For most people I would think that this is first and foremost a musical. Surely there is knowledge that there is a literary model for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical. But how many have actually read it? Vanishingly few compared to how many know the story through the musical, I would think.
My own first contact with The Phantom of the Opera was of course through the world of film. If there is one thing I am interested in, it is film and film history and I write far more film reviews than those about literature, which is also a relatively newfound interest. I don’t remember which film adaptation I saw first, but there are countless and I have now seen a few of them. But hey! I think I lied, my asolute first contact with the story was probably through the Iron Maiden song bearing the name.
But anyway, what most people, and the the musical, have in common is that the “ghost” is not actually evil, just misunderstood and head over heels in love with Christine Daaé. The question I asked myself was whether it was the same with the book or whether the story has been distorted and made “kinder” over the years. After all, it is over a hundred years old by now and was written in 1909-1910!
At first, I thought I recognized the mystery and the ghost’s supernatural way of being everywhere at once and also having the ability to constantly know everything about everyone. It is quite romanticized and that fits well, with the musical anyway! I get visual internal images of the story and words and I clearly recognize the environments. Maybe some of the characters behave a little differently than I had expected in some of the situations, but overall it is nothing really new. It is also a completely okay written story, nothing you jump for joy at but also nothing you put down out of boredom.
That is how it is until the last chapters start. That is when things start to seriously happen and the book begins to differ from the film adaptations and the musical. The storytelling technique also changes and instead of the author’s own words (as himself, describing the events) we now get to take part in eyewitness accounts from one of the people involved. These chapters are not that many in number but well worth reaching. This is when the book reaches its climax and starts to get really good! This is when it becomes almost impossible to put it down and this is when all the secrets come to the surface. Not that the book reveals everything before the last word anyway but we do get to know a lot of interesting facts!
For me, it was a fantastic book that I don’t regret buying when I found it cheap at a flea market or second-hand shop or wherever. It also means a new spark for my interest in The Phantom of the Opera which will eventually result in a number of reviews of the various film adaptations.
