The Phantom of the Opera description

‘The Phantom of the Opera’ was originally written by French writer Gaston Leroux and was first published in 1909. Although today this novel is considered as one of the French classics but initially it’s sale was very poor.

In 1911, this novel was translated into English and this novel is a gothic novel with romance, mystery, horror and tragedy combined together. ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ is based on a true story and in the starting it is presented like a factual report and it seems the author has written exactly as he was told by the people of that time.The information is gathered from various sources like anecdotal evidences along with the letters and diaries and most of them are actually based on facts. Leroux’s novel is set on the Opera Garnier, which has a story behind its construction. For the construction of the opera it was important to pump the underground water out and this seems to have disturbed a mysterious ghost who caused destruction when disappointed or disturbed.

Some of the employees even claimed that they had actually seen the ghost and it had a head of fire without body that was covered in a dress suit.The ghost it seems is a musical genius who is deformed in a horrible manner and he gives vocal lessons to a ballet dancer, Christine Daae through her dressing room’s wall. Due to these lessons Christine improves a lot and one day when the main lead of the play fells ill and Christine replaces her role, she stuns the audience by her performance. The story is mostly about this girl and the phantom that she calls the “Angle of music”. The real name of this phantom is Erik and he lives in the lake, which is below the opera house.

The story is all n relation to Christine, Erik and Christine’s childhood friend, Raoul.Christine and Raoul are romantically related and Erik loves Christine and finds that she is the only one who is polite to him and understands him too. These all make a triangular love interests among them and includes drama, mystery and suspense along with tragedy and few moments of horror too in the story. The two managers collapsed in their chairs and dared not even turn round; they had not the strength; the ghost was chuckling behind their backs! And, at last, they distinctly eard his voice in their right ears, the impossible voice, the mouthless voice, saying: “She Is Singing To-Night To Bring The Chandelier Down! With one accord, they raised their eyes to the ceiling and uttered a terrible cry. The chandelier, the immense mass of the chandelier was slipping down, coming towards them, at the call of that fiendish voice. (The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux, Page 76) Leroux wanted to put everything in his novel that would create interest in the reader and in the beginning of the novel he also tells the methods he chose to research about the host; the interviews, the letters, diaries etc.

Leroux, it seems wanted to depict the real story with spices of mystery, horror and romance triangle so that the reader finds it interesting and his novel gets appreciated. As far as considering the achievement of his attempt, it is true that initially the novel was not appreciated and understood but now its musical is the Broadway which is the longest running one and is considered as most profitable and rewarding entertainer. There have been many editions of the original novel ill date and also lot of adaptations right from plays to movies.However the adaptations have not done complete justice to the novel and they are just near to the intention of the original novel.

Although the research work is genuine and the efforts of Leroux worthwhile, yet the novel, ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ is quite difficult to read and understand. As the names of the characters and places are in French and this makes the real flow of reading difficult. The book is written keeping in mind the Paris of late nineteenth century and it goes around France in flashbacks too.The plot of the story is based on a bad love story because Erik, the ghost forcefully tries to achieve Christine and also tries to kill her lover Raoux. He teaches her to sing as he falls in love with her and when he finds her in love with other man, he causes destruction and chaos in the opera house. There are also French phrases used in the book which makes it all the more difficult to read and figure out.

Leroux wrote this book with the intention of revealing the stories of the opera of nineteenth century Paris and based it on a real story but it became a complete entertaining ovel with everything interesting added to it.To prove that it is a true story, the narrator reveals all the letters and interviews of the people of the time of the novel in the beginning of the book. He writes in the prologue, The opera ghost really existed. He was not, as was long believed, a creature of the imagination of the artists, the superstition of the managers, or a product of the absurd and impressionable brains of the young ladies of the ballet, their mothers, the box-keepers, the cloak-room attendants or the concierge.Yes, he existed in flesh and blood, although he assumed the complete appearance of a real phantom; that is to say, of a spectral shade.

(The Phantom of the Opera, Prologue, Page 1) However, ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ was more successful as a movie than the original novel. But some are of the opinion that the novel was better and the movie is little different from the original story. Nevertheless ‘The Phantom of the Opera musical’ has been quite successfully running throughout and is considered longest in the Broadway shows.The main character of the novel, Erik is a sensitive soul and a romantic figure too. He is an object of pity at one time and at other times he is quite dangerous. Leroux balances sympathy with terror and esteem with horror through Erik in the whole story.

One thing that is not made clear is that who is the narrator of the story. The readers assume that it is the writer who researches and writes the story but it is not made clear. One more thing that haunts every now and then is that the writer has something else going on in his mind and he has not pen down all his thoughts and imagination.