3 h 23 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 3 h 23 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if beauty draws you closer to the very thing you should fear?
In The Mystery of a Turkish Bath, Rita draws you into a Gothic world of drawing rooms and shadowy places. Hidden secrets, strange powers and dangerous attraction drive the story. Secrecy shapes the suspense, while the pull of the uncanny makes beauty feel less like a comfort than a warning.
This 1888 tale belongs to the Victorian tradition of sensation fiction, where strong emotion and mystery hold the reader close. Occult powers bring an unsettling edge to its world of secrets and society. Expect atmosphere and heightened feeling rather than the brisk realism of a thriller: the pleasure lies in feeling curiosity and unease grow together.
What you’ll discover
- Secrets beneath the surface Enter a story where hidden things feed suspense and give curiosity a fearful edge.
- The pull of the occult Explore the unsettling attraction of strange powers and the possibility of unseen forces.
- Beauty with a warning Discover how dangerous attraction turns beauty into a source of unease rather than reassurance.
- Drawing rooms and shadows Move through a Gothic world whose atmosphere holds secrecy and fear close together.
- Emotion at full strength Let Rita's sensational storytelling draw you toward mystery through strong feeling and suspense.
Who will love it
You will love this if you enjoy Victorian ghost tales, hotel gossip with a sharp comic edge, Eastern mysteries, and a doomed romance full of dreams and trances.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Gossip fills the hotel baths
- A stranger refuses easy answers
- The possible becomes an open question
- Recognition turns gossip into danger
- Old love meets personal responsibility
- A promise binds love to fear
- Belief must answer to conduct
- Love carries a spiritual cost
- Love and duty remain in tension
Who’s who
- Princess ZairoffA tall, dark, widowed beauty who travels with artists and studies occult science, she hopes to learn what she has forgotten of her past.
- Julian EstcourtA cool, scholarly colonel home from India on sick leave, he has loved the Princess since childhood and wants to marry her.
- Mrs. Ray JeffersonA quick-talking, fashionable American who loves gossip, gowns and arguments, and who cannot rest until she learns the stranger's story.
- Mrs. MastermanA gouty, sharp-tongued widow who scorns spiritualism and occult teaching and distrusts every mysterious person.
- Orval MolyneuxA young poet at the hotel who falls headlong for the Princess and writes sonnets to her.
- Mr. Ray JeffersonAn American inventor with a chemical fortune, he listens calmly, prefers poker, and is told to use his wealth to help others.
- DiogenesA surly guest nicknamed after the philosopher, he speaks rarely, gives original opinions, and dislikes spirits being made to perform tricks.
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The Mystery of a Turkish Bath
by Rita · 1888
A striking beauty steps into a hotel's Turkish bath, and one American gossip cannot stop asking who she is.
Medium levelUnder 2 hours to read20 languages
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“Every life must live itself out and work out for itself the higher mysteries locked within its own consciousness.”
In short
What would you do if the most beautiful woman you had ever seen walked into a steaming bath room and began to take apart everything you believed? That is the first scene of The Mystery of a Turkish Bath, a short Gothic tale by Rita, set in a winter resort in Hampshire.
The Mystery of a Turkish Bath at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h1 h 35 min fast, 2 h 20 min slow
- Length
- 28,000 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1888by Rita
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A grand hotel full of fashionable invalids
The tale opens in Room Number One of the Turkish Bath, attached to a vast hotel at a winter resort in Hampshire. A company of speculators built it, hoping English people would see that their own coast could rival the spas of Wiesbaden or the Riviera. The baths are fitted out with something close to Oriental luxury.
On a December morning about half a dozen women sit there in plain cotton garments, sweating and complaining. Mrs. Masterman is a widow with real gout and a fierce temper. Mrs. Ray Jefferson is a small, restless American who claims a worse form of the same disease. She is the best dressed woman in the hotel, and even in the baths she designs outfits.
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Details
- First published
- 1888
- Language
- English
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Rita. The Mystery of a Turkish Bath. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-mystery-of-a-turkish-bath.
Rita. (2026). The mystery of a Turkish bath. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-mystery-of-a-turkish-bath (Original work published 1888)
Rita. The Mystery of a Turkish Bath. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-mystery-of-a-turkish-bath.
@book{rita2026mystery,
author = {Rita},
title = {The Mystery of a Turkish Bath},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-mystery-of-a-turkish-bath},
note = {First published 1888}
}
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What is The Mystery of a Turkish Bath about?
It follows a beautiful, unnamed woman who appears in the hot rooms of an English hotel spa. She talks about religion, the soul and the occult, and is soon revealed to be an old love of a colonel.
Who is Princess Zairoff?
She is the mysterious stranger, a widowed Russian princess with Eastern blood on her mother's side. She studies occult science, has trance powers and is an old friend of Colonel Estcourt from their childhood in India.
When was The Mystery of a Turkish Bath written, and is it a true story?
It is a work of fiction from the late nineteenth century, written by Rita. It uses real passing interests of the time, such as spiritualism and Theosophy, and real politics like Gladstone, but the characters are invented.
The author
Rita
1850–1938 · Scottish novelist, editor
Rita (1850–1938) was a Scottish novelist, editor. The library has The Mystery of a Turkish Bath.
“Every life must live itself out and work out for itself the higher mysteries locked within its own consciousness.”
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