Ein faszinierendes Buch. Die Geschichte kennt natürlich jeder, dieses Buch ist die Grundlage für ein weltbekanntes Musical und ist im Lauf der Zeit mehrfach verfilmt worden. Als ich irgendwann auf einem Bücherflohmarkt auf Das Phantom von Susan Kay gestoßen bin, habe ich beschlossen, dass ich dieses Buch zuerst lesen möchte, um zu wissen, auf welcher Grundlage Susan Kay ihr Buch geschrieben hat. Und ich wurde nicht enttäuscht und bin schon sehr gespannt, welche Lebensgeschichte sich Susan Kay für Erik ausgedacht hat.

Der Schreibstil ist schon ein wenig außergewöhnlich - zum einen ist man die auktoriale Erzählweise heute kaum noch gewohnt und stolpert doch ab und zu über die Anmerkungen des Erzählers zu seiner Recherche und die eingestreuten weiterführenden Informationen, die mit der eigentlichen Handlung nur bedingt zu tun haben. Zum anderen merkt man doch, dass dieses Buch (wie viele andere Klassiker auch) eigentlich als Fortsetzungsroman in einer Zeitung erschienen ist, weil die Spannungsbögen auf den jeweiligen Abschnitt zugeschnitten sind ( )

it's a fun gothic scary story. I think it has aged pretty well - although there are still a few words that were odd and some reactions that were laughable (but some of that is the fun of a gothic tale!)

I was pretty surprised by the book. I went to see the play years ago and kept asking my husband "did this happen" "did that happen" and I think we both agree - the play and the book are pretty different (but both were good!) ( )

This is by far the author's most famous novel, though this is largely due to its many and often very famous adaptations, from a now lost German film in 1916, though Lon Chaney's iconic 1925 film portrayal to Andrew Lloyd Webber's famous stage musical. I first read this in 1998 but had completely forgotten the detail, and have never, to the best of my recall, seen any adaptation of it. It has its moments of humour and horror, but overall I found it not very satisfying and the characters sometimes rather annoying. I prefer the author's locked-room The Mystery of the Yellow Room. That said, this deserves to be acknowledged as a classic of Gothic literature, albeit at the lighter end of the scale. At one point, the "ghost" is compared to the figure of death in Poe's much darker The Masque of the Red Death. ( )

Book 9 - Gaston Leroux - The Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera is there...inside my mind...

A joyous and sometimes disturbing journey through a short story I thought I knew so well.

Have always been fascinated by the old b&w scary movies - Nosferatu, Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy and the rest. After having heard a brilliant audio all star cast I wondered how close it was to the original early 1900s book.

An amazing story, told in many little short vignettes which is so appropriate for a tale told around an opera house. As for the Opera Ghost himself, I thought the Lon Chaney silent 1920s Classic was horrific, it had nothing on the actual description. Never have I felt the need to stop and go and do something else lighter for a while...wow.

A wonderful sidestep into the macabre and downright spookiness of a classic tale. ( )

I was more-or-less familiar with the plot before reading this book, since I've seen Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. However, comparing the musical to the original book is like comparing the movie adaptations of Dracula to their source material. You can see the similarities, but the adaptations better suit a modern audience. I'm glad I read this original book, since it is a classic and I'd been curious how closely the musical stuck to the original text, but I don't think I'll need to read it again. ( )