I reread this novel recently after having seen the play. Part of my interest in seeing the play was to see how they adapted the novel to the stage. The relationship between Christine Daaé and the Phantom is portrayed in the popular perception as a beauty and the beast romance. My reading of the novel did not leave me with that feeling.
The plot is this. The two current managers of the Paris Opera House are tired of being blackmailed by the Opera Ghost aka the Phantom of the Opera aka Eric. They pass the reins onto two new managers, Armand Moncharmin and Firmin Richard. The Opera Ghost continues his blackmailing ways, but the two new managers initially think it is a practical joke either on the part of the exiting managers or their other co-manager. There are a series of incidences and disasters that change their minds.
There is the Opera Ghost who is obsessed with Christine. He becomes her musical tutor in a cryptic manner, but Christine thinks he is the Angel of Music sent from heaven by her father. Of course, if there is a love interest in such a work there must be a love triangle. This is provided by Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny. He and Christine have been friends since childhood. The Vicomte is madly in love with Christine and is as obsessed with her as much as the Opera Ghost, but in a slightly saner fashion. To add a little more drama Raoul’s brother, Philppe, the Comte de Chagny, is opposed to the union between the two as Christine is not of the same social strata. However, the stew is not spicy enough yet. What would an opera company be without a rivalry between sopranos? Enter La Carlotta, the Spanish soprano, who is the stereotypical over the top prima donna. The Opera Ghost is determined to promote his protégé Christine over La Carlotta and does so in a dramatic fashion. Next add in a couple deaths that are either murders, or a suicide and an accident, a kidnapping or two, and a dramatic chase through the bowels of the Paris Opera House and you have a very good novel.
One character I did not mention was the Persian. This is a somewhat mysterious person who knew Eric from the past. Not only is he used to move the plot along, but in the end Leroux uses him to tie up all the loose ends. His raison d’être is to prevent Eric from committing anymore murders.
My issue with the popular rendition of the Eric / Christine relationship as star crossed lovers is that it is not true to the book and it is not true to the character of Eric. The novel has Eric born as a hideous creature whose own mother put a mask on him early on so as to not look at his hideousness. His father absolutely rejected him. The character in the book was either a sociopath or deeply and malignantly psychotic. He ran away early from home and suffered a series of adventures and abuses that further shaped his psychotic nature. With a little Sultana he perpetuated a series of atrocities on subjects in her land. It can be said despite all this Eric had an amazing intellect, and is probably the most prodigious autodidacts of all literature. The fact that in the end Christine may have gotten momentarily through all the ugliness that was Eric to some soft core does not make up for all the other crimes of this character. There was no Prince Charming under the beast that was Eric. Leroux spent most of the novel depicting Eric as a monster, then at the end he uses the Persian to gander a little sympathy for Eric. It really just left me scratching my head.
Christine Daaé, at the center of this operatic love triangle is a naïve young woman. How else would you explain taking vocal lessons from an unseen entity believing it to be the Angel of Music? Her naivety continues throughout the novel, and includes a make believe engagement with Raoul that goes too far for the Opera Ghost. There is glimmer of deeper understanding when she does see through Eric’s exterior to a damaged soul on the inside.
The rest of the characters in the book stay true to form and play the parts needed by the author.
There are a couple of good reasons to read this novel. First and foremost it is a good piece of literature. I would not put it in the great category, but it is more than worth your time. The second reason is that the story is so persistent in popular culture (I have included a non-inclusive list of the plays and movies adapted from this novel at the end). It is good sometimes to go back to the source of such popularity, if for no other reason than to observe how they change moving through the various mediums.
This book is in the public domain and can be downloaded for free.
Audio book from LibriVox.org : The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
e-Book from Gutenberg.org: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
A partial list of movies adapted from the novel:
The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall (2011) TV Movie starring Ramin Karimloo, Sierra Boggess, Hadley Fraser
The Phantom of the Opera (2004) Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson
The Phantom of the Opera (1998) Julian Sands, Asia Argento, Andrea Di Stefano
The Phantom of the Opera (1990) TV Movie Teri Polo, Charles Dance, Burt Lancaster
The Phantom of the Opera (1989) Robert Englund, Jill Schoelen, Alex Hyde-White
The Phantom of the Opera (1983) TV Movie Maximilian Schell, Jane Seymour, Michael York
The Phantom of the Opera (1962) Herbert Lom, Heather Sears, Edward de Souza
Phantom of the Opera (1943) Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster, Claude Rains
The Phantom of the Opera (1925) Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry