As part of the Phantom Reading & Viewing Challenge I’m hosting this year (you can still join us!) in February I reread the story that began it all, Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera. I’ve read it at least twice (probably three times?) before, but it’s been a few years since my last read. The first time I was entirely new to the story, and hadn’t seen or read any other version. The second and possible third times, I was comparing to numerous other versions and also looking for ideas for my own version of the story. This time, I found myself fascinated by how uncertain an account it really is – more than most books, Leroux’s Phantom has the potential to be completely altered depending on how much we trust the narrators, and I wonder how this influenced all those later versions.
On the surface, the story is essentially as it is in later versions, although Leroux’s focus is a little different than most, putting much more of the spotlight on Raoul. From this angle, it becomes a story of the young nobleman trying to unravel the mystery of what’s going on with Christine Daaé, opera singer and love interest. Raoul eventually finds himself contending with Erik, a skeletal, masked man who lives below the Opera Garnier, posing as a ghost. Raoul’s story is intercut with the almost unrelated account of the Opera’s managers as they try to cope with the pranks and extortion of the Opera Ghost.
Most later versions shift the focus to be less on Raoul and much more on Christine and the Phantom. And personally, I find the Phantom a far more interesting character than Raoul, so that seems like a good choice! But in Leroux, the different focus changes how we learn some key portions of the story and, with some other narrative choices, opens up room for doubt.
Continue reading “Book Review: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux”
Last year, when I was trying to read more love stories, One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid, made it onto my list. It didn’t actually get read until this year, which is in a way too bad–because it was very good! But even if it didn’t serve my “read more love stories” goal of last year, it’s meeting this year’s “read that To Be Read list” goal instead.
I love to read, but I also really love getting enough sleep, and I’m generally pretty good at not staying up too late because of reading (for other reasons, sometimes!) The last time I can distinctly remember staying up later than I intended because I wanted to continue a book was Jane Eyre, 5+ years ago. Until last week, when I couldn’t bring myself to stop reading The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. I can’t say that it will join my list of absolute top favorites, as Jane Eyre did, but it’s a probable winner for this year’s “hardest book to put down”!
You may have noticed the blog was quieter than usual last week – my marketing job had me in Las Vegas for a conference, which rather overwhelmed everything else for a few days! I did very little reading while I was traveling–and then spent the weekend after doing little else, recharging my introvert batteries after being surrounded by hundreds of people. I spent a good bulk of the past few days tearing through Incarnate by Jodi Meadows. It was a great way to recharge.
In high school, The Red Tent by Anita Diamant was on a list of optional summer reading–we had to read something from the list but not everything, and I opted to read something else. I heard good things about the book from friends though, and it’s been floating at the back of my mind as something I ought to read some time ever since. I’ve been reading through Genesis in the Bible recently and came to the portion about Jacob and his family–and decided it was time to finally get The Red Tent off my mental to-read list. And after fifteen or so years…I felt mixed about the book!
Tales of the Marvelous 