The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

I'm going to start off by saying that I knew basically nothing about this book going into it.  I never saw the musical or any of the movies.  So, I can't compare this to any of those versions.  I can, however, say that this book is pretty good.

Like The Three Musketeers, this book is written in the first person by someone who isn't connected to the events at all.  In this book, however, the author does note that they're recording a historical record, and have mentioned speaking with some of the characters to gather evidence.

It begins with the changing of management at the opera.  The old managers, as part of the hand-off, refer to the "opera ghost" and his instructions for the managers of the opera.  Naturally, the new management thinks that they're joking and don't take the instructions seriously.  This angers the ghost and he begins to cause mischief and drama in the opera (on and off the stage).  The managers still think that it's all a prank that the previous managers have taken too far.  Things only escalate from there.

I found the beginning of the book a bit hard to follow.  This is due in part to my complete lack of familiarity with opera in general.  There is a lot of name-dropping of operas and singers (whether fictitious or real) and it just lost me.  The book also goes into several tangents. They're all related to the overall story, or at least necessary to establish the characters.  Luckily, later on, the book gets more focused on the main story.

The main story itself, consists of Raoul trying to win the heart of Christine.  She refuses to return his affections for unspoken reasons.  Raoul works tirelessly to find the reason, and this leads him to learn of The Angel of Music, also known as the opera ghost.

I won't spoil the story from there.  It does keep you on your toes.  It never answers questions too early and keeps you guessing.  I found the whole thing a very interesting story and was happy with the book as a whole.

While reading this book, I noticed several places which marked where an illustration should have been.  The problem with getting the free versions of books is that most of them lack the illustrations.  I was really curious about them, though, and have tracked them down.  As it happens, The University of Virginia Library has the complete text online.  Including the illustrations (albeit, the quality isn't great).  Hera are links to a couple of them.

One last thing, the opera, as described in the book, sounds like a vast and magnificent place. He describes it in a lot of detail as well.  As it happens, it is a real place.  It's now known as the Palais Garnier in Paris.  Here's a picture of it:

Photo by Peter Rivera (cc-by-2.0)

All in all, this book was pretty enjoyable.  I recommend it.

Click here to view this book on Amazon.