Rating: 3
The great Paris Opera House is haunted. All the stories are fanciful and rarely agree so most people tend to agree there is no ghost. Young, Swedish Christine Daaé, a nobody at the Opera is suddenly somebody. No one knows where she learned how to sing and no one believes her story of an Angel of Music. Raoul, an old childhood friend, sees her on stage and decides to ignore their station and confess his love for her—the reason he left many years ago. The Angel of Music, the Opera’s Ghost, isn’t going to let anything separate him from Christine, and I do mean anything.
I have no idea if this edition is a good translation, but I can tell you it is horribly formatted and is in serious need of a proofreader! This is a terrible edition and I don’t recommend it to anyone. The story, however, that I do recommend you read. It’s a slow starter, has some flow issues, but a classic worth reading at least once. Maybe another edition will flow better? So the edition is one star and the book three.
If you’re expecting anything like Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, you’re going to be disappointed. The essence is pretty much there, but the book is stranger and darker. Gaston Leroux leads us as the narrator through his investigations into the rumors of the famous Opera Ghost many years after the events occurred. He informs us of the evidence and interviews he conducted to show us the rumors are actually fact. I had the strangest sense of déjà vu through the entire last third of the book; but I can’t find anything telling me I’ve read this before, or even think of another story is resembles…
Anyhow… The Opera Ghost, aka the Phantom, aka Erik, has a dark past as well as serious mental issues in addition to his physical deformities and has the entire Opera doing his bidding without their knowledge. Christine is a very young woman who knows little of the world and is easily led. Raoul, for all his worldliness and travels, is a weak young man and rarely listens to his elders. The Persian is the strongest character in the book and the only one who knows what’s going on. Even though I was left with many questions and not enough closure, it is an intriguing read.
