.gif)
Phantom (novel)
Encyclopedia
Phantom is a 1990 novel by Susan Kay
, based on the Gaston Leroux
novel The Phantom of the Opera
.
, a small town not far from Rouen
, in the summer of 1831. His father is a well-known stonemason and dies in a construction accident a few months before his son is born. His mother is the beautiful and talented daughter of an English woman and a French architect. A spoiled and vain woman, she scorns her deformed child from birth and cannot bring herself to name him. Instead, she instructs the elderly priest who baptises
him to name the child after himself. Due to his mother's shame but also for his own safety, Erik is forced to spend his childhood locked in his home lest he or his mother become a target for the violent attentions of the very superstitious villagers of Boscherville.
Much of the verbal and physical abuse Erik suffers from his mother is chronicled in the opening chapters of the novel. One such event occurs on his fifth birthday when he is refused to wear the cloth mask to the dinner table. His mother drags him before the only mirror in the house in retaliation and upon seeing his visage, Erik mistakes his reflection for that of a horrible monster. He shatters the mirror, lacerating his hands and wrists, and his mother is unable to bring herself to tend to his wounds. A family friend, Marie Perrault, bandages the wounds and saves his life, but Erik is left forever physically and emotionally scarred from this event. After this, Erik becomes morbidly fascinated with mirrors and believes that they are capable of performing magic. This fascination turns into an obsession and Erik quickly becomes a master of illusion, able to make people see only what he wants them to see. Says Erik of his abilities, "I can make anything disappear, if I really want to. Anything except my face."
From a young age, Erik exhibits a strong interest in architecture and is privately tutored by a well-respected professor. However, his strongest abilities lie in the subject of music and he is an incredibly talented composer and performer. However, his mother does not encourage his pursuit of singing, claiming that his supernaturally beautiful voice cannot be one created by God.
When he was nine years old, Erik's mother begins to receive the attentions of the handsome, new town physician. This doctor makes it clear that he believes that a child such as Erik belongs in an institution for the mentally insane, and Erik begins to desperately try to win his mother's affections. He uses his rapidly developing skills of ventriloquism
to create the illusion of a perfect home and family. His mother begins to surrender her links on sanity but is forced to awaken when an attack on her home by a superstitious mob of villagers leaves the family dog, Sasha, dead and Erik seriously injured. The doctor comes to Erik's aid and saves his life, but begs his mother to marry him and send her child to an institution. Experiencing a sudden change of heart and pangs of remorse, Erik's mother cannot bring herself to abandon her child and refuses the proposal. She resolves to make amends for her treatment of her child, but discovers the next morning that Erik had run away. It is not until much later in the novel that it is revealed that Erik left believing that she had accepted the proposal of the doctor and had hoped to free her so that she may live happily.
After a week or so without food and still healing from the attack, Erik stumbles upon a Gypsy camp in the woods. He is discovered as a thief and is unmasked. Upon seeing his severely deformed face, a freak show
showman named Javert decides to exhibit him as the "Living Corpse" and Erik is forced to spend the next several weeks locked in a cage. Eventually, he gains some personal freedoms such as his own tent as he develops his show to include the illusions that he had begun to master as a child in Boscherville. He travels around Europe
with the Gypsies and masters their languages as well as their herbal remedies. His quick mind and inhuman abilities garner him the fear of many of the Gypsy tribe. He remains with the tribe until he is about 12 years old, leaving only after he is forced to murder his master in order to evade rape
.
Erik continues to join up with travelling fairs and while performing at a fair in Rome
meets Giovanni, a master mason who would take the boy on as his apprentice. Erik quickly masters the aspects of the design and construction of buildings and stays with Giovanni until age 15. He spends a few happy years under the man's tutelage, but is forced to leave when he is inadvertently involved in the death of Luciana, Giovanni's youngest and favorite daughter. Erik's whereabouts are unknown for several years after this event, but it is assumed that he continued to travel throughout Europe and into Asia, occasionally performing with travelling fairs.
Four years later, Erik is sought out by the Daroga of Mazanderan Court and becomes a court assassin, magician, and personal engineer to the Persian Shah
. He becomes responsible for the entertainment of the Khanum, the Shah's mother, and builds sophisticated trap
s and torture devices for her amusement. In addition he is involved in the design and construction of a palace for the Shah, throughout that time becoming involved in political affairs which make him a target for a poisioning attempt from which he nearly dies. Much of these years are a personal hell for Erik, and he soon becomes an opium addict. Erik eventually stops using opium due to his fear that it will damage his voice and switches to morphine
.
