Phantom of the Opera

In spite of the fact that we are presented with a hanging corpse on page 18, my initial impression of this work was that it was more of a comedy than a horror novel. The Opera Ghost, who was often hilariously nicknamed “O.G.”, seemed like more of a prankster than a credible threat. The cast of characters that surrounded him – for example, the hapless new managers, the lovestruck Raoul, the ultimately disgraced songstress La Carlotta – all appeared to my eye to be humorously portrayed and in many ways satirically depicted.

As I progressed through the novel, however, I felt that of all the genres it most closely resembled a romance. After all, Leroux gives us a pair of star-crossed lovers presented with a seemingly immovable obstacle to their happiness. Around Chapter 19 or so, the story seemed to become more of an action-adventure, and it wasn’t until around page 266 that I felt the work truly was a horror novel. At the line “The Persian stooped and picked up something, a sort of cord, which he examined for a second and flung away with horror” a chill literally went up my spine, as for the first time, I was genuinely terrified of and anxious about what was going to happen next.

Am I complaining? Am I disappointed that I had to read clear to the conclusion of the 21st chapter before I felt Erik AKA the Opera Ghost was a truly scary antagonist/villain? Not at all, in fact I felt that was the real genius of this work. Leroux’s ability to intermarry multiple genres and still tell a good story is impressive and also something I feel we as writers should seek to emulate. The hallmark of a well written “genre” novel is, in my view, that – much like Phantom of the Opera – it doesn’t conform to one specific genre but instead blends several of them.

Another aspect of this story I found intriguing was the Pygmalion-esque relationship between Christine Daae and Erik AKA the Angel of Music. Since I’m essentially employing this theme in my thesis novel, I paid close attention to how Leroux handled it and – for the most part – I felt he did so masterfully. Erik’s anguish at his inability to coerce her to love him, and her fear of arousing his wrath, incited powerful emotions in me as the reader. To some degree, on a personal note, it was a case of art imitating life and vice versa and really made me feel a kinship with these characters. Additionally, I think the introduction of and subsequent elaboration on the relationship between the pair added new dimension to the character of Erik; it demonstrated to the reader that Erik is a multifaceted individual capable of both passionate love and intense hate.

I have a few quibbles about this work. I wanted Leroux to have given us more information about Erik’s background. I finished the work without really understanding the cause of his disfigurement. I would have preferred a more elaborate description of the torture chamber itself, but that may just be because I’m a fairly sick puppy. I thought Raoul was a simpering fool and I didn’t see why Christine was so enamored with him. I thought Phillippe was a fairly ineffectual character and didn’t feel his character enriched the work at all.

Aside from those minor trivialities, however, I enjoyed reading this novel.