Search advanced search
 
Books
Search:
x dismiss this message

Did you know you can edit this page?

The Phantom of the Opera
  • Rated 0 stars
Read The Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera (1910) (edit title/settings)

by Gaston Leroux (Author) (edit contributors)

Share this book on:
see page history

Description edit see section history

The novel that inspired the Lon Chaney film and the hit musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Sightings of a ghostly figure in the Paris opera house lead to a discovery of a disfigured genius who secretly lives among its passageways and by the lake under the opera house.

Summary edit see section history

Christine Daaé's mother died when she was very young. She and her father, a famous violinist, traveled all over Sweden playing folk and religious music. Her father was known to be the best wedding fiddler in the land. During Christine's childhood, her father told her many stories. A character... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Christine Daaé's mother died when she was very young. She and her father, a famous violinist, traveled all over Sweden playing folk and religious music. Her father was known to be the best wedding fiddler in the land. During Christine's childhood, her father told her many stories. A character known as the Angel of Music figured heavily in them, especially one about a girl he called Little Lotte, who was able to hear the Angel of Music. When Christine meets and befriends Raoul, he also enjoys her father's many stories.
Later, when Father Daaé is dying - probably of tuberculosis - he tells Christine that when he dies he will send the Angel of Music to her. Christine grieves for her father endlessly. She lives with an elderly woman whose now deceased husband had been her father's benefactor.

Christine is eventually given a position in the chorus at the Paris Opera House. Not long after she arrives there, she begins hearing a voice which sings to her and speaks to her. She believes this must be the Angel of Music, which her father promised to send to her from heaven when he passed away, and asks him if he is. The Voice agrees and offers to teach her "a little bit of heaven's music." The Voice, however, belongs to Erik, a disfigured genius who was on the construction crew when the Opera was built and who secretly built into the cellars a home for himself. He is the Opera ghost ("Fantôme" in French can be translated as both "ghost" and "phantom") who has been extorting money from the Opera's management for many years. Unknown to Christine, at least at first, he has fallen in love with her.

With the help of the Voice, Christine triumphs at the gala on the night of the old managers' retirement. Her old childhood friend Raoul hears her and remembers his love for her. After the gala, Erik takes Christine to live in his home in the cellars, but after two weeks, when Christine requests release, he agrees, on condition that she wears his ring and is faithful to him.

Up on the roof of the Opera, Christine tells Raoul of Erik taking her to the cellars. Raoul promises to take Christine away where Erik can never find her. Raoul tells Christine he shall act on his promise the following day, to which Christine agrees, but she pities Erik and will not go until she has sung for him one last time. The two leave, unaware that Erik was listening to their conversation. During the week and that night however, Erik has been terrorizing anyone who stood in his way, or in the way of Christine's career, including the managers.

The following night, Erik kidnaps Christine during a production of Faust. Back in the cellars, Erik tries to force Christine into marrying him. If she refuses he will destroy the entire Opera using explosives planted in the cellars, killing everyone in it including himself and Christine. Christine continues to refuse, until she realizes that Raoul and a man known only as 'The Persian', in an attempt to rescue her, have been trapped in Erik's torture chamber. To save them and the people above, Christine agrees to marry Erik and kisses him. Erik, who admits that he has never before in his life received a kiss - not even from his own mother - is overcome with emotion. He lets Christine go and tells her "go and marry the boy whenever you wish", explaining that "I know you love him." They cry together, and then she leaves.

Characters edit see section history

Show all 38 characters
Popular Covers

Loading covers…

Choose your book’s cover

Quotes edit see section history

  • “Your soul is a beautiful thing, child, and I thank you. No emperor ever received so fair a gift. The angels wept to-night.”
    Erik
  • “And yet I am not really evil. Love me and you shall see! All I wanted was to be loved for myself.”
  • “Yes he existed in flesh and blood even though he gave himself every appearance of a real ghost, a true phantom”
  • “And regret is a very poisonous emotion, it warps and distorts every aspect of a mans life until there's nothing left but bitterness and despair.”
  • “I was alive and I had never lived.”
  • “One has to get used to everything in life, even to eternity.”
  • “It's not a question of shooting with the right hand or the left; it's a question of holding one of your hands as though you were going to pull the trigger of a pistol with your arm bent.”
    The Persian

First Sentence edit see section history

It was the evening on which Messieurs Debienne and Poligny, the managers of the Opera, were giving a farewell gala performance to mark their retirement.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Prologue

Chapter 1. Is it the Ghost?
Chapter 2. The New Margarita
Chapter 3. The Mysterious Reason
Chapter 4. Box Five
Chapter 5. The Enchanted Violin
Chapter 6. A Visit to Box Five
Chapter 7. Faust and What Followed
Chapter 8. The Mysterious Brougham
Chapter 9. At the Masked Ball
Chapter 10. Forget the Name of the Man's Voice
Chapter 11. Above the Trap-Doors
Chapter 12. Apollo's Lyre
Chapter 13. A Master-Stroke of the Trap-Door Lover
Chapter 14. The Singular Attitude of A Safety-Pin
Chapter 15. Christine! Christine!
Chapter 16. Mme. Giry's Astounding Revelations as to Her Personal Relations w/ the Opera Ghost
Chapter 17. The Safety-Pin Again
Chapter 18. The Commissary, The Viscount and the Persian
Chapter 19. The Viscount and the Persian
Chapter 20. In the Cellars of the Opera
Chapter 21. Interesting and Instructive Vicissitudes of a Persian in the Cellars of the Opera
Chapter 22. In the Torture Chamber
Chapter 23. The Tortures Begin
Chapter 24. Barrels!...Barrels!...Any Barrels to Sell?"
Chapter 25. The Scorpion or the Grasshopper: Which?
Chapter 26.The End of the Ghost's Love Story

Epilogue
The Paris Opera House

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in Penguin Readers, Level 5. (publisher series)
This book is in Fast Track Classics. (community list)
This is book 111 of 199 in Newman and Jones 200 Best Horror Novels. (community list)
This book is in Penguin Classics. (publisher edition list)
This book is in The Phantom Of The Opera Related Recordings. (community list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Gaston Leroux (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Randy Lofficier
  2. Jeremy Nichols
  3. Peter Yapp
  4. Shannon Donnelly
  5. Leonard Wolf
  6. Kate McMullan (Translator)
  7. Lowell Bair (Translator)
  8. Peter F. Neumeyer (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: French
Publisher: Pierre Lafitte and Cie
Country: France
Publication Date: 1910
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 224

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PQ2623.E6 F213 1987
  • Dewey: 843.912

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

Movie Connections edit see section history

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Mystery of the Yellow Room
  • The Perfume of the Lady in Black
  • Madrigal: A novel of Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera
  • My Phantom

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • Lessons from "The Phantom of the Opera"
  • The Undergrounds of the Phantom of the Opera: Sublimation and the Gothic in Leroux's Novel and its Progeny

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history

   
  • Phantom
  • The Phoenix of the Opera
  • The Phantom's Opera
  • Phantom Death
  • Out of the Darkness: The Phantom's Journey
  • Letters to Erik: The Ghost's Love Story
  • Black Dossier
  • Madrigal: A novel of Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera
  • My Phantom
  • Abendlied

We’re hiding the organizations, glossary entries, errata, awards, books that influenced this book, books that cite this book and books cited by this book sections. If you would like to add content to them, you must first make them visible.

Anal Mouse

You were just viewing this book on Anal Mouse’s shelf.

 

© 2006-2013 Shelfari | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy

Close