About the Book

The Phantom of the Opera (Le Fantome de l'Opera in its original French) was first published in 1910 by French journalist and novelist Gaston Leroux. Prior to its publication, Leroux was a well-known freelance foreign correspondant whose articles were just as much entertaining and dramatic as they were informative. Leroux had also published several novels previously, but most of them, with the notable exceptions of his Joseph Rouletabille and Cheri-Bibi stories, were unremarkable works that were quickly forgotten. Phantom, however, proved to be an extremely popular novel...but in England and America, not in his native France.

Leroux himself plays a role in the story as the journalist who is investigating rumors that a ghost once haunted the Paris Opera House back in the 1870’s. The narrative unfolds as a reconstruction of events using testimonials from the managers who had direct dealings with the Opera Ghost as well as the accounts of the engimatic Daroga, the Persian chief of police who knew the real identity of the Phantom of the Opera. These sources are supplemented by papers that Christine Daae herself left behind at the time she and Vicomte Raoul de Chagny disappeared. All of these accounts are woven together to form a haunting story of love, obsession, tragedy, and a longing for redemption.

By the time the journalist finishes his research, he concludes that the Opera Ghost did, indeed, exist and that the sad and ironic story of his life should move one to pity, not horror. But the ultimate decision is always left to the reader—what do you think of Erik’s story?