Filled with the spectacle of the Paris Opera House in the nineteenth century, this classic work of suspense remains a riveting journey into the dark regions of the human heart. The tale begins as an investigation into the strange stories of an “Opera ghost,” legendary for scaring performers as they sit alone in their dressing rooms or walk along the building’s labyrinthine corridors. Some even … corridors. Some even think they’ve seen the ghost in evening clothes moving in the shadows. But it isn’t until the triumphant performance of beautiful soprano Christine Daaé that the Phantom begins his attacks—striking terror in the hearts of everyone in the theater. A story that has captured the imagination for a century, The Phantom of the Opera continues to this day as an unparalleled work of sheer entertainment.
With an Introduction by Dr. John L. Flynn
and an Afterword by J.R. Ward
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This one’s hit and miss. Leroux basically wrote a turgid potboiler, with a villain who sometimes comes across like Snidely Whiplash. The “hero” of the tale is an imbecile who would solve the mystery in two minutes if he and his girlfriend, Christine, would just talk to each other.
One the other hand, there are scenes, images, and lines that rise far above the mundanity. In his best scenes, Erik is an unforgettable character. The book is imperfect, but I still recommend it.
Phantom of the opera is one of a kind which shows mystery and yet romance that you cry in the end and think of how terrifying the whole situation was. Also inspiring with the movie’s creation and Broadway.
Great book – don’t just see the play, read and understand all the back story and feel the romance!
Much more to the book than we are able to get from the broadway production. The book makes me want to see the phantom on stage again. I understand the characters so much more after the book!
This book is an always-recommend, a favorite of mine since I was about twelve. Every year, I get the itch to read it again, and it never fails me. Choosing a favorite book is not easy, but for me, this book always leads the pack.
I read this book as one of my reading assignments for literature class. The musical, at the time, was one of my favorites, so I was happy to see this on my school’s summer reading list. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to my expectations.
Gaston Leroux has no shortage of slow pacing in this book. About every chapter or so, the plot shifts between the perspectives of Raoul (one of the dreadfully annoying main characters) and the background characters, who seem to serve more as fillers than anything. The chapters consist of about 10 to 20 pages of what’s happening between the main three (Christine, Raoul, and The Phantom) before stopping in the dead middle of the action to see how the background characters are doing. As you can probably guess, this becomes absolutely infuriating after the first ten times.
Now, on to the main three. Whiny. That is the first word that comes to mind when I think of these characters–or at least the two “love interests”, while Christine encourages the bratty behavior of both of them. From the moment we first meet Raoul, we can see that he is entirely head-over-heels for our leading lady and makes no attempt to hide it. In fact, after everyone leaves her dressing room, Raoul proceeds to hide in the shadows outside her door and eavesdrop on Christine’s conversation with another man, whom he never saw enter or exit the room (I wonder who it could possibly be? The Phantom?). Throughout the book, Raoul also questions if Christine really loves him, even though she openly expresses (on multiple occasions) that she does (but, screw that, she hasn’t run away with him yet, so she obviously doesn’t love him). So our male lead is not only a creepy stalker, but a whiny brat, who wants what he wants when he wants it (so dreamy, I can definitely see why he’s the main love interest).
You may be thinking, “Wow, Raoul sounds like such a horrible character. I bet The Phantom can’t be any worse than him.” And, honestly, I’d like to say you’re right. But, I can’t, because this character makes me want to rip every page out of this book and burn them one by one. The Phantom is your everyday “Sympathy Villain.” He was born so incredibly hideous, not even his own mother would kiss him… So he becomes bitter about life, tells an opera singer that he’s an angel her father told her about, then proceeds to kidnap her (How to Win over a Woman 101). If that’s not enough, he tortures Raoul and his own “best friend” by trapping them in a steaming room for hours and threatens to bomb the entire opera house and everyone in it if Christine doesn’t agree to marry him. He literally threatens to bomb the ENTIRE opera house, which would kill everyone, including himself. The only good thing I can say about this character is that he is one of the few sympathy characters that I personally feel no urge to feel sympathy for. I’m sure it was Leroux’s intention make us feel pity toward The Phantom, which I usually do with sympathy villains, but The Phantom gave me no urge to feel sympathy for him. He was an utterly horrible character with no redeeming qualities and, despite his sad upbringing, didn’t deserve sympathy after everything he’d done.
There’s an endless list of problems with this book, that I won’t get into, because I’d actually like to get some sleep tonight, but these are just several of the most prominent. I do not recommend ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ at all. If you do have to read it for school or any other reason, I recommend inviting a friend or two to read it with you, so you have a chance of not slamming your head into a wall over how incredibly irritating this story, its structure, and its characters are.
This book was pretty good, but I actually prefer the movie (Emmy Rossum, and Patrick Wilson). I thought the characters are actually much less developed in the book than in the film.