After construction on the palace is finished, the Shah fears that Erik knows too many of his personal secrets and, with the influence of the Khanum, arranges to have him arrested and put to death. Nadir, the Daroga who has befriended him, helps him to escape the guards, and Erik eventually makes his way back to France
.
Since early childhood, Erik has wished to eventually become the designer for a Paris Opera House. Unfortunately for him, the contest for the position is over by the time he learns of it in his perusal of his mother's old newspapers after her death. He approaches the winner, Charles Garnier, and makes a deal with him wherein he may help design and build the Palais Garnier Opera House. Below the Opera House, an artificial lake is created during its construction using eight hydraulic pumps because of problems with the ground water level that keep rising. Without the knowledge of the other workers, Erik builds a maze of tunnels and corridors in the lower levels. Past the underground lake, he builds a lair for himself, where he may live protected from the public. Ensconced here, he rides out the strife and misery of the 1871 Paris Commune
.
Besides being a brilliant inventor and engineer, Erik is also a musical genius, and he is frequently involved in the affairs the opera house in order to listen to operas and interfere with the manager's bad taste. Because he cannot show his distorted face in public, he takes the disguise of a ghost, using violence in order to blackmail
the opera managers and bind them to his will, exploiting the employees' superstitions to maintain his power and his knowledge about the building's secret passage
s for access to every part of the building without notice. With increasing amorality, he threatens those who refused his demands via letters and even kills some employees as warnings. However, he treats those who were loyal to him and obey his command, such as Madame Giry, very kindly.
The rest of the book is largely based around the original Phantom of the Opera novel - though it differs on several points - following the relationship between Erik and the object of his desire, Christine Daae, and switching back and forth between their points of view. Christine, timid and frail, is frightened of Erik - it is revealed that she is indeed in love with him, but she is frightened of her feelings, and is unable to come completely to terms with his appearance. Because of this, she pursues a relationship with Raoul de Chagny, a young nobleman, while still frequently visiting Erik in his underground home.
When Erik offers her a proposal of marriage, stating that it would be a temporary state of affairs (as he himself, owing to the prior poisoning attempt on his life in Persia, has begun to suffer extreme ill health and believes that he has roughly six months to live), Christine becomes agitated and returns to the world above. Considering his request to return to his home and give him an answer, whether it be "yes" or "no," Christine cannot bear the thought of hurting Erik by refusing him. She ultimately decides to flee with Raoul after her next performance, using it as her symbolic goodbye. Erik, however, has become aware of her plans and has been driven into a jealous, hurt frenzy; he kidnaps her during the performance and takes her to his home, while Nadir, who has been following Erik's activities, leads Raoul to the house underground in an attempt to free Christine.
When Nadir and Raoul fall into Erik's torture chamber, a device created specifically to drive its occupants insane and ultimately suicidal, it is revealed that Erik plans to blow up the entire Opera House if Christine does not agree to marry him. Christine finally agrees, and an underground chamber stocked with gunpowder begins to fill with water in order to douse the danger; the water begins to fill up the torture chamber as well, threatening Nadir and Raoul with imminent death by drowning. Christine, who has at last fully realized her feelings for Erik, kisses him passionately on the mouth (a change from the original Leroux novel, in which she merely bestows a chaste kiss on his forehead); this act changes Erik, making him realize the futility of further violence. He stops the water in the chamber, and rescues Nadir and Raoul from their fates, allowing Raoul to leave with Christine and stating his wish for the two young people to marry; his only stipulation is that he would like for Christine to visit him one more time before his death. Raoul agrees in order to placate him, even though he has no intention of allowing such a thing; once their wedding-day draws near, however, Christine backlashes against Raoul's insistence that she never see Erik again and goes herself to visit him.
When Raoul - who tells the remainder of the novel from his point of view - learns of Christine's return to Erik, he descends himself into the underground home to fetch her, but is detained by Nadir, who refuses to let him enter the room where Erik is dying. Christine emerges from this room some time later after Erik has died, and returns to the upper world with Raoul. They marry, and a few months later, Christine reveals that she is pregnant. Though both are overjoyed at the news, the pregnancy is very difficult for Christine, and she almost dies in childbirth. The doctor is forced to perform a Cesarean section in order to save her life and that of the child - Raoul is initially opposed to this, as he believes that the baby is premature and cannot possibly survive outside of its mother's womb - making the procedure an unnecessary risk on Christine's life - but the doctor assures him that the baby is full-term. This causes Raoul to realize, due to timing, that the child cannot possibly be his, and is in fact Erik's.
