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The Gaston Leroux Bedside Companion: Weird Stories
Eight splendidly chilling tales of horror by the author of The Phantom of the Opera. Tales of macabre murders, of hauntings, of cannibalism: of a grisly gathering of armless and legless people; of a gambler who cannot lose but longs to do so; of the girl who finds herself married to the public executioner; of an appalling night in a waxworks museum; of murder at Christmas; of a husband who guillotine his wife; of a pact with the Devil; and a new twist to the story of the dreadful inn from which few travelers emerge alive.
The stories collected here, most of them written in the 1920s when Leroux was at his peak, have long been unavailable, and the book is a must for all connoisseurs of the weird tale.
*Introduction: The Master of the Grand Guignol
*A Terrible Tale
*The Mystery of the Four Husbands
*The Inn of Terror
*The Woman with the Velvet Collar
*The Crime on Christmas Night
*In Letters of Fire
*The Gold Axe
*The Waxwork Museum
*The Real Opera Ghost
The stories collected here, most of them written in the 1920s when Leroux was at his peak, have long been unavailable, and the book is a must for all connoisseurs of the weird tale.
*Introduction: The Master of the Grand Guignol
*A Terrible Tale
*The Mystery of the Four Husbands
*The Inn of Terror
*The Woman with the Velvet Collar
*The Crime on Christmas Night
*In Letters of Fire
*The Gold Axe
*The Waxwork Museum
*The Real Opera Ghost
160 pages, Hardcover
First published July 17, 1980
2 people are currently reading
73 people want to read
About the author
Gaston Leroux
1,122 books1,086 followersGaston Louis Alfred Leroux was a French journalist and author of detective fiction.
In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera (Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, 1910), which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name, such as the 1925 film starring Lon Chaney, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical. It was also the basis of the 1990 novel Phantom by Susan Kay.
Leroux went to school in Normandy and studied law in Paris, graduating in 1889. He inherited millions of francs and lived wildly until he nearly reached bankruptcy. Then in 1890, he began working as a court reporter and theater critic for L'Écho de Paris. His most important journalism came when he began working as an international correspondent for the Paris newspaper Le Matin. In 1905 he was present at and covered the Russian Revolution. Another case he was present at involved the investigation and deep coverage of an opera house in Paris, later to become a ballet house. The basement consisted of a cell that held prisoners in the Paris Commune, which were the rulers of Paris through much of the Franco-Prussian war.
He suddenly left journalism in 1907, and began writing fiction. In 1909, he and Arthur Bernède formed their own film company, Société des Cinéromans to simultaneously publish novels and turn them into films. He first wrote a mystery novel entitled Le mystère de la chambre jaune (1908; The Mystery of the Yellow Room), starring the amateur detective Joseph Rouletabille. Leroux's contribution to French detective fiction is considered a parallel to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's in the United Kingdom and Edgar Allan Poe's in America. Leroux died in Nice on April 15, 1927, of a urinary tract infection.
In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera (Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, 1910), which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name, such as the 1925 film starring Lon Chaney, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical. It was also the basis of the 1990 novel Phantom by Susan Kay.
Leroux went to school in Normandy and studied law in Paris, graduating in 1889. He inherited millions of francs and lived wildly until he nearly reached bankruptcy. Then in 1890, he began working as a court reporter and theater critic for L'Écho de Paris. His most important journalism came when he began working as an international correspondent for the Paris newspaper Le Matin. In 1905 he was present at and covered the Russian Revolution. Another case he was present at involved the investigation and deep coverage of an opera house in Paris, later to become a ballet house. The basement consisted of a cell that held prisoners in the Paris Commune, which were the rulers of Paris through much of the Franco-Prussian war.
He suddenly left journalism in 1907, and began writing fiction. In 1909, he and Arthur Bernède formed their own film company, Société des Cinéromans to simultaneously publish novels and turn them into films. He first wrote a mystery novel entitled Le mystère de la chambre jaune (1908; The Mystery of the Yellow Room), starring the amateur detective Joseph Rouletabille. Leroux's contribution to French detective fiction is considered a parallel to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's in the United Kingdom and Edgar Allan Poe's in America. Leroux died in Nice on April 15, 1927, of a urinary tract infection.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 28, 2021
This was exactly up my alley. I love obscure horror short stories by otherwise well-known Victorian writers. “A Terrible Tale” was the stand-out for me in this collection; absolutely horrifying, and turned my stomach.
September 30, 2012
I have to say this is an excellent book. I found it absolutely terrifying. It has been a while since I read it but I have read it a few times. Some of the short stories are disturbing, creepy and Leroux builds the suspense very well.
September 20, 2018
I am familiar with the name of Gaston Leroux because of The Phantom of the Opera, but this is the first of his work that I have read. I love short horror stories, so I was eager to read this collection. Leroux's series of stories are connected by a group of retired sailors, who all gather at a local cafe to outdo each other with tails of terror. Leroux has a witty, pithy style that manages to convey terror in only a few words. His short stories are compelling, and the endings are not always obvious, although they turn out to be quite logical (and often not supernatural). Standouts include the first story, "A Terrible Tale" which has an excellent buildup to the denouement; "The Waxwork Museum", which reads like a classic; and "The Woman with the Velvet Collar" which bears a strong similarity to that classic horror story, The Velvet Ribbon, of which many readers of short horror stories will have read a variation. It could, in fact, be the origin of the tale, as The Velvet Ribbon reads like a simplified version of Leroux's tale.
The only thing that really dates this collection is that most of the stories concentrate on how beautiful a young woman is, and how that beauty either brings about her own damnation, or that of the men who are unlucky enough to fall in love with her.
Still, an enjoyable collection that is worth reading for lovers of short stories. One notable thing is that the introduction to this book was written in 1979, and Peter Haining discusses Leroux's legacy in cinema and literature, and all the adaptations of The Phantom of the Opera so far. This was written before Lloyd Webber's hugely influential musical adaptation, so I can only imagine what Haining would write about Leroux's legacy now!
The only thing that really dates this collection is that most of the stories concentrate on how beautiful a young woman is, and how that beauty either brings about her own damnation, or that of the men who are unlucky enough to fall in love with her.
Still, an enjoyable collection that is worth reading for lovers of short stories. One notable thing is that the introduction to this book was written in 1979, and Peter Haining discusses Leroux's legacy in cinema and literature, and all the adaptations of The Phantom of the Opera so far. This was written before Lloyd Webber's hugely influential musical adaptation, so I can only imagine what Haining would write about Leroux's legacy now!
Want to read
April 3, 2025Read so far:
*A terrible tale (Une histoire epouvantable)
*The mystery of the four husbands
The inn of terror (L'auberge epouvantable)
The woman with the velvet collar (La femme au collier de velours)--3
The crime on Christmas night (Le noel du petit Vincent-Vincent)
*The letters of fire (L'homme qui a vu le diable)
The gold axe (La hache d'or)
The waxwork museum
The real opera ghost--see The Phantom of the Opera
*A terrible tale (Une histoire epouvantable)
*The mystery of the four husbands
The inn of terror (L'auberge epouvantable)
The woman with the velvet collar (La femme au collier de velours)--3
The crime on Christmas night (Le noel du petit Vincent-Vincent)
*The letters of fire (L'homme qui a vu le diable)
The gold axe (La hache d'or)
The waxwork museum
The real opera ghost--see The Phantom of the Opera
March 13, 2015
Good stories of blood and terror as advertised. The editor apparently intentionally misrepresented the story "The Waxwork Museum" as by Leroux. It is really by Andre de Lorde.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews