About this title: A classic French thriller about a terrifying and legendary figure who emerges from the depths of the Paris Opera House and manifests the mythic "opera ghost" in terrifying reality. At the heart of the Phantom's obsession is the lovely Christine Daae, who, after a brilliant performance, disappears suddenly and mysteriously.
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Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Excellent condition. Light edge wear. No marks. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 336 p. Audience: Children/juvenile; Young adult. A translated and abridged version. read more
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Some edge and corner wear. No marks. Tight binding. Tanned pages. Light cover creases. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 336 p. Audience: Children/juvenile; Young adult. read more
Description: Good. Spine is well creased. Covers show wear at the edges and corners. Good Grade C average reading copy. Binding is Mass Market Paperback. Pages tanning. Used books may have price stickers. Most orders ship on the next business day. read more
"This, my friends, is Gaston Leroux, 19th century Paris journalist. I have a lot of respect for this man, and not only because, like me, he's beefy, bespectacled and blessed with a preponderance of puffy pompadourish hair. He's also the author of probably one of the best books I've read this year: Phantom of the Opera.
This is not, you besotted ones, the Phantom made popular by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Michael Crawford. This is not the phantom with the dinnerware on his face and the character depth of a mud puddle. This is the book that gives the phantom feeling, Christine Daae a soul and a mind and, frankly, makes the Vicomte de Chagny into kind of an impretuous, foppish dandy while the real hero of the story -- the Persian, a mysterious fellow from the Phantom's past who doesn't actually get a name -- is cut out of the musical entirely.
Do yourselves a favor, Phantom fans. Read the book. You'll get a lot more out of Christine's character, for one. She's such a soggy heroine in the musical, all fainting and nebbishness and no brains at all. In the book she's a rather strong woman who faces an incredibly difficult moral dilemma, and passes it.
You'll get a lot more out of the Phantom, too, and find out that behind the waxy persona, the schizophrenic mind, the dreamer, the composer of Don Juan Triumphant, that you basically have a normal guy who figures out in the end that it's not the having that counts, but the wanting.
And can I tell you what, this book has something the musical will never have -- exposition. I suppose the musical is written, in a way, for people already familiar with the story. Unforutnately, it's a crippled version of the story that leaves out a lot of the explanations. I know, it's the vogue these days to leave things up to the imagination, let the reader or viewer -- or soppy love-story lover -- to fill in the details. I like it when an author is in control and fills in the details for me. I like seeing how they all fit the story. Leaving things up to the imagination is fine to a point, but once and a while, explain something for heaven's sake.
Don't get me wrong. I love the musical. It's a fine story in its own right. But it's not really Leroux's phantom. If you love the musical, do yourself a favor and read the book."
"The forward written by Peter Haining was both interesting and informative.
When I read the introduction Gaston Leroux wrote, I was very wont to believe that he had truly discovered a true event, but there is very little true evidence to support his claims though I heard he claimed they were true until the day he died.
Reading this book, I was very interested in everything that occurred. I found myself wanting more and more to discover the history behind the Phantom- behind Erik. It was all very fascinating to me.
When Christine eventually tells her story to her lover, Raoul, I found myself enrapt in what she was saying. My heart felt as if it was tearing from my chest at the sorrow I felt for Erik, for he was definitely a sad subject. It is immediately obvious that he only craves someone to love him.
The entire book just held me so enrapt that I could hardly put it down. Then it slowed at the end after the climax, and at last Erik came to the Persian and told him all that had happened. I admit that I cried so much that I had to stop reading the book for a moment. It was not for the fact that he had let Christine go that had made me feel such sorrow, but the fact that she was the only person who had ever shown him any semblance of genuine affection. It was so sad to me that even as I reflect on that moment and write this review, I feel tears welling in my eyes. It had a powerful impact on me that I will not soon forget."
"Awesome! I couldn't believe that I'd seen the musical without having read this before! For a fan of the show, this book explains so much that was left unsaid in the production. But it also is very different, with characters and situations not in the show.
Well articulated and understandable are Raoul's frustrations as Christine continues to vanish and leave him with no explanation for him or the reader; and Christine's fear of the evil genius that has taken her captive, the man who tricked her into naively believing that he was the Angel of Music from her childhood stories. Deception and lies, and a deadly obsession, taint the love story of the Christine and Raoul; Raoul does all he can to protect Christine from the monster who loves her, but how can he possibly save her from such a creature who seems inhuman and unstoppable? But is the Phantom really what he seems? Is he just as human as the rest of us? Leroux doesn't reveal all of the Opera Ghost's secrets until the end; he leaves the reader in the midst of a mystery that has wrapped up every character, none of whom know the whole truth themselves. Not even the narrator can shed full light on the mystery, as he is merely sharing his experiences and findings regarding the mysteries of the Paris Opera. So even at the end, we are left to wonder about the fates of Christine and Raoul, and about the twisted mind of a tortured soul, the Phantom of the Opera.
"Wonderfully written. I cannot truly pinpoint what makes this book fabulous without summarizing the characters. Erik was such a tragically-flawed character that, despite being a murderer, the reader cannot help but empathize (at the same time keeping his or her hand at the level of their eyes). It is fascinating how he can move around the opera house and create such detailed lairs beneath. Raoul, meanwhile, is an adorable young boy who has just discovered love. He is too young to realize that life is not always fair, that good does not always triumph the assumed evil. He valiantly, but blindly, attempts to rescue Christine, and would have stumbled upon his own death rather quickly if not for the Persian. Although a narrator himself, the Persian is perhaps the second most interesting character in the novel, second to Erik himself, for his relationship with the Phantom. Despite all of the Phantom's murders, the Persian obviously has a respect for his mad genius. Erik, in return, establishes a grudging friendship and respect for the Persian. The Persian continues to exist, knowing more than any about the Phantom, and says nothing, allows atrocities to be committed, assumingly to save Erik's dignity. And then there is Christine. She enters the novel, indeed, as a hare-brained silly girl, but she begins to show that she is far more intelligent and caring than she ever let on. Although her heart yearns to be with Raoul, she is drawn to the Phantom in ways that she knows she cannot fight, but still tries to shield her beloved from. She has accepted condemnation on her part, and tries to spare her young suitor a similar, or worse, fate.
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