The gift book "J.Balsamo" by A. Dumas, in 2 volumes

The decline of the era and the life of King Louis XV, the arrival of Marie Antoinette in France, her wedding with the Dauphin, the future King Louis XVI, palace intrigues, a narrative about the lives of ordinary people, the story of Jean-Jacques Rousseau-all this lies at the heart of the novel. 

The storyline of the two volumes of the novel is united by the central figure of Giuseppe Balsamo-a wizard, a sorcerer, the head of a Masonic lodge, an eternal man. "No one has read all of Dumas's works, but the whole globe has read Dumas," Andre Mauroy remarked.