10 h 19 minAudiobook11 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 10 h 19 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Where does loyalty belong when public secrets pull against private love?
In The Czar's Spy, William Le Queux brings together espionage, secrets and a love that cannot speak. This Edwardian thriller draws you into a world of foreign plots and hidden loyalties, where private feeling sits uneasily beside public intrigue. The pull comes from danger, but also from uncertainty about whom to trust.
First published in 1905, the novel belongs to an age when secret agents and threats against the nation grip British readers. Le Queux works in a tradition of concealed identities, dangerous errands and fast scenes. As you read, watch how loyalty becomes a question of country, cause, ruler or person.
What you’ll discover
- Secrets beneath the surface Enter a world where hidden identities and foreign plots make trust feel uncertain.
- Love under pressure Follow the pull of private feeling set against the demands of public secrecy.
- Loyalties that divide Consider what allegiance means when a ruler, a country, a cause or a person makes competing claims.
- An Edwardian atmosphere Explore the fears of foreign agents and intrigue that shape this period of spy fiction.
- The lure of danger Discover the appeal of a thriller tradition built on dangerous errands and concealed truths.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy Edwardian adventure, secret agents, disguises, hidden fortresses and chases through forests, and who like a mystery that keeps adding new faces and new places from chapter to chapter.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A wrecked yacht and a charming host
- Strange sights aboard the Lola
- The safe is opened and the yacht vanishes
- A friend who knows too much
- A trap in Lambeth and a girl in Scotland
- Murder in Rannoch Wood
- The dead man alive, and a search for Elma
- Across the Baltic to a fortress of terror
- Facing the Strangler
- How the book is told and what drives it
Who’s who
- Gordon GreggAn English writer living in Leghorn who tells the story and follows a puzzling yacht and a girl's photograph across Europe.
- Elma HeathA young woman with a dangerous secret, hunted by powerful enemies and kept silent against her will.
- Martin WoodroffeA charming, fair-bearded man who goes by several names and who is close to the Leithcourt family.
- Muriel LeithcourtA bright, dark-eyed girl who hides a deep fear and wants to learn what has happened to her friend.
- Jack DurnfordA Royal Marines captain and Gregg's old friend, who knows more about the yacht than he dares to say.
- Olinto SantiniGregg's former Tuscan servant, who lies, warns and pleads, and who is tied to a plot he fears to name.
- Baron Xavier ObergThe feared Governor-General of Finland, who wants Elma's silence and controls a fortress prison.
- Otto KampfThe Red Priest, a hidden leader of Russian revolutionaries who shelters those hunted by the state.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 10 h 19 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 11 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Der Spion des Zaren in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Der Spion des Zaren
by William Le Queux · 1905
A friendly yachtsman dines an English consul on a luxury yacht in Leghorn, and by morning the consulate safe is open.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Czar's Spy is an adventure novel of mystery and espionage by William Le Queux, an author who wrote many thrillers in the years before the First World War. It is told by Gordon Gregg, an Englishman who lives in the Tuscan port of Leghorn and, for a few hot weeks, stands in for the vice-consul there.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A wrecked yacht and a charming host
The story opens in Leghorn in mid-July. Gordon Gregg, an English writer living nearby, is filling in as pro-consul while the vice-consul, Frank Hutcheson, is on leave. The old interpreter Francesco Carducci tells him that an English steam yacht has run aground on the Meloria shoal. The harbor captain suspects her crew tried to lose the ship on purpose.
The owner calls at the consulate. He gives his name as Philip Hornby, of Woodcroft Park in Somerset, and he is a cheerful, well-spoken man of about forty-five. He asks Gregg to write polite letters of thanks in Italian to the admiral and the harbor captain. Gregg likes him at once and goes with him for vermouth in the main square.
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What is The Czar's Spy about?
It follows Gordon Gregg, an Englishman in Italy, who is drawn into a mystery by a suspicious yacht, a stolen set of keys and a photograph of a girl. His search leads him to Scotland, Finland and Russia.
Who wrote The Czar's Spy and when?
William Le Queux wrote it. He was a prolific English author of spy and adventure novels in the Edwardian years, and the book draws on the public's interest in Russia, revolutionaries and secret agents in that period.
Who is Elma Heath?
She is the young woman in the torn photograph. Gregg first sees her face in a picture, then goes looking for her after a strange letter reaches him, and she proves to be at the center of the plot.
The author
William Le Queux
1864–1927 · Anglo-French novelist
William Le Queux (1864–1927) was an Anglo-French writer born in London. He died in Knokke, Belgium. He wrote novels about espionage, crime and war. His books include The Great War in England in 1897, published in 1894, and The Czar’s Spy, published in 1905. He also worked with radio.
More by William Le Queux
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