The Phantom of the Opera: The Original Novel | Gaston Leroux

The Phantom of the Opera: The Original Novel | Gaston Leroux | The Persian - An Unlikely Hero

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The Phantom of the...

	The Phantom of the Opera: The Original Novel Gaston Leroux Harper Perennial, 1988 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 215 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Completely different than the musical!!!!!!!

We studied the libretto of the musical in music class. I decided to read the novel. The musical is good, but the book shows how much of the story is changed. There are so many differences. Plus Erik's entire body is deformed. In the musical it's just his face. Also in the musical a line says: like yellow parchment is his skin a great black holes serves as the nose which never grew. His face in the musical doesn't look like that. Another thing is that Christine is crueler than in the musical. Overall the book rocked. I am a huge Phantom Phan!!!!!!!!

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The Persian - An Unlikely Hero

As a huge fan of the new musical that came out in 2004, I decided to buy the original novel expecting it to be different, but also expecting it to be equal or better to the film performance. I was not disappointed. While this review isn't about the film but the novel, I am comparing them because the film was what initially led me to read the novel. Since the novel was converted into a musical it had a different approach to the humanity of the Phantom. In the film there is alot of Madame Giry as the link between the opera performers and the Phantom, but in the novel, it is the Persian. The old saying that the book is always better than the film is true here, and the characters have much more depth than they do in the film because of the role that this Persian character plays. He brings out the best and the worst of the Phantom while being the indespensable ally to Raul and Christine, which also brings out the horror and humanity of the Phantom. This is the true Phantom of the Opera, and anyone who enjoyed the film will only appreciate it more with the addition of this highly unusual character. I highly recommend this book. It is an easy read that is appreciated most with time and reflection.

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WOW!

Since I was about 6 years old, I've had all the music memorized from the broadway musical 'Phantom of the Opera', and maybe a year or two later I saw the silent version of the film... terrifying! I think that the phantom from the silent film lived under my bed for several years.... he still might, and maybe a year or two after that I saw the version with Nelson Eddy in it.But when I finally got around to reading this book just this year, I was astounded! I didn't expect for it to be such a good read... it was a page-turner, and I already knew the outcome! As I turned every page, I kept saying to myself: why haven't I ever read this before? I was so pleasantly surprised by this book. So this is why they call it a classic...

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Great Beginning. Great End. Boring In Between

"The Phantom of the Opera" is a beautiful story: well-conceived, inspiring, overwhelming, original images. It starts off in a great way, and the ending is a tear-jerker. There were too much details in the middle ,however, describing The Persian's and Raoul's attempts to reach the abducted Chrisitine. These "boring: details also stray the reader from the heart of the story, and you couldn't help wondering sometimes if you are reading a boyish adventure book, or a deep novel about human struggle. Although all the events of the movie and the musicals were derived from the novel, they were able to do what Leroux missed: focus on the characters and deeply explore their emotional turmoil. The Phantom of the Opera is a great story, that could've been better written and handled (however the movie and musical well-compensated this deficiency).

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Help

This answers things I did not understand from the movie. It is hard to imagine how ugly the Phantom is supposed to be because there is no way to Make Gerard Butler ugly. The problem with a handsom, sexy Phantom is that it is hard to understand why Christine didn't chose him. But the book does show the Phantom's great love for Christine. The story is hard to follow sometimes but hang in there because it is a fairly good story.

reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

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