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The Phantom of the Opera
by Gaston Leroux, Alexander Teixeira de Mattos
by Gaston Leroux, Alexander Teixeira de Mattos
I'm a fan of Gothic novels, so this was a fun read. I haven't heard the story of the Phantom since my parents took me to see the musical (incidentally, my cousin told me that the chandelier fell into the audience and I totally believed her).
I'm really fascinated by the idea of a labyrinthine second world under the opera house. Apparently Leroux set his story in the real Opera Garnier, which makes me wonder how much of the underground rooms actually exist. Wikipedia tells me that there really is an underground lake and that there actually was a chandelier incident that killed someone.
Christine's character is much less developed in the book, while Raoul is much more of a major player. I'm not sure which I prefer--Christine annoys me in the novel as much as Raoul annoyed me in the production. The real thing that keeps me from giving this book a higher rating is the dialogue. It seems really stilted and unrealistic to me, especially near the end (I can deal with the other unrealistic elements, but not the language). This may be a problem with this particular translation, however.
I'm really fascinated by the idea of a labyrinthine second world under the opera house. Apparently Leroux set his story in the real Opera Garnier, which makes me wonder how much of the underground rooms actually exist. Wikipedia tells me that there really is an underground lake and that there actually was a chandelier incident that killed someone.
Christine's character is much less developed in the book, while Raoul is much more of a major player. I'm not sure which I prefer--Christine annoys me in the novel as much as Raoul annoyed me in the production. The real thing that keeps me from giving this book a higher rating is the dialogue. It seems really stilted and unrealistic to me, especially near the end (I can deal with the other unrealistic elements, but not the language). This may be a problem with this particular translation, however.
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Jul 24, 2009 03:30am
The chandelier *does* fall into the audience in the musical, granted it falls short of squashing the audience members underneath but it does drop very low and at a very high speed. I saw in the West End in London two years ago and it very definitely does! It's one of the pivitol parts of both the musical and the novel.
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Verity-Jayne wrote: "The chandelier *does* fall into the audience in the musical, granted it falls short of squashing the audience members underneath but it does drop very low and at a very high speed. I saw in the Wes..."My cousin told me it literally fell on people. ;) They handled it differently when I saw it at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.--it swung from above the audience to the stage.
