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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
He stared dully at the desolate, cold road and the pale, dead night. Nothing was colder than his heart, nothing half so dead: he had loved an angel and now he despised a woman!
Oh my, I enjoy melodrama to the core. There is something so gratifying about unbridled expressions of adoration and 'ghosts' giving their lives for unrequited love.
The Phantom of the Opera defied my preconceived notions about it. Where I had expected it to be a grand tragic romance, the Phantom waltzing with his lady love in the abandoned halls of the Opera House, it turned out to be a mystery and at times a horrifying one. Don't get me wrong- it was grand and tragic and romantic, but not in the expected sense. Granted, I'd never watched the musical or the movie so that might have lent to my surprise.
The story has all the juicy elements of a Gothic classic. The Paris Opera House is said to be haunted by the Opera Ghost. Rumours of this haunting drives mass hysteria among the members of the Opera. It is hard to discern fact from fiction as various people give their delirious accounts of having encountered the ghost. So the reader goes on a ghost chase with the characters to discover the root of the haunted business.
Christine Daae, a young opera singer, begins to hear a mesmerising voice from unknown sources. She later believes the voice to belong to a mysterious Angel of Music. Over several days, she is trained in singing by that voice, and her otherworldly performances elevate her to stardom in the Opera. The Angel manipulates, terrorises and even kills to ensure Christine's fame is sustained and she becomes the prima donna.
We later realise that both the Angel and the Ghost are the same person, an unloved man with an unsightly face named Erik. In the same vein as Frankenstein, society judges Erik's deformed appearance and thus perceives his soul as evil. His musical genius and other talents are overlooked. Resentful of the way he is treated, he adopts evil traits in a cruel mockery of what is expected of him and becomes the very thing he is branded as. His heart oozes with venom for a world that has always shunned him and left him as an outcast to lurk in the darkness. He commits atrocious acts of revenge against humanity, yet we can't help but pity him, because after all he's just a lonely being who wanted to be loved for himself.
If I am the phantom, it is because man's hatred has made me so. If I am to be saved it is because your love redeems me.
The Phantom of the Opera has several layers to peel back just like the Paris Opera House itself. A love triangle is just the surface of it; at its depths it has comedy, mystery, horror, tragedy and a social commentary. It is peppered with elements like ventriloquism and optical illusions. It is absurd and at points absolutely ridiculous, demanding a suspension of disbelief from the reader. However, the setting of the Opera House exists in real life (such that one can actually go and visit its secret passageways) and that knowledge in itself chills me to the bone. Like in any good Gothic story, the architecture plays a role as important as (if not more than) some of the characters. It seems to live and breathe, its creaks and moans singing a requiem of its own.
The prose is unbelievably delightful and the plot compelling. But it does go off on tangents, chunks of it devoted to characters and events I didn't care for, making me take so long on an apparently short read. Nonetheless, it's a thought-provoking read that's going to stay with me for long.
Oh my, I enjoy melodrama to the core. There is something so gratifying about unbridled expressions of adoration and 'ghosts' giving their lives for unrequited love.
The Phantom of the Opera defied my preconceived notions about it. Where I had expected it to be a grand tragic romance, the Phantom waltzing with his lady love in the abandoned halls of the Opera House, it turned out to be a mystery and at times a horrifying one. Don't get me wrong- it was grand and tragic and romantic, but not in the expected sense. Granted, I'd never watched the musical or the movie so that might have lent to my surprise.
The story has all the juicy elements of a Gothic classic. The Paris Opera House is said to be haunted by the Opera Ghost. Rumours of this haunting drives mass hysteria among the members of the Opera. It is hard to discern fact from fiction as various people give their delirious accounts of having encountered the ghost. So the reader goes on a ghost chase with the characters to discover the root of the haunted business.
Christine Daae, a young opera singer, begins to hear a mesmerising voice from unknown sources. She later believes the voice to belong to a mysterious Angel of Music. Over several days, she is trained in singing by that voice, and her otherworldly performances elevate her to stardom in the Opera. The Angel manipulates, terrorises and even kills to ensure Christine's fame is sustained and she becomes the prima donna.
We later realise that both the Angel and the Ghost are the same person, an unloved man with an unsightly face named Erik. In the same vein as Frankenstein, society judges Erik's deformed appearance and thus perceives his soul as evil. His musical genius and other talents are overlooked. Resentful of the way he is treated, he adopts evil traits in a cruel mockery of what is expected of him and becomes the very thing he is branded as. His heart oozes with venom for a world that has always shunned him and left him as an outcast to lurk in the darkness. He commits atrocious acts of revenge against humanity, yet we can't help but pity him, because after all he's just a lonely being who wanted to be loved for himself.
