The Phantom of the Opera
Beneath the marble grandeur of the Palais Garnier in Paris lives a deformed musical genius known to the company only as the Opera Ghost. From a private apartment on the bank of an underground lake, he writes a magnum opus called Don Juan Triumphant, terrorizes the new managers with letters demanding box five and twenty thousand francs a month, and falls in love with the young Swedish soprano Christine Daae, whom he tutors through the speaking tubes of her dressing room as the Angel of Music. When Christine's childhood friend Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny, recognizes her and her loyalties begin to divide, the Phantom kidnaps her into the cellars of the opera house and forces her to choose. Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel, originally serialized in Le Gaulois, draws on real Paris Opera disasters and the architecture of Charles Garnier's building to build one of the foundational works of romantic horror.
What you might want to know about The Phantom of the Opera
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
At the Paris Opera in the late nineteenth century, young soprano Christine Daae rises overnight after taking voice lessons from a hidden Angel of Music. As her childhood friend Raoul de Chagny tries to court her again, the chorus girls and stagehands trade rumors about an opera ghost in Box Five.
Yes. The Phantom of the Opera was first published in French in 1909-1910 and is in the public domain. Free editions of older translations are available legally through Project Gutenberg.
Yes. Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical is loosely based on Gaston Leroux's novel. The musical takes significant liberties with plot and characterization but preserves the central love triangle and Paris Opera House setting.
The Phantom of the Opera was written by Gaston Leroux, published in 1910 by Blurb.
The Phantom of the Opera is 215 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Phantom of the Opera takes most readers 3 to 5 hours to finish.
The Phantom of the Opera is a standalone novel by Gaston Leroux, not part of a series.
The Phantom of the Opera is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
