The Phantom of the Opera

O fantasma da Ópera de Gaston Leroux ficou mais eternizado como um dos monstros da Universal no cinema do que propriamente como um verdadeiro clássico literário.
Em sua primeira adaptação em 1925 o Leroux ainda estava vivo e viu seu Erick ser transformado em puro vilão, mas no seu livro original a personagem tem um arco redentor de que a sociedade o transformara em vilão por ser feio desde a rejeição de seus pais, passando por ser atração de feiras, até a derradeira rejeição como Fantasma da Ópera por Christine. Em certo sentido me lembrou o Frankenstein de Mary Shelley e entendo o porquê Del Toro dizer que também gostaria de adaptar O Fantasma da Ópera, já que o cineasta é bastante afeito à personagens à margem da show more sociedade que de alguma forma são consideradas monstros por sua aparência. show less

this was fun, well written, and engaging. and a thousand times better and less offensive than the musical production. all of the romanticizing of stalking that the musical does is gone here - he's described as a monster, and while some characters have compassion for him, that's because it's realistic. he's evil because of his past and how his experiences have made him that way, and that's worth feeling compassionate about. and it doesn't excuse his kidnapping of the woman, which is made into some kind of romantic gesture in the play. definitely a good read, and one that exceeded my expectations.

A classic filled with absolutely ridiculous things.

I love looking through the touchstones of horror and seeing what people have forgotten or never used. That's why I enjoyed my read-through of Dracula so much. Having seen the musical, I was equally surprised and delighted by going through the novel and viewing its craziness.

The musical sets the plot pretty quick as "young opera singer is pursued by masked, deformed genius." The novel takes a different tack. Our singer Christine, her would-be boy toy Raoul the lovestruck noble, and Erik the Phantom quickly learn of the dark triangle that involves them all, even if it takes Raoul a while more than most to figure out what's going on. The rest of the cast?

Almost everyone else in this damn show more book thinks it's a romantic comedy.

Imagine an 80's sex comedy where two people know that Jason Voorhees is out there while the rest do pratfalls, gossip, and vaudeville humor. Even as the bodies pile up, the denizens of the Paris Opera House act in entertainingly ludicrous ways.

Well, mostly. Something amazing and horrifying happens on stage halfway through the book. Surprise! Alarm! Then the next chapter focuses on people who heard from fourth-hand sources that one of the managers barricaded themselves in their office and screamed for a safety pin. Murder, magic, and kidnapping are all around, but everyone ignores that because they must get to the bottom of this safety pin shit.

Erik, the deformed man who lives in the secret parts of the Opera House, is fascinating. He's got a ridiculously detailed globe-trotting origin and the ingenuity of a homicidal Wile E. Coyote. Still, there's one figure he fears in the labyrinth below the Opera House. There's a cloaked shadow in a felt hat whom Erik avoids, a man with arrest powers who directly aids the managers, someone's whose identity is a state secret.



We never learn anything else about this guy, so get used to disappointment.

Also, the Phantom of the Opera goes grocery shopping

A classic gothic romance filled with absolutely ridiculous things.
I love looking through the touchstones of horror and seeing what people have forgotten or never used. That's why I enjoyed my read-through of Dracula so much. Having seen the musical, I was equally surprised and delighted by going through the novel and viewing its craziness.
The musical sets the plot pretty quick as "young opera singer is pursued by masked, deformed genius." The novel takes a different tack. Our singer Christine, her would-be boy toy Raoul the lovestruck noble, and Erik the Phantom quickly learn of the dark triangle that involves them all, even if it takes Raoul a while more than most to figure out what's going on. The rest of the cast?
Almost everyone else in this damn book thinks it's a romantic comedy.
Imagine an 80's sex comedy where two people know that Jason Voorhees is out there while the rest do pratfalls, gossip, and vaudeville humor. Even as the bodies pile up, the denizens of the Paris Opera House act in entertainingly ludicrous ways.
Well, mostly. Something amazing and horrifying happens on stage halfway through the book. Surprise! Alarm! Then the next chapter focuses on people who heard from fourth-hand sources that one of the managers barricaded themselves in their office and screamed for a safety pin. Murder, magic, and kidnapping are all around, but everyone ignores that because they must get to the bottom of this safety pin shit.
Erik, the deformed man who lives in the secret parts of the Opera House, is fascinating. He's got a ridiculously detailed globe-trotting origin and the ingenuity of a homicidal Wile E. Coyote.
Still, there's one figure he fears in the labyrinth below the Opera House. There's a cloaked shadow in a felt hat whom Erik avoids, a man with arrest powers who directly aids the managers, someone's whose identity is a state secret.
We never learn anything else about that guy, so get used to disappointment.
Also, the Phantom of the Opera goes grocery shopping in broad daylight wearing Groucho glasses. This is a Thing That Happens.
Every the narrator doesn't stay serious. Sometimes you get scenes that are chilling, such as when Christine pours out her heart to Raoul about how the Phantom terrifies her and you know for a fact that Mr. Opera Ghost is listening. Other times, the narration snarks like a French Douglas Adams.
And it's fun.
I really enjoyed going through this. It's a whole lot of crazy things, but (with the exception of the safety pin mishagosh, it is never boring. show less

Gaston Leroux’s 1910 gothic horror tale The Phantom of the Opera is a twisted tale of obsessive love. The characterization of Erik is the most notable aspect of this classic melodrama. Simultaneously abhorrent and sympathetic, his loveless, tortured soul is reflected in his torture chamber; his monstrous disfigurement condemns him to winning his love Christine only by force. His halting, emotional soliloquy at the end is simply heartbreaking. The fantastic settings are also quite memorable: the grand Paris Opera House, the torture chamber, and the fantastic subterranean waterway. I found Leroux’s narrative in the middle third quite dense, and a bit of a slog to get through. Overall, an interesting read, if only to compare the show more original to the screen and stage adaptations. show less