If I am the phantom, it is because man's hatred has made me so. If I am to be saved it is because your love redeems me.
The Phantom of the Opera has several layers to peel back just like the Paris Opera House itself. A love triangle is just the surface of it; at its depths it has comedy, mystery, horror, tragedy and a social commentary. It is peppered with elements like ventriloquism and optical illusions. It is absurd and at points absolutely ridiculous, demanding a suspension of disbelief from the reader. However, the setting of the Opera House exists in real life (such that one can actually go and visit its secret passageways) and that knowledge in itself chills me to the bone. Like in any good Gothic story, the architecture plays a role as important as (if not more than) some of the characters. It seems to live and breathe, its creaks and moans singing a requiem of its own.
The prose is unbelievably delightful and the plot compelling. But it does go off on tangents, chunks of it devoted to characters and events I didn't care for, making me take so long on an apparently short read. Nonetheless, it's a thought-provoking read that's going to stay with me for long.
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
medium-paced
Saw this shit live in London and it changed my life so I had to read the book. The first half was reaallllllll sluggish and hard to get through honestly, but that last 80-100 pages were great. Loved Erik’s character in this … wish we got more of Christine’s perspective. Loved that ending!
The best part of this novel, by far, were Chapoulet’s illustrations in my copy. I find the concept of the story very, very appealing, but after so long anticipating reading it, I was so let down by the execution. I found the prose unremarkable and the drama underwhelming. And I had a hard time swallowing Raoul and his Madonna-Whore complex. However, I liked enough of it (if most, sadly not what was in focus) that I’m still intrigued about watching the musical properly (as opposed to listening to a few songs).
Je ne prétends pas que ce livre est mauvais, mais je n'ai vraiment, vraiment pas accroché. Et pourtant, j'espérais tellement l'aimer.
J'ai trouvé la quasi totalité des personnages profondément irritants. En particulier les deux amoureux transis de Christine. Jaloux. Contrôlants. J'irais presque même jusqu'à pathétiques.
Raoul est un lâche impulsif. Il n'hésite pas à suivre un homme dont il ne sait strictement rien pour aller sauver Christine. En revanche, une fois piégé dans la salle de torture, il fait trop chaud donc monsieur s'assoit et laisse au persan le soin de faire tout le travail. Il aurait pu au moins tenter de chercher une issue avec lui, mais non, il se plaint, le ralentit, et se révèle aussi inutile que certaines disgressions du roman.
Quand au fantôme de l'opéra, qui aurait pu être un personnage sincèrement inquiétant, on le voit trop souvent pleurer et se lamenter pour le prendre au sérieux. Ce qui est dommage, surtout en sachant que le fantôme EST une menace sérieuse.
Les seuls passages de l'histoire qui m'ont vraiment plu étaient ceux du point de vue du persan, et c'est en grande partie dû au fait qu'il ne s'attarde pas autant que le reste sur le triangle amoureux et davantage sur la menace que représente le fantôme de l'opéra.
J'ai trouvé la quasi totalité des personnages profondément irritants. En particulier les deux amoureux transis de Christine. Jaloux. Contrôlants. J'irais presque même jusqu'à pathétiques.
Raoul est un lâche impulsif. Il n'hésite pas à suivre un homme dont il ne sait strictement rien pour aller sauver Christine. En revanche, une fois piégé dans la salle de torture, il fait trop chaud donc monsieur s'assoit et laisse au persan le soin de faire tout le travail. Il aurait pu au moins tenter de chercher une issue avec lui, mais non, il se plaint, le ralentit, et se révèle aussi inutile que certaines disgressions du roman.
Quand au fantôme de l'opéra, qui aurait pu être un personnage sincèrement inquiétant, on le voit trop souvent pleurer et se lamenter pour le prendre au sérieux. Ce qui est dommage, surtout en sachant que le fantôme EST une menace sérieuse.
Les seuls passages de l'histoire qui m'ont vraiment plu étaient ceux du point de vue du persan, et c'est en grande partie dû au fait qu'il ne s'attarde pas autant que le reste sur le triangle amoureux et davantage sur la menace que représente le fantôme de l'opéra.
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It was a touch and go for the book.
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes