This is an engaging account of the life of Count Cagliostro, who donned such varied personas as magician, alchemist, colonel, swindler, mythical priest and founder of Egyptian masonry. Photiades details the Count's life from its humble beginnings in Palermo to his adventures in Europe and finally his demise in a remote fortress.

"Count Alessandro Cagliostro's sincere belief in the magical powers, including immortality, conferred by his Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry won him fame, but made him dangerous enemies, too. His celebrated travels through the Middle East and the capitals of Europe ended abruptly in Rome in 1789, where he was arrested by the Inquisition and condemned to death for heresy. The Masonic Magician tells Cagliostro's extraordinary story, complete with the first English translation of his Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry ever published. The authors examine the case made against him, that he was an impostor as well as a heretic, and find that the Roman Church, and history itself, have done him a terrible injustice. This engaging account, drawing on remarkable new documentary evidence, shows that the man condemned was a genuine visionary and true champion of Freemasonry. His teachings have much to reveal to us today, not just of the secrets of the movement, but of the mysterious hostility it continues to attract."

When a young man goes from the demands and rigors of the army to a luxurious and serene country living, his mind is bound to wander where it should not. Such is the fate of Alexei Alexeyevich Fedyashev, who becomes so absorbed in his newfound idleness that he falls in love with an old portrait. When the famous conjurer and medium Count Cagliostro accidentally ends up at Fedyashev's escape, the young man begs him to bring his dream to reality. "Be careful what you wish for," is the lesson young Alexei has yet to learn - and how!

Freemason ... Shaman ... Prophet ... Seducer ... Swindler ... Thief ... Heretic Who 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 Goethe's Faust. Louis XVI had him thrown into the Bastille for his alleged involvement in what would come to be known as "the affair of the necklace." Yet in London, Warsaw, and St. Petersburg, he established "healing clinics" for the poorest of the poor, and his dexterity in the worlds of alchemy and spiritualism won him acclaim among the nobility across Europe. Also the leader of an exotic brand of Freemasonry, Count Cagliostro was indisputably one of the most influential and notorious figures of the latter eighteenth century, overcoming poverty and an ignoble birth to become the darling -- and bane -- of upper-crust Europe.

At long last, Lupin's greatest epic battle is presented in English in a single omnibus volume that includes "Countess Cagliostro" (1924), "Countess Cagliostro's Revenge" (1935), "The Queen's Necklace," and the all-new "The Death of Countess Cagliostro," written by Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier.

MARVEL'S OFFICIAL PREQUEL! A powerful, ancient relic has been stolen from the British Museum – a relic that could do significant damage in the wrong hands Enter the MASTERS OF THE MYSTIC ARTS! The team is on a mission to find the relic and the mysterious mystic who stole it – but will they be able to track her down before it's too late?! COLLECTING: MARVEL'S DOCTOR STRANGE PRELUDE 1-2; MARVEL'S DOCTOR STRANGE PRELUDE INFINITE COMIC 1; DOCTOR STRANGE: THE OATH 1; DOCTOR STRANGE (2015) 1; STRANGE TALES 110, 115 (DOCTOR STRANGE STORIES); MARVEL PREMIERE 14.