Although this is definitely a rollicking good story, a romance set in the gothic underworld of the glamorous Paris Opera, Andrew Lloyd Webber and various film adaptations have rather spoiled the suspense! I thought that reading the novel might add to the theatrical mythology, but Gaston Leroux's playful melodrama did not bring the characters to life for me, sad to say. I will never understand the appeal of Erik, or to give him his stage name, the Phantom - he's not a 'bad boy', he's just a manipulative headcase with a box of tricks. 'If you loved me, I would be as gentle as a lamb' - where's the tortured hero in that? If anyone were to rewrite Leroux's novel in a modern setting, Erik would be an abusive, controlling husband, or a show more stalker, or maybe both - 'I didn't want to hurt you, but you drove me to it!' Then again, Christine and Raoul are also straight out of stock character casting - the pure, fair heroine, who is far too trusting for her own good, and the spoilt aristocratic suitor who blindly charges headlong into danger for the love of his life.

The real star of this story is the Paris Opera, with its fantastic construction and lavish interiors, hiding a labyrinth of secret tunnels, traps and underground lakes - the history alone is enough to bring this magnificent building to life, and Leroux works with the details to create an architectural legend. show less

Esta maravillosa historia que ocurre entre el misterio, el terror, lo gótico, la intriga, se cuenta la historia de Erik, un hombre atormentado, maldito, malvado y terrorífico, mejor conocido entre bastidores como el Fantasma de la ópera.

Todos conocemos mas o menos la historia gracias a Andrew Lloyd Webber, sin embargo, aunque la obra es magnifica y con una música maravillosa, lo cierto es que el libro cuenta una historia mas profunda, que explica muchas de las razones y motivaciones del fantasma, que sin duda es un personaje del que uno no puede evitar enamorarse.

La historia narrada por un periodista que se ha avocado a desvelar el secreto de lo sucedido una noche en el teatro donde ha desaparecido la cantante Christine y donde show more además habían pasado ya muchas cosas, acude a un personaje que ha vivido todo como espectador primero y como actor al final y que además conoce a Erik y su pasado, este personaje llamado "El Persa", que aparece hasta casi el final del libro, es tan importante como Chistine y Raoul.

Una historia de amor, trágica y romántica, a veces empalagosa, una historia de infortunio y de congoja, una historia de terror y de misterio, una historia gótica del mas puro Edgar Allan Poe.

Y si, lo digo porque es inevitable notar la enorme influencia de Poe en Leroux.

He disfrutado enormemente este libro y para quien crea (como yo lo había hecho y lo reconozco) que por conocer la historia por que ha visto la o las películas y mejor aún la obra de teatro, les digo que no hay nada como el libro, que a pesar de ser en ocasiones una historia algo empalagosa en su prosa (y esto no estoy muy segura porque lo he leído en una traducción y a veces los traductores son los culpables de muchas cosas que reclamamos al autor y no es justo), no deja de ser original, maravillosa y completamente subyugante.

Por supuesto el personaje del fantasma es el mejor de todos, complejo, trágico, malévolo, terrible, feo e inteligente como nadie, no pude evitar caer rendida a sus pies.

Christine y Raoul... en fin son unos personajes bastante insulsos y hasta tontos, lo siento, pero es que no pude evitar que me cayeran mal, inmerecidos para la personalidad tan fuerte del mismo fantasma o de El Persa y aún y cuando al final Christine se salva por los pelos en cuanto a heroína de drama trágico, Raoul no, al menos no para mi.

Por lo demás, uno de los imperdibles show less

I love the musical but had never read this book before. So I downloaded it to my Kindle for free. The formatting was okay on the Kindle version but all of the color plates were missing with an insert stating (color plate here). Overall the story itself was wonderful and really added to my understanding of the musical.

I think just about everyone should be familiar with this story. It is the story of an Opera Ghost who is mentoring Christine Daae to become a great opera singer. Of course when the Opera Ghost's wishes are not met by the new managers who run the opera house a series of disasters befall the opera company. Christine becomes increasingly entangled with the Opera Ghost and her childhood sweetheart, Raoul, tries his best to save show more her.

The book starts out a bit slow. It is told from the point of view of an investigator who is trying to piece together the whole story behind the Phantom of the Opera. Things really pick up as the Opera Ghost starts to torment people and Christine and Raoul start their false engagement.

My favorite part was the last third of the book when Raoul and the Persian are trying to navigate the area beneath the theater.

This book fills out some major parts of the story that you don't get in the musical. There is a lot more background on Raoul and Christine's childhood. More time is spent explaining the past of the Opera Ghost, Eric, and what made him the way he is. At the very end the investigator details how all of the ghostly things that happened in the story were done. Also the scenes under the opera house are much more vicious, involving a incredibly unique torture chamber, threats to flatten a few blocks of Paris, and more.

I was surprised at how engaging the writing style was. This was not a tough book to read at all, it was incredibly engaging and easy to read. There is a sly sense of humor in parts of the book and I found myself laughing out loud a couple times. I really enjoyed it.

My only complaint (and my husband's complaint) is that I kept humming parts of the musical as I read the book! If you are a fan of The Phantom and the Opera musical definitely check out this book; it makes parts of the musical make a lot more sense. It is much more interesting and creative and engaging than the musical too! The first third of the book is kind of slow but if you can make it though that, the rest of the book is definitely worth it! show less