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

The Phantom of the Opera: The Original Novel | Gaston Leroux | This is the BEST!

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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

My Favorite Book of Alll Time!

The Phantom of the Opera was a chilhood ghost story told to me when I was very young. As I got older I discovered that this "ghost story" was an actual book and really took an interest in reading it, but just never seemed to find the time until I got to college and decided to read it as my English assignment. I was completely consumed into the world of the Paris Opera House.
This is the story of a beautiful young soprano named Christine Daae, her childhood friend and love interest, Raoul de Chaney, and her mysterious teacher named Erik. Christine is just another ballerina and chorus girl who has lived and performed at the Paris Opera House since her father died when she was a small child. Papa Daae was a violin player and promised his daughter, whom he called Little Lotte, that when he passed on he would send her an angel to make her musically gifted; he called this angel the "angel of music". Finally, years after Papa Daae's death, Christine hears a quiet, distant voice singing to her. Believeing that this is the angel sent by her father, the voice teaches her to sing. Little does Christine know, her "angel of music" is actually the most feared creature at the Paris Opera House... The Phantom of the Opera! The Phantom (also known as Erik) is a disfigured madman with numerous gifts and talents who has been wrongly treated and feared throughout his entire life. But through the fear and compassion of The Persion, Erik has escaped execution and hidden himself away in the Opera House where he plans to finish his musical masterpiece, "Don Juan Triumphant", and then die peacfully... until he sees Christine Daae. Erik coaches Christine in helping her perfect her singing talents and soon falls madly in love with her, while she becomes the most popular soprano at the Opera. Becoming so popular, she re-catches the eye of her childhood friend Raoul De Chaney. Seeing Raoul catch the eye of his beloved student, Erik becomes angry and tells Christine that if she wishes to continue her lessons with the angel of music she must not love anyone except him. Believeing this is the angel from her father, she cannot refuse his offer. Also angry, Raoul sets out to find out why Christine refuses him. All the while, Erik grows more in love with Christine until it drives him absolutely mad and he decides to let her see him... with his mask on of course. On the night of their meeting, Christine is captivated by her angel and becomes so overwhelmed by her emotions that the faints, so Erik carries her to his lair. Christine is awakened by Erik's beautiful music and becomes so consumed by his music that she feels she must see her angel's face and snatches his mask away. This small mistake causes Christine and Erik's world to unravel. Erik feels that since Christine has seen his face that she will forever fear him and he must come up with another way to make her stay with him. Christine is hurt by the fact that her teacher was not her father's angel and secretly confides in her friend Raoul. Christine knows that she cannot leave her teacher becuase she fears what he will do if she tries, so Raoul comes up with a plan to save his love from fear and unhappiness, but nothing can stay hidden from the Opera Ghost.
Even though Erik is an evil madman, I could not help but still feel compassion for this lonley, mistreated creature. Even though he was treated well by the Persion and Madam Giry, they helped him out of fear, rather than compassion. To be truthful, Erik broke my heart. I cried all the way through this book. This is without a doubt my favorite book of all time. It is so exciting, heartbreaking, and mysterious that I could not stop turning the pages.

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This is the BEST!

Okay, everyone has there own opinions of the different versions of POTO, but this is the book that started it all. Had Leroux not come up with this tale, none of the other adaptions would have been made (probably). I know I would be desperate to find another obssession to ocupy my time w/o it. Besides, it's a phantastic read! You should be proud of this legend. I love how different it is from all the other famous works like "Les Miserabs" and "Orthello".
I fell in love with the character of Erik in this book, despite how horrifyingly ugly and creepy he is. and no, i don't mean Gerard Butler.
Unlike the fanfix, Christine, Raoul, AND Erik all have character in Leroux's book. The plot is interesting and will keep you satisfied. I know I cried in the end and parts sent chills up my spine.
Trust me, this book is worth it and is a lot cheaper than other versions.

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Not that great

I bought this book after seeing the broadway show a few times and watching the movies.
The book to me was all over the place in focus. Drifting back and forth. Raoul is such a winy wimp in the book and Christine is almost evil in the way she treats both the Phantom and Raoul.
The only thing I can say is that if you are a fan of the broadway show or the movies, this book clears up some questions and details that you miss in the show and movies.
All in all it's a great story idea, poorly written.

I expected more

I love this story and have seen the stage production twice. When I started Gaston Leroux's story, I expected it to be spectacular, but it was written more in the style of one of the author's newspaper articles than a novel. I didn't get much sense of the character's "inner lives".

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