Despite this, Raoul raises the child as his own, never mentioning to Christine that he knows about the child's parentage. The boy, named Charles, has escaped his father's fate and is physically perfect. Christine dies when Charles is twelve, and Raoul goes on to raise him.
The last line of the novel is "The cuckoo is a very beautiful bird!" which carries the implication of cuckolding, and refers to the cuckoo
bird's habit of laying its eggs in other birds' nests, but also of the beauty of adoption and acceptance.
's musical: several phrases from the musical's lyrics are used to describe certain circumstances in the book. There are also nods to the Lon Chaney
film version of the story. As well, just the author's own tweaking and altering to fit the "Erik" she had developed in her own mind, and wanted to read/write about (as proclaimed in her own afterword). The character of Javert shares his name with the obsessive police captain who hunts Jean Valjean for twenty years in Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables. The storyline surrounding Erik's vain, childish mother bears some glancing similarities to Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary; like Emma Bovary, she lives in a stultifyingly provincial town and is courted by a medical man.
In total, it took Kay eighteen months to complete the novel, during which time she traveled to the United States
and Rome
and researched various aspects of nineteenth-century life in the countries in which the novel was set. Among her references were Munro Butler Johnson's A Trip up the Volga to the Fair of Nijni-Novgorod; Curzon
's Persia and the Persian Question; Lady Shell's "Eyewitness account of Persian court life in the mid-nineteenth century" and Christopher Mead's thesis on Charles Garnier
.
However, despite the many sources that Kay drew on, her story is original, and the ending is significantly different from those of other stories. The most obvious difference is that the famous grasshopper and scorpion scene, which forms the climax of Leroux's novel, has been completely removed. In addition, Kay's novel expands on themes, such as the Erik's time in Persia, that are only alluded to in the original story.
In Sweden the novel was only printed once, which makes it rather rare. In the Swedish translation, by Lena Torndahl, the whole sequence involving Christine finding a gigantic spider on her pillow and begs Erik to kill it (Whom during the whole novel compared himself with a spider) has been cut. Why it's been cut is not known, but the remaining chapter is hardly two pages long.
Hardcover:
Paperback:
Susan Kay
Susan Kay is a writer.She is most known for her book, Phantom, which expands upon the history of Erik, the hideous, brilliant character from Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera, in an episodic format of seven chapters from different characters' points of view - first Erik's mother,...
, based on the Gaston Leroux
Gaston Leroux
Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux was a French journalist and author of detective fiction.In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera , which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name, notably the 1925 film starring Lon...
novel The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera
Le Fantôme de l'Opéra is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialisation in "Le Gaulois" from September 23, 1909 to January 8, 1910...
.
Plot summary
The Phantom is born as Erik in BoschervilleSaint-Martin-de-Boscherville
Saint-Martin-de-Boscherville is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-Geography:A residential village situated by the banks of the river Seine, some west of Rouen at the junction of the D67, D267 and the D982 roads.-Population:-Places of...
, a small town not far from Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
, in the summer of 1831. His father is a well-known stonemason and dies in a construction accident a few months before his son is born. His mother is the beautiful and talented daughter of an English woman and a French architect. A spoiled and vain woman, she scorns her deformed child from birth and cannot bring herself to name him. Instead, she instructs the elderly priest who baptises
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
him to name the child after himself. Due to his mother's shame but also for his own safety, Erik is forced to spend his childhood locked in his home lest he or his mother become a target for the violent attentions of the very superstitious villagers of Boscherville.
Much of the verbal and physical abuse Erik suffers from his mother is chronicled in the opening chapters of the novel. One such event occurs on his fifth birthday when he is refused to wear the cloth mask to the dinner table. His mother drags him before the only mirror in the house in retaliation and upon seeing his visage, Erik mistakes his reflection for that of a horrible monster. He shatters the mirror, lacerating his hands and wrists, and his mother is unable to bring herself to tend to his wounds. A family friend, Marie Perrault, bandages the wounds and saves his life, but Erik is left forever physically and emotionally scarred from this event. After this, Erik becomes morbidly fascinated with mirrors and believes that they are capable of performing magic. This fascination turns into an obsession and Erik quickly becomes a master of illusion, able to make people see only what he wants them to see. Says Erik of his abilities, "I can make anything disappear, if I really want to. Anything except my face."
