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Phantom of the Opera | ||||||||
Summary | ||||||||
The Phantom of the Opera, the best known of all of Leroux's works, is a horror romance published by the French publishing house Lafitte as Le Fantome de l'Opera. Mills and Boon of all people were responsible in the following year for the English version. Though much loved by readers and consistently popular the story was panned in its first New York Times review and has suffered from criticism elsewhere for being too populist. Leroux himself claimed in the opening of the novel that, "The Opera Ghost really existed. He was not, as was longed believed, a creature of the imagination of the artists... 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". Whether you believe this or not the story remains a compelling one. There is rumour at the Grand Paris Opera House of the existence of a ghost who has his own box at performances, and suspicion is turned to him when Joseph Buquet's death is reported. Viscount Raoul de Chagny then visits a performer Christine after her fine performance as a stand-in in "Faust". He hears mysterious voices in the dressing room but opens the door to find no one there. Panic ensues as after the Opera Ghost's written requests that the box be left for him the managers of the house sell it a strange voice is heard there telling them to leave. There is more mystery at a fancy dress party and with the disappearance of Christine and Raoul is drawn ever deeper inside the legend and the life of a certain Erik whose behaviour causes concern and suspicion. |
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Table of contents | ||||||||
Prologue | ||||||||
I - Is it a Ghost? | ||||||||
II - The New Margarita | ||||||||
III - The Mysterious Reason | ||||||||
IV - Box Five | ||||||||
V - The Enchanted Violin | ||||||||
VI - A Visit to Box Five | ||||||||
VII - Faust AND What Followed | ||||||||
VIII - The Mysterious Bougham | ||||||||
IX - At the Masked Ball | ||||||||
X - Forget the Name of the Man's Voice | ||||||||
XI - Above the Trap-doors | ||||||||
XII - Apollo's Lyre | ||||||||
XIII - A Master-stroke of the Trap-door Lover | ||||||||
XIV - The Singular Attitude of a Safety-pin | ||||||||
XV - Christine! Christine! | ||||||||
XVI - Mme. Giry's Revelations | ||||||||
XVII - The Safety-pin Again | ||||||||
XVIII - The Commissary, the Viscount and the Persian | ||||||||
XIX - The Viscount and the Persian | ||||||||
XX - In the Cellars of the Opera | ||||||||
XXI - Interesting Vicissitudes | ||||||||
XXII - In the Torture Chamber | ||||||||
XXIII - The Tortures Begin | ||||||||
XXIV - Barrels! Barrels! | ||||||||
XXV - The Scorpion or the Grasshopper: Which | ||||||||
XXVI - The End of the Ghost's Love Story | ||||||||
Epilogue | ||||||||
Notes: The Paris Opera House | ||||||||
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