The Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera, by
Gaston Leroux

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Title: The Phantom of the Opera
Author: Gaston Leroux

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The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux Author of "The Mystery
of the Yellow Room" and "The Perfume of the Lady in Black"

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

Contents
Chapter PROLOGUE
I IS IT A GHOST? II THE NEW MARGARITA III THE
MYSTERIOUS REASON IV BOX FIVE V THE ENCHANTED
VIOLIN VI A VISIT TO BOX FIVE VII FAUST AND WHAT

FOLLOWED VIII THE MYSTERIOUS BROUGHAM IX AT THE
MASKED BALL X FORGET THE NAME OF THE MAN'S VOICE
XI ABOVE THE TRAP-DOORS XII APOLLO'S LYRE XIII A
MASTER-STROKE OF THE TRAP-DOOR LOVER XIV THE
SINGULAR ATTITUDE OF A SAFETY-PIN XV CHRISTINE!
CHRISTINE! XVI MME. GIRY'S REVELATIONS XVII THE
SAFETY-PIN AGAIN XVIII THE COMMISSARY, THE
VISCOUNT AND THE PERSIAN XIX THE VISCOUNT AND THE
PERSIAN XX IN THE CELLARS OF THE OPERA XXI
INTERESTING VICISSITUDES XXII IN THE TORTURE
CHAMBER XXIII THE TORTURES BEGIN XXIV BARRELS!
BARRELS! XXV THE SCORPION OR THE GRASSHOPPER:
WHICH XXVI THE END OF THE GHOST'S LOVE STORY
EPILOGUE
{plus a "bonus chapter" called "THE PARIS OPERA HOUSE"}

The Phantom of the Opera

Prologue
IN WHICH THE AUTHOR OF THIS SINGULAR WORK INFORMS
THE READER HOW HE ACQUIRED THE CERTAINTY THAT
THE OPERA GHOST REALLY EXISTED
The Opera ghost really existed. He was not, as was long believed, a
creature of the imagination of the artists, the superstition of the
managers, or a product of the absurd and impressionable brains of the
young ladies of the ballet, their mothers, the box-keepers, the
cloak-room attendants or the concierge. Yes, he existed in flesh and
blood, although he assumed the complete appearance of a real phantom;
that is to say, of a spectral shade.
When I began to ransack the archives of the National Academy of
Music I was at once struck by the surprising coincidences between the

phenomena ascribed to the "ghost" and the most extraordinary and
fantastic tragedy that ever excited the Paris upper classes; and I soon
conceived the idea that this tragedy might reasonably be explained by
the phenomena in question. The events do not date more than thirty
years back; and it would not be difficult to find at the present day, in
the foyer of the ballet, old men of the highest respectability, men upon
whose word one could absolutely rely, who would remember as though
they happened yesterday the mysterious and dramatic conditions that
attended the kidnapping of Christine Daae, the disappearance of the
Vicomte de Chagny and the death of his elder brother, Count Philippe,
whose body was found on the bank of the lake that exists in the lower
cellars of the Opera on the Rue-Scribe side. But none of those
witnesses had until that day thought that there was any reason for
connecting the more or less legendary figure of the Opera ghost with
that terrible story.
The truth was slow to enter my mind, puzzled by an inquiry that at
every moment was complicated by events which, at first sight, might be
looked upon as superhuman; and more than once I was within an ace of
abandoning a task in which I was exhausting myself in the hopeless
pursuit of a vain image. At last, I received the