From a young age, Erik exhibits a strong interest in architecture and is privately tutored by a well-respected professor. However, his strongest abilities lie in the subject of music and he is an incredibly talented composer and performer. However, his mother does not encourage his pursuit of singing, claiming that his supernaturally beautiful voice cannot be one created by God.
When he was nine years old, Erik's mother begins to receive the attentions of the handsome, new town physician. This doctor makes it clear that he believes that a child such as Erik belongs in an institution for the mentally insane, and Erik begins to desperately try to win his mother's affections. He uses his rapidly developing skills of ventriloquism
Ventriloquism
Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is an act of stagecraft in which a person manipulates his or her voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered "dummy"...
to create the illusion of a perfect home and family. His mother begins to surrender her links on sanity but is forced to awaken when an attack on her home by a superstitious mob of villagers leaves the family dog, Sasha, dead and Erik seriously injured. The doctor comes to Erik's aid and saves his life, but begs his mother to marry him and send her child to an institution. Experiencing a sudden change of heart and pangs of remorse, Erik's mother cannot bring herself to abandon her child and refuses the proposal. She resolves to make amends for her treatment of her child, but discovers the next morning that Erik had run away. It is not until much later in the novel that it is revealed that Erik left believing that she had accepted the proposal of the doctor and had hoped to free her so that she may live happily.
After a week or so without food and still healing from the attack, Erik stumbles upon a Gypsy camp in the woods. He is discovered as a thief and is unmasked. Upon seeing his severely deformed face, a freak show
Freak show
A freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to as "freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, those with both male and female secondary sexual characteristics, people with other extraordinary diseases and...
showman named Javert decides to exhibit him as the "Living Corpse" and Erik is forced to spend the next several weeks locked in a cage. Eventually, he gains some personal freedoms such as his own tent as he develops his show to include the illusions that he had begun to master as a child in Boscherville. He travels around Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
with the Gypsies and masters their languages as well as their herbal remedies. His quick mind and inhuman abilities garner him the fear of many of the Gypsy tribe. He remains with the tribe until he is about 12 years old, leaving only after he is forced to murder his master in order to evade rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
.
Erik continues to join up with travelling fairs and while performing at a fair in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
meets Giovanni, a master mason who would take the boy on as his apprentice. Erik quickly masters the aspects of the design and construction of buildings and stays with Giovanni until age 15. He spends a few happy years under the man's tutelage, but is forced to leave when he is inadvertently involved in the death of Luciana, Giovanni's youngest and favorite daughter. Erik's whereabouts are unknown for several years after this event, but it is assumed that he continued to travel throughout Europe and into Asia, occasionally performing with travelling fairs.
Four years later, Erik is sought out by the Daroga of Mazanderan Court and becomes a court assassin, magician, and personal engineer to the Persian Shah
Shah
Shāh is the title of the ruler of certain Southwest Asian and Central Asian countries, especially Persia , and derives from the Persian word shah, meaning "king".-History:...
. He becomes responsible for the entertainment of the Khanum, the Shah's mother, and builds sophisticated trap
Booby trap
A booby trap is a device designed to harm or surprise a person, unknowingly triggered by the presence or actions of the victim. As the word trap implies, they often have some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. However, in other cases the device is placed on busy roads or is...
s and torture devices for her amusement. In addition he is involved in the design and construction of a palace for the Shah, throughout that time becoming involved in political affairs which make him a target for a poisioning attempt from which he nearly dies. Much of these years are a personal hell for Erik, and he soon becomes an opium addict. Erik eventually stops using opium due to his fear that it will damage his voice and switches to morphine
Morphine
Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...
.
After construction on the palace is finished, the Shah fears that Erik knows too many of his personal secrets and, with the influence of the Khanum, arranges to have him arrested and put to death. Nadir, the Daroga who has befriended him, helps him to escape the guards, and Erik eventually makes his way back to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Since early childhood, Erik has wished to eventually become the designer for a Paris Opera House. Unfortunately for him, the contest for the position is over by the time he learns of it in his perusal of his mother's old newspapers after her death. He approaches the winner, Charles Garnier, and makes a deal with him wherein he may help design and build the Palais Garnier Opera House. Below the Opera House, an artificial lake is created during its construction using eight hydraulic pumps because of problems with the ground water level that keep rising. Without the knowledge of the other workers, Erik builds a maze of tunnels and corridors in the lower levels. Past the underground lake, he builds a lair for himself, where he may live protected from the public. Ensconced here, he rides out the strife and misery of the 1871 Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
.
