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jahlapenos 's review for:
The Phantom of the Opera
by Gaston Leroux
I think I probably enjoyed this more reading it now than I did whenever I read it in high school or junior high when I was too enthralled by Lloyd Webber's Phantom to let Leroux's stand on its own. Granted it was difficult to read without Lloyd Webber's music playing in the background and juxtaposing what I knew of it (i.e. characters, costumes, vocal inflections) onto what Leroux wrote, but there is so much more here. The Phantom isn't just the ugly father-figure in love with his pupil-daughter: he appears to be all things that frighten a staunch middle class, even extending to gender (e.g. in at least two points he is the siren that attempts to lead men to a watery grave).
Leroux's writing can at times be quite pulpy, but I'm sure this made it even more popular at the time and more readable now. It brought not only a horrific story but a look into the world of Parisian Opera; at times, it seemed that Leroux point in writing had less to do with the Phantom, Christine, and Raoul but more with the Opera building itself: the catwalks, the cellars, the stage, and the horror story itself was just dressing...the opera being performed on stage, so that we could see the performance from our box, the spine tingling chill of sitting in Box Five, which to some degree, that is what the book is - the vicarious thrill of the opera, the play, something we can experience from the safety of an enclosed space.
Leroux's writing can at times be quite pulpy, but I'm sure this made it even more popular at the time and more readable now. It brought not only a horrific story but a look into the world of Parisian Opera; at times, it seemed that Leroux point in writing had less to do with the Phantom, Christine, and Raoul but more with the Opera building itself: the catwalks, the cellars, the stage, and the horror story itself was just dressing...the opera being performed on stage, so that we could see the performance from our box, the spine tingling chill of sitting in Box Five, which to some degree, that is what the book is - the vicarious thrill of the opera, the play, something we can experience from the safety of an enclosed space.