Most later versions shift the focus to be less on Raoul and much more on Christine and the Phantom. Raoul’s story is intercut with the almost unrelated account of the Opera’s managers as they try to cope with the pranks and extortion of the Opera Ghost. Raoul eventually finds himself contending with Erik, a skeletal, masked man who lives below the Opera Garnier, posing as a ghost. From this angle, it becomes a story of the young nobleman trying to unravel the mystery of what’s going on with Christine Daaé, opera singer and love interest. On the surface, the story is essentially as it is in later versions, although Leroux’s focus is a little different than most, putting much more of the spotlight on Raoul. This time, I found myself fascinated by how uncertain an account it really is – more than most books, Leroux’s Phantom has the potential to be completely altered depending on how much we trust the narrators, and I wonder how this influenced all those later versions. The second and possible third times, I was comparing to numerous other versions and also looking for ideas for my own version of the story. The first time I was entirely new to the story, and hadn’t seen or read any other version. I’ve read it at least twice (probably three times?) before, but it’s been a few years since my last read.
The Phantom of the Opera has become the source for numerous adaptations, including the 1925 film starring Lon Chaney and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony Award-winning musical.As part of the Phantom Reading & Viewing Challenge I’m hosting this year (you can still join us!) in February I reread the story that began it all, Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera. First published in 1910, the Phantom’s obsessive and consuming love for the beautiful young chorus girl Christine has captivated readers, film goers and musical theater fanatics for over 100 years. Modern audiences are well acquainted with Gaston Leroux’s infamous Phantom of the Opera, the tale of Erik, a horrifically disfigured man who lives in the underground beneath the Paris Opera House, where his creative genius mingles – and festers – with madness. An exceptional rarity of this cornerstone work. The dust jacket design with the Phantom on the stairwell and not the bell tower on the front panel one of only three total examples of the book known to have retained its dust jacket. Near fine in the rare original dust jacket. Illustrated by Andre Castaigne with one single-page and four double-page inserted plates with color illustrations. Octavo, original cloth, publishers tissue guard.
New York, Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1911.įirst edition with the printer’s imprint “Press of Braunworth & Co.
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