Besides being a brilliant inventor and engineer, Erik is also a musical genius, and he is frequently involved in the affairs the opera house in order to listen to operas and interfere with the manager's bad taste. Because he cannot show his distorted face in public, he takes the disguise of a ghost, using violence in order to blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
the opera managers and bind them to his will, exploiting the employees' superstitions to maintain his power and his knowledge about the building's secret passage
Secret passage
Secret passages, also commonly referred to as hidden passages or secret tunnels, are hidden routes used for stealthy travel. Such passageways are sometimes inside buildings leading to secret rooms. Others allow occupants to enter or exit buildings without being seen...
s for access to every part of the building without notice. With increasing amorality, he threatens those who refused his demands via letters and even kills some employees as warnings. However, he treats those who were loyal to him and obey his command, such as Madame Giry, very kindly.
The rest of the book is largely based around the original Phantom of the Opera novel - though it differs on several points - following the relationship between Erik and the object of his desire, Christine Daae, and switching back and forth between their points of view. Christine, timid and frail, is frightened of Erik - it is revealed that she is indeed in love with him, but she is frightened of her feelings, and is unable to come completely to terms with his appearance. Because of this, she pursues a relationship with Raoul de Chagny, a young nobleman, while still frequently visiting Erik in his underground home.
When Erik offers her a proposal of marriage, stating that it would be a temporary state of affairs (as he himself, owing to the prior poisoning attempt on his life in Persia, has begun to suffer extreme ill health and believes that he has roughly six months to live), Christine becomes agitated and returns to the world above. Considering his request to return to his home and give him an answer, whether it be "yes" or "no," Christine cannot bear the thought of hurting Erik by refusing him. She ultimately decides to flee with Raoul after her next performance, using it as her symbolic goodbye. Erik, however, has become aware of her plans and has been driven into a jealous, hurt frenzy; he kidnaps her during the performance and takes her to his home, while Nadir, who has been following Erik's activities, leads Raoul to the house underground in an attempt to free Christine.
When Nadir and Raoul fall into Erik's torture chamber, a device created specifically to drive its occupants insane and ultimately suicidal, it is revealed that Erik plans to blow up the entire Opera House if Christine does not agree to marry him. Christine finally agrees, and an underground chamber stocked with gunpowder begins to fill with water in order to douse the danger; the water begins to fill up the torture chamber as well, threatening Nadir and Raoul with imminent death by drowning. Christine, who has at last fully realized her feelings for Erik, kisses him passionately on the mouth (a change from the original Leroux novel, in which she merely bestows a chaste kiss on his forehead); this act changes Erik, making him realize the futility of further violence. He stops the water in the chamber, and rescues Nadir and Raoul from their fates, allowing Raoul to leave with Christine and stating his wish for the two young people to marry; his only stipulation is that he would like for Christine to visit him one more time before his death. Raoul agrees in order to placate him, even though he has no intention of allowing such a thing; once their wedding-day draws near, however, Christine backlashes against Raoul's insistence that she never see Erik again and goes herself to visit him.
When Raoul - who tells the remainder of the novel from his point of view - learns of Christine's return to Erik, he descends himself into the underground home to fetch her, but is detained by Nadir, who refuses to let him enter the room where Erik is dying. Christine emerges from this room some time later after Erik has died, and returns to the upper world with Raoul. They marry, and a few months later, Christine reveals that she is pregnant. Though both are overjoyed at the news, the pregnancy is very difficult for Christine, and she almost dies in childbirth. The doctor is forced to perform a Cesarean section in order to save her life and that of the child - Raoul is initially opposed to this, as he believes that the baby is premature and cannot possibly survive outside of its mother's womb - making the procedure an unnecessary risk on Christine's life - but the doctor assures him that the baby is full-term. This causes Raoul to realize, due to timing, that the child cannot possibly be his, and is in fact Erik's.
Despite this, Raoul raises the child as his own, never mentioning to Christine that he knows about the child's parentage. The boy, named Charles, has escaped his father's fate and is physically perfect. Christine dies when Charles is twelve, and Raoul goes on to raise him.
The last line of the novel is "The cuckoo is a very beautiful bird!" which carries the implication of cuckolding, and refers to the cuckoo
Cuckoo
The cuckoos are a family, Cuculidae, of near passerine birds. The order Cuculiformes, in addition to the cuckoos, also includes the turacos . Some zoologists and taxonomists have also included the unique Hoatzin in the Cuculiformes, but its taxonomy remains in dispute...
bird's habit of laying its eggs in other birds' nests, but also of the beauty of adoption and acceptance.
