accessed experimentally via the process of
electron-proton bremsstrahlung ($ep\to ep\gamma$) at electron-beam facilities,
such as MIT-Bates, CEBAF (Jefferson Lab), and MAMI (Mainz). We present the
calculation of the nucleon GPs and VCS observables at next-to-leading order in
baryon chiral perturbation theory (B$\chi$PT), and confront the results with
the empirical information. At this order our results are predictions, in the
sense that all the parameters are well-known from elsewhere. Within the
relatively large uncertainties of our calculation we find good agreement with
the experimental observations of VCS and the empirical extractions of the GPs.
We find large discrepancies with previous chiral calculations---all done in
heavy-baryon $\chi$PT (HB$\chi$PT)---and discuss the differences between
B$\chi$PT and HB$\chi$PT responsible for these discrepancies.
