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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 60 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 60 pagesAbout this book
What if the cabin you share holds something no sensible traveller can explain?
In The Upper Berth, a man in a smoking room tells his friends about a strange sea crossing. Aboard the Kamtschatka, his cabin unsettles him. Fellow passengers warn that something is wrong. A chill and a sense of another presence test the ordinary traveller’s confidence in his own reason.
By the Waters of Paradise turns from the steamship to a gothic romance shadowed by fate. Together, these supernatural tales by F. Marion Crawford let dread gather through small, odd details. His voice stays calm and clear, even as familiar places begin to feel less safe and the ordinary world seems thin.
What you’ll discover
- A cabin that disturbs Enter a shipboard space where a chill makes the possibility of company deeply unwelcome.
- Reason under pressure Follow a sensible traveller as strange signs test his certainty about what he can trust.
- Romance beneath a shadow Discover a gothic love story whose dark atmosphere carries the weight of fate.
- Fear in small details Notice how Crawford builds unease quietly, letting one odd detail deepen the next.
- Ghosts close to home Explore a Victorian taste for supernatural fear tied to familiar places and guilt.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy ghost stories told by firelight, haunted ships and old castles, and tales where fear and tenderness share the same page.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A sceptic makes fear believable
- Pride keeps Brisbane inside the cabin
- The body meets what reason denies
- Two witnesses face the unknown
- A childhood prophecy becomes a curse
- A strange face awakens longing
- Margaret replaces gloomy fate with action
- Fear narrows life and love opens it
Who’s who
- BrisbaneA strong, sceptical sailor who dares to sleep in a cabin where passengers keep vanishing, and who tells the tale afterward.
- The DoctorThe ship's young Irish surgeon, who warns Brisbane to leave the cabin and refuses to meddle with ghosts.
- The CaptainA tough, cheerful seaman who joins Brisbane's watch to protect his passengers and the good name of his ship.
- RobertBrisbane's steward, who knows that the porthole of cabin one hundred and five cannot be kept shut and bets on it.
- Lord CairngormA melancholy young English lord, raised in a gloomy castle, who believes he is cursed and longs to see a ghostly face again.
- Margaret LammasA frank, cheerful young woman, called Daisy, who tells the lord to stop moping and to act on what he wants.
- JudithThe old Welsh nurse who speaks of coffins and of the Woman of the Water, and whose grim words seem to come true.
- Lady BluebellMargaret's deaf aunt and the lord's neighbour, who communicates through notes written on shirt cuffs and once knew his grandfather.
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The Upper Berth & By the Waters of Paradise
A ship's cabin where passengers keep vanishing, and a lord who falls in love with a ghost in his own garden.
Medium levelUnder 2 hours to read20 languages
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“The porthole was open wide again and fastened back!”
In short
Picture a dinner party gone flat. The cigars are lit, the talk has dried up, and then one guest says in a quiet, steady voice that he has seen a ghost.
The Upper Berth & By the Waters of Paradise at a glance
- Reading time
- About 1 h 10 min55 min fast, 1 h 25 min slow
- Length
- 16,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
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 dull dinner ends with a ghost claim
The Upper Berth opens at a dinner table where everything has gone stale. One guest has described a hunting trip in endless detail. An American has lectured on how a railroad is run. The narrator says the talk would have bored the figures of Greek myth.
Then a man named Brisbane asks for a cigar. He is thirty-five, over six feet tall, and far stronger than he looks. He cracks walnuts in his bare hands. When he says that he has seen a ghost, the whole table cries out in disbelief.
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A ship's cabin where passengers keep vanishing, and a lord who falls in love with a ghost in his own garden.
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Details
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 1 h 20 min
- Level
- Medium level
- Paperback
- 60 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Hardcover
- 60 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 96 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print hardcover
- 96 pages · 6 × 9 in
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For Christmas, order by Thu 12 Nov
Cite this edition
Crawford, F. Marion. The Upper Berth & By the Waters of Paradise. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-upper-berth-by-the-waters-of-paradise.
Crawford, F. M. (2026). The upper berth & By the waters of Paradise. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-upper-berth-by-the-waters-of-paradise
Crawford, F. Marion. The Upper Berth & By the Waters of Paradise. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-upper-berth-by-the-waters-of-paradise.
@book{crawford2026upper,
author = {Crawford, F. Marion},
title = {The Upper Berth \& By the Waters of Paradise},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-upper-berth-by-the-waters-of-paradise}
}
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What is The Upper Berth about?
It is a ghost story told by a sailor named Brisbane. He sleeps in cabin one hundred and five on an Atlantic liner, where passengers have gone overboard, and he tries to learn what haunts the room.
What is By the Waters of Paradise about?
It follows a melancholy young English lord who believes he is cursed since childhood.
Who is the Woman of the Water?
She is a figure from the Welsh nurse Judith's folklore, who lives in the castle fountains and, Judith says, carries off children. The lord calls to mind her image when he sees the face by the moon.
The author
F. Marion Crawford
1854–1909 · American novelist
Francis Marion Crawford (1854–1909) was an American novelist and short story writer. He was born in Bagni di Lucca, Italy, and lived in Sorrento, where he died. His novels include Mr. Isaacs (1882), Khaled: A Tale of Arabia (1891), and Stradella (1909). He also wrote supernatural short stories.
“The porthole was open wide again and fastened back!”
More by F. Marion Crawford
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