Book # 2: The Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera; by Gaston Leroux 

     The second completed book for my summer challenge! I have also read this one before, but, in my defense, it was an abridged version, and it was a long time ago. Still, for the sake of fairness, I won’t do my retro-active reviews (because what purpose do they really serve, other than to tell me the things that I wished I had known about a book before I read it?). Instead, I shall babble as before – only much shorter.

     I really enjoy French authors. I’m not a huge Francophile, but they do write excellent literature! Gaston Leroux wrote a great book. It was cleverly told, as if it were a historical discovery, and mixed in rael people and events with the fictitious account of the disfigured phantom and the little soprano Christine Daae. The book, admittedly, was a bit creepy in some parts, but that was balanced out by the humor really well. The managers of the theater were most amusing! I also really enjoyed the way that Leroux would tell one part of the story, and would then double back to tell it again from a completely different point of view, and would thus fill in holes in the narrative!

     The Persian was my favorite character, by far. I wish that he had been included in the movie. I wasn’t a huge Raoul fan. He was just really whiney and he cried all the time! Just take the girl away from the opera house!!!!!!!!!!! No one can hurt you in the day time!!!!!!!!!!!!! But anyways, the whole Christine and Raoul romance wasn’t that exciting. I kind of wish that the whole book had been about the phantom before he came to Paris. His life sounded pretty exciting back then…

     Anyways, it was an excellent book. I couldn’t put it down. This post seems a bit abrupt and I must confess that I do feel the need to supplement it with something, so here’s a video of Antonio Banderas singing the Phantom of the Opera: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S88rkpPu8_g 

Next Book: The Black Arrow