Other editions of book The Phantom of the Opera

A half-crazed, disfigured musician living in the labyrinthine cellars of the Paris Opera House creates a series of strange and mysterious events to further the career of a beautiful young singer. Leroux's tale of the "phantom" is widely regarded as one of the most famous of all horror stories, yet that fame is based primarily on various film and stage versions. The book -- often neglected and seldom in print -- offers readers the original and complete saga of this immortal figure.

The classic Gothic horror novel of haunted cellars, opera, murder and unrequited love that inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical. Christine is a beautiful young singer at the Paris Opera. She is watched by the Opera's 'phantom' -- a mysterious masked figure who terrorises the Opera's management and players. With the Phantom's help, Christine rises to become the Opera's star performer, but when the Phantom demands her heart in return, Christine is torn between gratitude and pity for her strange benefactor, and love for her childhood sweetheart, Raoul.

Modern audiences are well acquainted with Gaston Leroux's infamous Phantom of the Opera, the tale of Erik, a horrifically disfigured man who lives in the underground beneath the Paris Opera House, where his creative genius mingles - and festers - with madness. First published in 1910, the Phantom's obsessive and consuming love for the beautiful young chorus girl Christine has captivated readers, film goers and musical theater fanatics for over 100 years. Passion, violence and suspense: all the makings of a great thriller are here, in this enduring novel where "hero" is a relative term and love is both destructive and redemptive.

Under the Paris Opera House lives a disfigured musical genius who uses music to win the love of a beautiful opera singer. The actors, singers, and patrons of the Paris Opera House say that a ghost haunts the labyrinthine chambers beneath its stage. Those who laugh off such superstitions always do so nervously, in the bright light of day. Nearly everyone connected with the opera house in any way has felt the phantom's vague, troubling presence. But beautiful, talented young singer Christine Daae will soon experience a terror far more acute than any vague feeling of unease. For she is about to learn the secret of why the man who has made the tunnels beneath Paris his private domain must forever hide his face behind a mask. Part horror story, part historical romance, and part detective thriller, the timeless tale of a masked, disfigured musical genius who lives beneath the Paris Opera House is familiar to millions of readers, as well as to movie and theater-goers. At the heart of the story's long-standing popularity lies its questioning of a universal theme: the relationship between outward appearance and the beauty or darkness of the human soul.

Under the Paris Opera House lives a disfigured musical genius who uses music to win the love of a beautiful opera singer. The actors, singers, and patrons of the Paris Opera House say that a ghost haunts the labyrinthine chambers beneath its stage. Those who laugh off such superstitions always do so nervously, in the bright light of day. Nearly everyone connected with the opera house in any way has felt the phantom's vague, troubling presence. But beautiful, talented young singer Christine Daae will soon experience a terror far more acute than any vague feeling of unease. For she is about to learn the secret of why the man who has made the tunnels beneath Paris his private domain must forever hide his face behind a mask. Part horror story, part historical romance, and part detective thriller, the timeless tale of a masked, disfigured musical genius who lives beneath the Paris Opera House is familiar to millions of readers, as well as to movie and theater-goers. At the heart of the story's long-standing popularity lies its questioning of a universal theme: the relationship between outward appearance and the beauty or darkness of the human soul.