"The Phantom of the Opera" Book Review

"The Opera Ghost was real." - Gaston Leroux

I grew up as a chorus girl. I was in my school’s choir every year from six grade on through graduation day. Chorus was my life and the life of many of my closest friends. Choir music introduced us to Broadway musicals that lead to an obsession I haven't let go of since.

It wasn’t long into my high school career before my introduction to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical The Phantom of the Opera. When my friends and I watched the 2004 movie version of the musical, Christine became our soprano goals. The movie solidified my celebrity crush on Gerard Butler, and we memorized every word and note of the music. The story itself was loved, but it took a backseat to the music itself.

I’m an adult now and my taste in storytelling has developed and grown, even if my music tastes have not. I still love the movie, and I am crazy jealous that my best friend saw the Broadway show when she lived in New Jersey.

I've been completely unaware of the Phantom’s origins as a book written by Gaston Leroux. My friends and family who love the story didn't know either. Why did it take thirteen years of loving a rendition to know about the original?

Yes, the Phantom of the Opera is a book! It’s a good one too! I devoured this book within a week. While familiar with the movie, I was not quite prepared for what the book offers.

Where the movie is from the perspective of the young Christine, the book splits the perspective between Raoul and the Persian. The Persian is only one of many differences between the movie and book. After reading the book, it's clear the movie is a reconstruction of a few pieces of the book. The movie best serves as an introduction to the characters, setting, and plot. The novel has much more to offer thereafter.

In the book, Raoul witnesses the triumphant start of Christine’s short-lived operatic career. Raoul does his best to understand the plights of Christine, who is in ecstasy and fear when in the presence of the Angel of Music. The Angel visits her dressing room every night to teach her how to sing celestially. Raoul is jealous of the man that keeps Christine’s attention, and a man he is certain the Angel is. Among all the commotion, the Opera Ghost is playing his tricks, deceiving the lead singers, the managers, and many others.

The novel takes a distinct turn from mystery into horror when Christine is kidnapped in the middle of singing a show and the Persian joins Raoul’s adventure to save her. Knowing the general ending, I was surprised to find myself scared while reading the latter half of the novel. There was no scene in the story that I thought had zero possibility of the Phantom listening in or watching. He truly was the ghost at every corner.

Learning the background of the Phantom did nothing to diminish the fear of him. It did, however, explain to me the phrase “Keep your hand at the level of your eye.” The phrase is not well explained in the movie to me, and it does nothing to showcase the Phantom’s supreme skill with the lasso. It is this skill in particular that lends the Phantom such an air of terror.

It is nice to have a villain more fleshed out than the majority of characters, who steals the show the way that he does. The novel pushes to talk about ugliness both inside and out, and how that forces people to treat others. I would be hard-pressed to find anyone that would be comfortable living a normal life with someone who smells like a corpse and is as cold as one. Both the Phantom’s want of a normal married life and Christine’s repulsion of the idea are understandable feelings. That is the beauty and horror of it all.

This book is a quick and thrilling read. The best thing about the novel is Leroux’s narration. He begins with “The Opera Ghost really existed.” From there on, the whole novel has you questioning what is real and what is not. Parts of it are real events, people, and places. The chandelier that fell in the novel happened in real life on May 20th, 1896. The Opera house itself is intimately detailed to accuracy. Leroux throws the reader right into the mix and is brilliant at doing so.

If you enjoyed the movie and wanted more from it, I cannot recommend the book more. I came out only loving the story tenfold more, and I appreciate the movie and music in a new light.