![]() ![]() To read the novel is to travel back in time: the prose (though not in the original French, the translated English still possesses an aura of late nineteenth century/early twentieth writing) might eerily remind one of a somewhat fantasized realist fiction. The reader is left by herself to explore how Leroux brings together the various dominant literary themes of the time. How is it possible to fall into the torture chamber from a cellar in the Opera House? What does it mean to have an iron tree? How hot and unbearable did it actually get in the chamber when the Persian and Raoul where in it? These parts are entirely left out of the movies and the musicals by which most people know the story. One takes leaps in their imagination to think about how a lake under an Opera House - one with a quasi-mythical creature (the Siren) guarding it. On the other hand, the kind of dark themes present in the novel - themes of suspense, thrill, uncertainty, and horror - could only take full effect on the reader if they manifest themselves in the imagination. This may be due to the stage constraint of the ease with which the different acts can be performed: to genuinely portray and carry out the drowning scene in Erik's chamber towards the end of the novel might prove incredibly difficult from a practical standpoint. What may be the most important is the absence of the Persian from the Broadway and Hollywood performances. However we see some very interesting (and important) differences between the novel and its popular culture counterparts. ![]() Looking at the history of the novel itself, we see that most people that have heard of The Phantom of the Operahave not heard about it by reading the novel: rather, they know it through some Hollywood or Broadway/West End rendition. ![]()
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