The Phantom of the Opera
By Gaston Leroux
A disfigured musical genius haunts the Paris Opera House and falls obsessively in love with a young soprano.
Table of Contents
It was the evening on which MM. Debienne and Poligny, the managers of the Opera, were giving a last gala performance to mark their retirement. Suddenly the dressing-room of La Sor...
On the first landing, Sorelli ran against the Comte de Chagny, who was coming up-stairs. The count, who was generally so calm, seemed greatly excited. "I was just going to you," h...
During this time, the farewell ceremony was taking place. I have already said that this magnificent function was being given on the occasion of the retirement of M. Debienne and M...
Armand Moncharmin wrote such voluminous Memoirs during the fairly long period of his co-management that we may well ask if he ever found time to attend to the affairs of the Opera ...
Christine Daae, owing to intrigues to which I will return later, did not immediately continue her triumph at the Opera. After the famous gala night, she sang once at the Duchess d...
We left M. Firmin Richard and M. Armand Moncharmin at the moment when they were deciding "to look into that little matter of Box Five." Leaving behind them the broad staircase whi...
On the Saturday morning, on reaching their office, the joint managers found a letter from O. G. worded in these terms: MY DEAR MANAGERS: So it is to be war between us? If you st...
That tragic evening was bad for everybody. Carlotta fell ill. As for Christine Daae, she disappeared after the performance. A fortnight elapsed during which she was seen neither...
The envelope was covered with mud and unstamped. It bore the words "To be handed to M. le Vicomte Raoul de Chagny," with the address in pencil. It must have been flung out in the...
The day after Christine had vanished before his eyes in a sort of dazzlement that still made him doubt the evidence of his senses, M. le Vicomte de Chagny called to inquire at Mamm...
The next day, he saw her at the Opera. She was still wearing the plain gold ring. She was gentle and kind to him. She talked to him of the plans which he was forming, of his fut...
On this way, they reached the roof. Christine tripped over it as lightly as a swallow. Their eyes swept the empty space between the three domes and the triangular pediment. She ...
Raoul and Christine ran, eager to escape from the roof and the blazing eyes that showed only in the dark; and they did not stop before they came to the eighth floor on the way down...
Behind the curtain, there was an indescribable crowd. Artists, scene-shifters, dancers, supers, choristers, subscribers were all asking questions, shouting and hustling one anothe...
Raoul's first thought, after Christine Daae's fantastic disappearance, was to accuse Erik. He no longer doubted the almost supernatural powers of the Angel of Music, in this domai...
Relations with the Opera Ghost Before following the commissary into the manager's office I must describe certain extraordinary occurrences that took place in that office which Rem...
Moncharmin's last phrase so dearly expressed the suspicion in which he now held his partner that it was bound to cause a stormy explanation, at the end of which it was agreed that ...
The first words of the commissary of police, on entering the managers' office, were to ask after the missing prima donna. "Is Christine Daae here?" "Christine Daae here?" echoed ...
Raoul now remembered that his brother had once shown him that mysterious person, of whom nothing was known except that he was a Persian and that he lived in a little old-fashioned ...
"Your hand high, ready to fire!" repeated Raoul's companion quickly. The wall, behind them, having completed the circle which it described upon itself, closed again; and the two m...
the Cellars of the Opera THE PERSIAN'S NARRATIVE It was the first time that I entered the house on the lake. I had often begged the "trap-door lover," as we used to call Erik in...
THE PERSIAN'S NARRATIVE CONTINUED We were in the middle of a little six-cornered room, the sides of which were covered with mirrors from top to bottom. In the corners, we could c...
THE PERSIAN'S NARRATIVE CONTINUED. The voice repeated angrily: "What have you done with my bag? So it was to take my bag that you asked me to release you!" We heard hurried ste...
THE PERSIAN'S NARRATIVE CONTINUED I have said that the room in which M. le Vicomte de Chagny and I were imprisoned was a regular hexagon, lined entirely with mirrors. Plenty of t...
THE PERSIAN'S NARRATIVE CONCLUDED The discovery flung us into a state of alarm that made us forget all our past and present sufferings. We now knew all that the monster meant to ...
The previous chapter marks the conclusion of the written narrative which the Persian left behind him. Notwithstanding the horrors of a situation which seemed definitely to abandon...