This novel offers just what I expect in an old-fashioned thriller: a naïve damsel in distress, a young, lovesick hero, a dangerous and elusive villain, and a grandiose locale. It also offers what I hope for in a scary story: a ghost that is no less frightening when he is revealed to be not a phantom, but a criminally insane individual of rare talents, a “very curious genius” with a dark, nefarious past.
The novel is narrated by a man who wishes to prove that:
The opera ghost really existed. He was not, as was long believed, a creature of the imagination of the artists, the superstition of the managers, or the absurd and impressionable brains of the young ladies of the ballet, their mothers, the box-keepers, the cloak-room attendants, or the concierge. No, he existed in flesh and blood, though he assumed the outward characteristics of a real phantom, that is to say, of a shade.
The story reads like a reliable piece of investigative journalism (Leroux was an experienced journalist) that doesn’t leave out the dramatic (sometimes even melodramatic) points of view of the characters or the suspense and tension of a mystery with a phantom/dangerous criminal at its center. The reader is taken on a fast-paced ride through the Paris Opera House, its grand public areas, complex behind-the-scenes workings and dark and mysterious cellars. Neither the superstitious nor the skeptical are safe from the Opera Ghost, and our heroes and their supporting cast are constantly kept on their toes, oscillating between hope and despair, always at the mercy of the villain.
My favorite scene comes early in the story. We get a glimpse of just how talented, at sneaking and manipulating as well as at beautiful music, the Opera Ghost really is. We see just how an otherwise reasonable if inexperienced young lady could become enthralled by such a terrible individual. While most of the action of the story is set at the Paris Opera House, this scene, which is possibly the most theatrical in the book, takes place in a churchyard where, “Dead men’s bones arranged in rows, like so many bricks, seemed to form the first course upon which the sacristy-walls were built.” The phantom makes a rather dramatic appearance as an Angel of Music to our damsel in distress, and a formidable rival to our shaky hero.
I was intending to treat The Phantom of the Opera simply as a Book I Should Have Read By Now, a piece of literature that inspired more popular works of entertainment (none of which I’ve seen…shame on me). Instead, I found myself experiencing it as an enjoyable work of drama and suspense. The setting of the Opera House is fascinating, with all its secret passages, mysterious underground tunnels and caverns, and unusual characters, especially behind the scenes. The details are amazing. Leroux either had a good working understanding of such a place, or a very vivid imagination.
He also seemed to have a good working understanding of the criminally insane and the vortex of confusion and terror such a villain can create. The Opera Ghost is capable of anything from blackmail to murder, from great art to complete obsession. While perhaps a person of flesh and blood, he is truly a monster. But is he unsympathetic? Is he wholly irredeemable? That’s something the reader will have to determine for herself. As for the hero and heroine of the story, you’ll get no spoilers here. The reader will have to find out for herself what happens to them as well.
Coming soon: Gods, Graves and Scholars by C.W. Ceram
A Year of Books I Should Have Read by Now
