The Phantom Of The Opera – Gaston Leroux
Phantom Of The Opera - Gaston Leroux
Top 100 Book: I thought it was number 100, but I got the wrong book! So not in the Top 100
Star Rating:: ****
Quick Review::
The Paris Opera House, early 1900's is mysteriously "haunted" by O.G, the Opera Ghost.
This novel written in a detective Style follows the story of the Christine Daae and her twisted love triangle with the Opera Ghost and Raoul.
Its a pretty gritty novel with love, murder, jealousy, rage, mystery and horror. It's interesting to know that this is based on true facts and the author spent a lot of time investigating the Paris Opera House!
Detailed Review:: *SLIGHT PLOT SPOILERS*
As many of you will know, The Phantom Of The Opera is both a successful West end Musical and more recently a film. I have not seen the film but have seen the musical and the book is a lot darker than the musical, much to my delight!
This is essentially a detective novel with Leroux compiling notes and including real narrations from the characters so it feels at times as if you are reading a dossier of kinds. To begin with you can't possibly believe it is based on real facts but it turns out that our "Phantom" is no more than an illusionist, and a very good one at that!
The story starts out when two new managers take over the running of the Opera house and receive a series of friendly threats from the Opera Ghost, O.G, demanding money, his famous box 5, which was to be solely reserved for his use. At first the managers refuse to take this seriously and ignore the warnings, much to horrific consequences. This is all intertwined with the story of Christine Daae, the opera singer being personally mentored by the so called Opera Ghost. Her heart belongs to Raoul, but she is being kept against her will be the Opera Ghost who worships her.
A large part of the story focuses on Raoul and the mysterious Persian pursuing the Opera Ghost and trying to locate his whereabouts in the giant maze that is the underground of the opera house. The Opera Ghost lives in a house on the lake deep down underground in the opera house. It is very cleverly written and very tense.
A very interesting story which is incredibly gripping and enjoyable to read. Although there are a lot of characters in the book Leroux characterises the main few incredibly well and you manage to feel sympathy for the murdering Opera Ghost, the confused Christine Daae and the lovesick Raoul. Leroux has very cleverly written this semi-true novel. A relatively short read but packed full of a range of emotions and a gripping and compelling storyline. Well worth a read, and as i said much darker than the musical!
October 16th, 2009 - 14:08
Did you know that we are now entering the 100th anniversary of the PHANTOM story? The first installment of Gaston Leroux’s novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra appeared in Le Gaulois, the French paper in which the novel was initially serialized, from September 1909 to January 1910 prior to publication in book format in 1910.
To celebrate this achievement, a brand new Phantom Twitter stream has been launched to spread the word of the centenary and the latest news and developments concerning the Opera Ghost. Eventually it is hoped the stream will be used to release exciting new ongoing research currently being undertaken into the novel and all its subsequent adaptations in areas never previously explored. The more fans who join the stream, the better, so we can spread word of the centenary to the wider world and draw attention to all things Phantom!
Please follow by going to http://twitter.com/fantomedelopera , logging in/signing up and clicking ‘Follow’. Followers will be rewarded by some exclusive news and updates!