Rasputin the Rascal Monk: Disclosing the Secret Scandal of the Betrayal of Russia by the mock-monk Grichka and the consequent ruin of the Romanoffs. ... revealed and recorded for the first time.

by William Le Queux

First published in 1917, "Rasputin the Rascal Monk" is a study of Rasputin and his influence over the Russian royal family during the latter years of the Romanov Dynasty. Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (1869 - 1916) was a Russian mystic and holy man famous for his familiarity with the family of Tsar Nicholas II. He was a controversial character, viewed by some as a mystic, visionary, and prophet; and by others as a religious charlatan. Nonetheless, he garnered significant influence in late imperial Russia. He was assassinated by a group of conservative noblemen who opposed his influence over the Tsars in 1916. Contents include: "Why this Book was Written," "The Cult of the 'Sister-Disciples'," "Scandals at the Winter Palace," "How Rasputin Poisoned the Tsarevitch," "The 'Hidden Hand' of Berlin," "Rasputin's Secret Orders from Berlin," "Rasputin's Secret Instructions from Berlin," "The Plot to Spread Epidemics in Russia," "The Mock-Monk Unmasked," etc. Many vintage book such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern edition complete with the original text and artwork.

146 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1917

About the author

Novelist William Tufnell Le Queux was born in London on 2 July 1864. His father, also William of Chateauroux, Indre, was a French draper's assistant and his mother was English.

He was educated in Europe and studied art under Ignazio Spiridon in Paris. He walked extensively in France and Germany and supported himself for a time writing for French newspapers. It was one of his sensational stories in The Petit Journal that attracted the attention of the French novelist Emile Zola and it was supposedly he who encouraged Le Queux to become a full-time writer.

In the late 1880s he returned to London where he edited the Gossip and Piccadilly magazines before joining the staff of The Globe newspaper in 1891 as a parliamentary reporter. But he resigned in 1893 and decided to abandon journalism to concentrate on writing and travelling. And his extensive travelling saw him visit Russia, the Near East, North Africa, Egypt and the Sudan and in 1912–13 he was a correspondent in the Balkan War for the Daily Mail. On his travels he found it necessary to become an expert revolver shot.

His first book was Guilty Bonds (1891), which concentrated on political conspiracy in Russia to such a degree that it was subsequently banned in that country. A series of short stories Strange Tales of a Nihilist followed in 1892 and from then on he was producing books on a regular basis until his death, and beyond, as a number of posthumous works were published.

His works mainly related to espionage activity and it was said that he was employed for a number of years as a member of the British Secret Service, where he was an expert on wireless transmission. He did claim to have been the first wireless experimenter to have broadcast from his station at Guildford in 1920/21 and he was president of the Wireless Experimental Association and a member of the Institute of Radio Engineers.

He stated at one time that he began writing to help finance his work for British Intelligence for whom he was required to undertake much travelling and to make personal contact with royalty and other high-ranking people. He recorded some of the latter meetings in his autobiography entitled Things I Know about Kings, Celebrities and Crooks (1923).

He was at one time Consul of the Republic of San Marino and he possessed Italian, Serbian and Montenegrin decorations. He was also a keen collector of medieval manuscripts and monastic seals.

However, all his activities did not stop him turning out novel after novel and at the time of his death he had well over 100 books to his credit.

After several weeks' illness, he died at Knocke, Belgium, in the early hours of 13 October 1927. His body was returned to England and on 19 October he was cremated at Golders Green with the Reverend Francis Taylor of Bedford conducting the service, which was attended by Le Queux's brother and a few intimate friends. (Gerry Wolstenholme, January 2013)

Reviews

[Jeff Elliott]

Certainly a biased piece of work. The author almost refuses to use Rasputin's name and emphasized the dirty, unclean hands. His bias makes it difficult to know how much is true. Le Queux labels Rasputin as a German agent along with the Tsar's wife whom was partial to him. I learned a lot about Rasputin knowing almost nothing going in. However, now I find that I need to read more to find some kind of balance; usually the truth lies between...

[Uilliam Clarke]

Rasputin: The Rascal Monk
This book is over 109 years old. Written by William Le Queux in 1917,
I really enjoyed reading how someone’s mind worked 100+ years ago and seeing his perception of history and perspective.

Reading it, I realised how historically incorrect he was on many things. Then I realised this book was just propaganda about Germany and Grigori Rasputin. How so? He got so many things wrong.

Grigori Rasputin was never a German spy and was never paid by Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. Rasputin didn’t shoot and killed someone with a revolver. Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna didn’t write secret letters to Kaiser Wilhelm, hoping for Russia’s downfall and Germany’s victory in the war. Rasputin wasn’t slowly poisoning Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich to death. Rasputin wasn’t praying for Russia’s poor and working class to die of starvation. In fact, he did the opposite — he begged and wrote letters to Tsar and Tsarina Nicholas and Alexandra to feed them by releasing more bags of grain, oats, and bread, but was ignored by Tsar Nicholas. Rasputin didn’t groom his hair or style it like the elite classes of Russia. He was given the moniker “dirty monk,” which isn’t true. He did look after his hygiene. It wasn’t until leading up to his death that his hygiene declined because of fear and paranoia, as he knew his days were numbered.
Even William Le Queux’s account of Rasputin’s death was sketchy compared to the truth.

It seems the only thing William got right was that, yes, Rasputin did abuse his power once he arrived in the capital of Russia. He did believe that to get closer to God was to sin. Rasputin was a vivid sex addict and alcoholic.

I did some research into William Le Queux and discovered he was notorious for spreading lies, misinformation, and propaganda in his writing and history books. That said, it was a very fun read. 😅

[Kimberly Danielle]

As with any "old-time" book as I call them, the writing style makes it hard to focus. It's like sitting in a room with a British historian telling past events as a story that isn't very interesting. Which sucks because I'm very interested in the story of Rasputin and the Romanoff family. This book wasn't for me, and I will be reading a different book in the near future from a more modern author, for sure.