Rasputin the Rascal Monk

Le Queux, William, 1864-1927Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.5

Word count: 269K words
Chapters: 27

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Rasputin the Rascal Monk by William Le QueuxAuthor: Le Queux, William, 1864-1927,Language: English, Class: DK: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Russia, Former Soviet Republics, Poland, Release Date: Nov 23, 2012

Editor's review

This book is a biographical work on Rasputin by William Le Queux, a popular early twentieth-century English-language treatment of the Russian mystic. Le Queux handles historical material with a novelist's technique, and his prose carries a marked narrative tension and moral judgment, casting Rasputin as a "rascal monk" who stirs the fate of court and empire. For readers who want to understand how the image of Rasputin was shaped in English popular writing, this book offers a representative early text; it can also serve as material for observing British popular imagination of the Russian court around the First World War. It should be noted that the book was written long ago, and its narrative is mixed with rumor and exaggeration; it should not be used as a rigorous scholarly biography. When reading, it is best to compare it with reliable works on Russian history and treat it as popular history writing rather than source-based scholarship. The electronic edition comes from Project Gutenberg, making it easy to search and cite.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in late imperial Russian court history and the Rasputin legend
Literature or history students studying early twentieth-century English popular history writing
Readers who enjoy narrative history and can accept an old-fashioned style
Those who need public-domain English materials for textual analysis or translation practice

Not a good fit for

Specialist researchers in Russian history seeking rigorous scholarship and annotations
Readers averse to anecdotal narration and moralizing style
Those who only want contemporary new biographies and are unwilling to read old texts

Reading tips

Read a reliable overview of Rasputin's life first, then read this book, to help distinguish fact from rumor.
While reading, mark assertions that lack sources, and check them against relevant historical materials afterward.
Read this book alongside other English-language writings of the same period to observe how Rasputin's image was shaped.
The English original is not long; read it in two or three sittings and briefly note the narrative tendency after each.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can this book be read as a reliable biography of Rasputin?

Not recommended. The book was written long ago and has a popular and anecdotal character; its narrative mixes exaggeration and moral judgment and lacks strict annotation. It can be used as a text for understanding how Rasputin was imagined in the early English-speaking world, but specific historical facts should be checked against modern scholarly biographies.

What background in Russian or Russian history is needed to read this book?

No Russian is needed; the English original is in the popular written language of the early twentieth century. For Russian history, only a basic background in the Russian court around the First World War is needed, and reading a brief biographical overview beforehand will noticeably lower the barrier to understanding.

Where does the electronic edition of this book come from, and are there restrictions on its use?

According to the information, this book is published by Project Gutenberg as part of its free ebook project, with version information marked as 2019. Project Gutenberg aims to provide public-domain electronic texts, which are generally free to read and cite, though specific use should still follow the platform's terms of use.

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About the author

Le Queux, William, 1864-1927 Author

William Le Queux (1864–1927) was a British writer of popular fiction, with 74 of his works held in this collection. He is best known for invasion-scare and spy-adventure stories; The Invasion of 1910, which depicts a German invasion of Britain and the siege of London, drew considerable attention in its day, and The Great War in England in 1897 belongs to the same vein. His other works centre on mystery, intrigue and international espionage, such as The Zeppelin Destroyer, The Secrets of Potsdam, The Closed Book: Concerning the Secret of the Borgias and The Golden Face: A Great ‘Crook’ Romance, all marked by tight plotting and dense suspense. Le Queux often set fictional crises against real places to create a sense of urgency, and his work had some influence on the development of early spy fiction and thrillers. Public information is limited, so biographical details are not elaborated here.