The Phantom of the Opera

“All I ask of you” (hah) is that you read this book whilst listening to the 25th celebration recording of phantom of the opera, played at the royal albert hall. It has no impact on the story but I just want you to listen to it anyways as it is one of my favourites.

This book was both amazing and sometimes confusing. It was a really enticing read but also confusing at some points. It was written as if someone 50 years later was retelling a historical story but we have no idea who the narrator is. This made it all very confusing when trying to understand who was speaking as sometimes they used “we” and other times “I” and then there was excerpts from character's memoirs scattered about. This was especially apparent towards the end when I had no idea what the setting even looked like nor what was going on. Perhaps this is due to being translated from French but it made it a little hard to follow.

I found myself wanting to side with Erik only because Raoul was the most egotistical and misogynistic man I have ever had the displeasure of meeting. It was all in all a bit dramatic when he said he would rather die if Christine could not love him and that Christine couldn't possibly have her own feelings towards other people and that she must remain pure and innocent. I guess that is the product of the early 1900s but it still didn't sit well with me.

As a note, a 3 star rating means I did enjoy the book and I wanted to rate it a 4 star right up until the end so it's really a 3.5 rating. This is probably my only classic for the year and I am glad it was as phantom is my all time favourite musical and it means I can appreciate the few retellings I own that I plan on reading this year! I, like all, am enchanted by the angel of music