Rasputin (Get a Life) - Softcover

Shukman, Harold

3.44

125 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0750915293 ISBN 13: 9780750915298

Publisher: Sutton Pub Ltd, 1997

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Gregory Rasputin figures in Russian history as a malign and destructive force, a man with an unhealthy influence on the Empress Alexandra and undue power in Russian politics. Yet, his purposes were ostensibly beneficent. An uneducated peasant, he left Siberia to become a wandering holy man and soon acquired a reputation as a healer. The empress was desperate to find a cure for the hemophilia from which her son Alexei suffered, and in 1905 Rasputin was presented at court. His positive effect on the heir's health made him indispensable. But his religious teachings were unorthodox, and his charismatic presence aroused in many ladies of the St Petersburg aristocracy an exalted response, which he exploited sexually. Shady financial dealings added to the atmosphere of debauchery and scandal, and he was also seen as a political threat. He was assassinated in 1916.

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From AudioFile:

Two nonfiction titles from ISIS profile fascinating men of the early part of this century. Both feature literate texts, the voices of British-sounding readers, dark sound quality and sloppy edits. Martyn Read delivers FREUD as if narrating a travelogue, imposing a phony BBC accent over his cockney and mispronouncing many of the long words. Nigel Graham does far better with the "Mad Monk," scrupulously rendering the Russian names and adopting a more appropriate style for historical narration. Y.R. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

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