[Mrs. Y Reviews] The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

Book Cover via Amazon.com

On this grand day of romance, I considered many classical books that could have been reviewed during my #StayClassyFeb reviews. Shakespeare, or maybe the Greek adventures, or perhaps even one of the traditional romance novels, surely I could have chosen one of these? However, I thought about it, and I realized there was one book that was romantic and a little more dangerous. It wasn’t just about the intrigues of love, but about adventure, terror, and based in some truth. Chose between the scorpion and the grasshopper, be wary of the lake siren and whatever you do, make sure you have the footstool ready in Box number 5. It is time for a review of “The Phantom of the Opera” by Gaston Leroux. 

Opinion

Bonjour my readers. I hope this day is full of sweets and goodness. On my part, I give you something bittersweet and a bit horrific, but with all the drama and prompt of a romance novel. In light of all the things that are scary and different, this story covers a broad range of topics. This is also an inspiration for one of the most amazing musicals I’ve ever seen, but I’m happy to report that the book to me is far more intriguing than the musical. I picked this up on Kindle Unlimited.

First, let’s go into my first impressions, and that has to do with how the tale is presented. Long before the “Recently discovered video” trend of horror films, there was specifically “The Phantom of the Opera.” From the opening line, it is presented to the reader as though it were a documentary. “Oh yes, this happened” starts the story and there are facts presented throughout. For me, someone who loves mystery, that was an exciting way to start this. The author treats us to “facts” along the way, everything from eyewitness testimony to letters, to newspaper documentation. All that a healthy imagination needs to be fueled by a tale that sounds terrible.

Let’s go into a few critiques, and my first is “Story Structure, Foundation, and Presentation” in my scoring. I’m feeling like a  broken record but it’s a critique none the less here, and that is no spacing between paragraphs or markings in this e-copy. There is a bit of a breath between things in that there is some nice indenting going along, but it’s confusing when it comes to dialog. Everything can get indented strangely throughout a conversation, and that is not much of an eye break.

My next critique, some of the sentences or quotation starts are not adequately capitalized giving the book less than a polished gaze.

My last critique all under the same category, abuse of ellipsis though. For the record, an ellipsis is to be used where dialog stops but is intended to begin again. An ellipsis is not a replacement for a comma. While yes most of the ellipsis use I found was in the dialog, it was sporadic, and there were many points where it was used in place of a comma.  I’m not sure why in of all novels “The Phantom of the Opera” has punctuation errors like an eleven-year old’s Naruto fanfic, but it does. I don’t remember this the first time I read it, but then again, I’ve read this book off and on since I was fifteen so I might have just forgotten it.

Here’s what I ultimately love about this novel. Firstly, the story is not the beautiful intrigue that the musical makes one believe. Not one bit, this story is far more devious and sinister than all of that. The detail work that is done through this book, including the “facts” that are added, are well done. It’s put together to sound almost like a documentary might, or an expose.

When we go to the second part, and that is the antagonist, he’s my favorite part of the book.  I think the best part of the book is the fact that someone can have all the power and skills of the world, and still want simplicity. Here we have someone who was balanced as a character in many ways in the Phantom. On the one end, he has a severe disability and disfigurement. On the other end, he was a powerful man, very talented and supremely intelligent. All that man wanted was simple things. To have a villain whose goal is simple in the end, but so very complicated to get there, is a decent premise for one. If we look at modern stories, even current films, some of the best villains are the ones who are grounded in simple principals. I feel that opposing sides of a plot are better suited by something both believable and sympathetic. Take Thanos for example from the Marvel films, He’s the ultimate villain at the end of 20 movies, and he did so because he wanted things to be balanced and straightforward. That same kind of character is that of our villain. Here we have a character with deep motivations, an amazing intimidation factor, and charisma. Like the Joker to Batman, this Antagonist is fighting for the same thing the Main Character is, and neither end up happy entirely at the end of the story.

The last part of this book was set to love, and what love means to different people. In the quest of both the protagonist and antagonist, we find that love is so important. It leaves me with a thought, what does love mean to you? For our villain, it was one thing, for our protagonist, while similar it was mirrored differently. Each had a desire, but both looked at the desire differently.

So on this Valentine's Day, I’d like to encourage you to consider love and believe it’s elements in your life.

Score

Moreover, with that my friends, I give you a resounding 90/100 for the score of “The Phantom of the Opera.” That’s a five-star review on Amazon and Goodreads. This is a perfect book for cuddling with someone, drinking wine, and reading together. I hope it brings you a beautiful night.

Until next time!