The Phantom of the Opera

About the book

Strange demands and frightening incidents trouble the Paris Opera, where managers and performers must decide what to believe about the reputed ghost. Christine Daaé's remarkable singing draws attention to a private history that her friend Raoul cannot readily understand. Leroux makes the building's passages, machinery, public spaces, and concealed depths part of an elaborate mystery, allowing theatrical illusion to become a practical instrument of power. The account adopts the energy of an investigation while moving through romance and Gothic suspense. Christine's musical promise is entangled with dependence, fear, and competing claims upon her affection. The novel asks readers to consider the difference between nurturing an artist and attempting to possess her, as the world behind the performance becomes more dangerous than anything presented on the stage.

• Art and control
• Appearance and secrecy
• Possessive love

Why read it

For a Gothic mystery that turns an opera house's physical and theatrical machinery into the means of its suspense.

English translation