The Phantom of the Opera

There are terrible stories written by great authors, and great stories written by terrible authors. The Phantom of the Opera suffers from the latter. While it contains an interesting premise with a promising title character, the book suffers from a lack of order, weak side characters, and terrible buildup.

The book begins with great progress. It introduces the reader to the opera house, the people who run it, and the mysterious ghost. Along the way it becomes sidetracked with the viscount de Chaney and his infatuation with Christine Daae, a promising young singer. Rather than trying to help his beloved, the Viscount (Raul) acts like a child. He bursts out crying at a show, and is constantly throwing himself into hysterics. I pictured him as a modern stereotype of a gay man.

The only positive to this book is the character of the phantom and the summary of the story. By the halfway mark I was cringing. I just wanted the book to be finished. Even now, I'm having a difficult time composing my thoughts. The writing style is jumpy and sloppy. There is no central narrator, and the scenes are constantly shifting. The premise of the Phantom of the Opera is a classic story, but the book Gaston Leroux wrote was a mess. This is definitely a case where the movie and stage adaptations did it better.

I would honestly prefer another author rewrite this book to be the masterpiece it should be.

What a rollicking fun ride. As long as you're not going into this book expecting the Opera Ghost to be any kind of romantic anti-hero as he might sometimes be construed to be in the musical, you'd probably have a ton of fun reading this book too.

The Paris Opera House is haunted by the Opera Ghost, who asserts a reign of tyranny over the performers and management alike. He is most interested in Christine Daae, a young and orphaned opera-singer whose talent for singing blossoms under his tutelage. However, the arrival of Raoul, Vicomte de Changy and Christine's long-lost childhood sweetheart, brings the Opera Ghost into a downward spiral of jealous frenzy which leads to dark and fatal consequences for everyone involved.

I first read this book more than a decade ago and I recall vividly that I didn't like it at all. I don't know if it was because I was a much more romantic person back then, because I was much less experienced with the tone and vibe of classic literature, or because I was a lot less familiar with the musical. In any case, revisiting it this time was such a great decision - I enjoyed it so much more in my current state of mind, and it gave me a lot of insights as to how the musical was adapted as well.

In a nutshell, it seems that the musical was essentially written for Andrew Lloyd Webber to do a self-insert into the character of the Phantom. The Opera Ghost in the book (he's never directly referred to as the Phantom, at least not in the English translation) is quite clearly a psychopathic murderer and an obsessive stalker. Leroux doesn't pull the punches when it comes to depicting the OG's toxicity in all its brutal glory. The Phantom of the musical, though, is much more toned down. It also helps that he spends most of the musical looking dashing in his dress-clothes, and only needs to cover half his face - the OG in the book has to wear a full-faced mask.

I enjoyed that the Opera Ghost's relationship with Christine wasn't romanticised or glorified - he was very clearly a stalker and their relationship was very clearly toxic af. It hit differently knowing that Christine in the book was already a naturally talented singer but her grief at losing her father had temporarily impacted her singing. It was only by coincidence that the Opera Ghost found out about her backstory and immediately took the chance to make use of Christine's superstitiousness and naivete, assert himself as the “Angel of Music” and thereby gained power and control over her.

The OG in the book was quite clearly an incel and a manipulative asshole. Christine is both afraid of him, but also admires and reveres him for the music that he is able to create. She wants to leave him, but sometimes is unable to bring herself to, and sometimes is just physically forced or emotionally blackmailed to stay. Gaslighting Christine is unsurprisingly also part of the OG's repertoire as well. This book really checked all the boxes for the hallmarks of a toxic relationship. We kinda get the sense of that in the musical, but it's definitely a lot toned down - the book puts all the brutal ugliness of such a relationship on display.

Overall though, the book is much more action-packed and humourous than I recall, and the second half is virtually un-put-down-able. I couldn't stop comparing it with the musical in my mind because it still is one of my favourite musicals ever despite everything, but I don't think the book was any less than the adaptation. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who wants an entertaining 19th century French romp, or to fans of the musical who want better insights into the adaptation process.