And, of course, a frighteningly sympathetic "villain." Admittedly the style is very "penny dreadful": melodramatic and overloaded on prose. Apparently there actually were some odd events - including rumours of an opera ghost - happening when Gaston Leroux began writing "The Phantom of the Opera." And it's a credit to his imgination that he was able to spin a some odd facts into a harrowing, heartbreaking love triangle that's based on music, obsession, adoration, and a bit of pity. The young lovers plan to run away together, but the "Angel of Music" isn't about to allow his beloved Christine to leave him.
As the Phantom becomes even more attached to Christine, Raoul soon finds that the ghost is actually a half-mad, horribly deformed musical genius named Erik - and that after Christine saw his true face, he made her become engaged to him. She credits her new vocal abilities to the Angel of Music, but of course, that self-same Angel is the opera ghost.
And when her childhood friend Viscount Raoul de Chagny pays her a visit, he hears a passionate exchange between her and a man - but there's no man there. Meanwhile, budding diva Christine Daae is taking Paris by storm, although nobody quite knows who taught her how to sing. Despite the sightings and fears of ballerinas and stagehands, the new managers are determined to stamp out this ridiculous story - despite threatening letters and increasing accidents that happen around them. The Paris opera house is said to be haunted by a ghost with a "death's head," who demands a small salary and a reserved box. But its crown jewel is Erik: a magnificently tortured anti-hero who inspires more horror, pity and sympathy than the rather flat hero and heroine. But Gaston Leroux's novel is still a spellbinding experience, full of atmospheric horror, a sense of gothic mystery, and lushly evocative language. "The Phantom of the Opera" is so well known that its story needs no explanation. The mask, the music, the dark mysteries, and the tortured, deformed genius who just wants love.
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