Freemason ... Shaman ... Prophet ... Seducer ... Swindler ... Thief ... HereticWho was the mysterious Count Cagliostro?Depending on whom you ask, he was either a great healer or a dangerous charlatan. Internationally acclaimed historian Iain McCalman documents how Cagliostro crossed paths -- and often swords -- with the likes of Catherine the Great, Marie Antoinette, and Pope Pius VI. He was a muse to William Blake and the inspiration for both Mozart's Magic Flute and Goeth...

Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this multi-million-copy New York Times bestselleris the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control – from the author of The Laws of Human NatureIn the book that People magazine proclaimed “beguiling” and “fascinating,” Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by dra...

The #1 international bestselling historical novel from the award-winning and New York Times –bestselling author of The Name of the Rose .Nineteenth-century Europe—from Turin to Prague to Paris—abounds with the ghastly and the mysterious. Jesuits plot against Freemasons. Italian republicans strangle priests with their own intestines. French criminals plan bombings by day and cele...

A literary prank leads to deadly danger in this "endlessly diverting" intellectual thriller by the author of The Name of the Rose ( Time).Bored with their work, three Milanese book editors cook up an elaborate hoax that connects the medieval Knights Templar with occult groups across the centuries. Becoming obsessed with their own creation, they produce a map indicating the geographical point from which all the powers of the earth can be controlled...

Throughout the centuries, royal mistresses have been worshiped, feared, envied, and reviled. They set the fashions, encouraged the arts, and, in some cases, ruled nations. Eleanor Herman's Sex with Kings takes us into the throne rooms and bedrooms of Europe's most powerful monarchs. Alive with flamboyant characters, outrageous humor, and stirring poignancy, this glittering tale of passion and politics chronicles five hundred years of scintillating women and the kings who loved them.

Justin Vovks In Destinys Hands is the heartbreaking story of five children of Austrias iconic empress, Maria Theresa, who watched as their royal worlds were ripped apart by tragedy and epic misfortunes. These are the stories of Joseph, whose disastrous reign forced Austria to the brink of civil war; Amalia, the brazen and scandalous duchess who married a boy-prince and died exiled and forgotten; Leopold, Maria Theresas unassuming second son, who was the envy of Europe until his tu...

It is the hiding place of the Holy Grail, or a great secret that will rock the Church. It is a place of hidden treasure and dark knowledge. It is the place where Jesus is buried... These are just some of the many theories now current about the village where a Victorian priest became strangely - and massively - rich, and where he left clues to a great mystery in the very fabric of his church. What is the truth about Father Sauniere and the now-famous village of Rennes-le-Château?Thi...

The first major biography of one of France's most mysterious women--Marie Antoinette's only child to survive the French revolution.Susan Nagel, author of the critically acclaimed biography Mistress of the Elgin Marbles, turns her attention to the life of a remarkable woman who both defined and shaped an era, the tumultuous last days of the crumbling ancient régime. Nagel brings the formidable Marie-Thérèse to life, along with the age of revolution and the waning da...

“I’d rather go to France with Ina Caro than with ?Henry Adams or Henry James.”—NewsweekIn one of the most inventive travel books in years, Ina Caro invites readers on twenty-five one-day train trips that depart from Paris and transport us back through seven hundred years of French history. Whether taking us to Orléans to evoke the visions of Joan of Arc or to the Place de la Concorde to witness the beheading of Marie Antoinette, Caro animates history with her lush descript...

Candide is the story of a gentle man who, though pummeled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds." On the surface a witty, bantering tale, this eighteenth-century classic is actually a savage, satiric thrust at the philosophical optimism that proclaims that all disaster and human suffering is part of a benevolent cosmic plan. Fast, funny, often outrageous, the French philosopher's immortal narrativ...

In Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman, Stefan Zweig offers one of his most celebrated and psychologically penetrating biographies — a humanizing portrait of a woman who became both symbol and scapegoat of a revolution. Through his luminous prose and acute insight, Zweig transforms the legendary queen of France from a historical caricature into a deeply real and tragic figure: a woman neither saint nor monster, but human in her weaknesses and her courage. Zweig traces Marie ...

A Major New TranslationThe Red and the Black, Stendhal’s masterpiece, is the story of Julien Sorel, a young dreamer from the provinces, fueled by Napoleonic ideals, whose desire to make his fortune sets in motion events both mesmerizing and tragic. Sorel’s quest to find himself, and the doomed love he encounters along the way, are delineated with an unprecedented psychological depth and realism. At the same time, Stendhal weaves together the social...