About the book: 2021 / “Everything is poison, and nothing is without poison; “The dose alone makes the poison invisible,” said the famous naturalist and physician of the Renaissance, Paracelsus. The chronicle of humanity contains fatal pages of cruel poisonings. The ancient world, the Renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment, modernity... At any time, poisonous substances became the weapons of cowards and scoundrels, fanatics and maniacs, executioners and arbiters of destinies. All this is reflected in a unique book - the first complete history of poisons. Its heroes are Cleopatra and Nero, Socrates and Hannibal, Gorky and Zola, Stalin and Peter I... And the stage of this endless, cruel and exciting performance is the whole world.