Overview

Before the Revolution, there was the charlatan. Before the fall, there was the seer. Paris, 1770. The young Dauphine Marie Antoinette arrives in France to marry the future Louis XVI, stepping into a court of unimaginable splendor-and unspeakable intrigue. But in the shadows of Versailles, darker forces are already at work. Giuseppe Balsamo-alchemist, hypnotist, visionary-has transformed himself into the Count di Cagliostro, Europe's most notorious mystical charlatan. With his extraordinary powers of mesmerism and an uncanny ability to manipulate the desperate and the powerful alike, he moves through the highest circles of French society, bending nobles and ministers to his will. His beautiful wife Lorenza becomes both his instrument and his victim as he pursues an audacious scheme that will shake the foundations of the monarchy itself. From the glittering salons of Paris to secret Masonic lodges, from the bedchambers of the aristocracy to the laboratories of occult science, Balsamo weaves a web of seduction, prophecy, and political conspiracy. He foresees the Revolution that will destroy the world he manipulates. He understands that the ancien régime is doomed. And he intends to profit from its fall. But even a master manipulator cannot control every thread in the tapestry of history. As Balsamo's schemes grow more audacious, as his victims multiply and his enemies close in, the question becomes not whether he will succeed-but whether he will survive what he has set in motion. Alexandre Dumas brings his legendary gift for historical drama to the twilight of the French monarchy, creating a sprawling epic of ambition, mysticism, and the gathering storm that will sweep away an entire civilization. Meticulously researched yet irresistibly entertaining, Joseph Balsamo introduces one of literature's most fascinating antiheroes and launches the author's monumental chronicle of the French Revolution. From the master of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo-a spellbinding saga of power, prophecy, and the price of ambition.

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