Characters
- Erik, the main character, is not listed as having a last name. Erik was born in 1831 in Boscherville, FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and lived until 1881, where he died in the catacombsCatacombsCatacombs, human-made subterranean passageways for religious practice. Any chamber used as a burial place can be described as a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman empire...
beneath the Opera Garnier, where he had lived in what is referred to as "The House on the Lake," the lake being, in this case, Lake Averne. Erik is said to have been unspeakably ugly, with sunken yellow eyes that were not unlike a cat's, incredibly gaunt features, and no nose. Kay keeps to Leroux's original description, depicting Erik as having "sunken, mismatched eyes and grossly malformed lips, a horrible gaping hole where the nose should have been." Erik is also skeletally thin, tall, and with abnormally long fingers which are possessed of an inhuman dexterity. He wears a full-mask at nearly all times, along with expensively tailored clothes and gloves, to hide his frightening appearance. He is also cold to the touch. He seems to have little or no sexual experience or outlet; most women are frightened or disgusted by his appearance, sometimes with fatal results (see description of Luciana below), and he was nearly raped as a young boy. Kay's Erik suffers from violent mood swings and depression, and over the course of the book, through various tragedies and a morphine addiction, he slowly loses what sanity he possessed. - Madeleine is Erik's mother. A rather spoiled and infantile woman, Madeleine is forced to birth and raise her son alone, when her husband, Charles, died unexpectedly at his work, shortly after Erik's conception. She is never overly kind to Erik, whom she resents and fears. She forces her son to sleep in the attic alone for his entire time in her house, making him wear a mask at all times, and forbidding him to leave the house under any circumstances. She beats him often, and rarely shows him any sort of affection. She is occasionally urged to do so by her plain and down-to-earth childhood friend, Marie Perrault. Later, after Erik survives a knife attack from the residents of her village, Madeleine finally realizes that she loves her son. Sadly, Erik has already run away without her noticing.
- Javert: is a man who traveled with a gypsy band. He was Erik's master, keeping the boy captive in a cage for a number of years. He was a cruel whipmaster. He becomes Erik's first murder victim when he attempts to molestSexual abuseSexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester...
him one night. - Giovanni is an elderly ItalianItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
masterMaster craftsmanA master craftsman or master tradesman was a member of a guild. In the European guild system, only masters were allowed to be members of the guild....
stonemason, who discovers a thirteen-year-old Erik on one of his sites one morning, and takes him on as an apprentice. Giovanni practically adopts Erik and loves him as the son he never had, while training him all the while as a mason. Erik flourishes underneath Giovanni's care, and though a darkness was growing in the boy, the Italian helped to quell it for some time. Their rapport was interrupted by the return of Giovanni's youngest daughter, Luciana. Giovanni was the only father that Erik had ever known, and he almost hero-worshiped the man. For the rest of his life, Erik would refer to no other man as "sir," due to the trust that was eventually lost between them. - Luciana is Giovanni's youngest daughter, out of four. At thirteen years old, she is a very spoiled child. She returns early from her convent school to find that her father has taken Erik on as an apprentice. Entranced by the young Erik's air of mystery, Luciana takes an instant liking to him, but is unable to express her feelings for him, so she teases and torments him. Erik is attracted to her as well; she is particularly beautiful for her age. Eventually, she requests that Giovanni remove Erik's mask, and after she has seen his ugliness, she runs away, falling from a section of crumbling roof of their two story house and dying a grotesquely violent end.
- Nadir Khan. Nadir Khan, known in Leroux's book only as "The PersianThe PersianThe Persian is a major character from the Gaston Leroux novel The Phantom of the Opera. In the book he is the one who tells most of the background of Erik's history...
," is Erik's friend. As the Daroga of Mazanderan, he is sent by the shahShahShāh is the title of the ruler of certain Southwest Asian and Central Asian countries, especially Persia , and derives from the Persian word shah, meaning "king".-History:...
to fetch Erik from Nijni-Novgorod. Nadir is a moral character who lost his wife, Rookheeya, and has not remarried since. He is unlike most other Persian shahzadeShahzadeShahzade may refer to:*Shahzade, a prince of the Iran royal house*The son or male line descendant of an Ottoman Sultan...
h, being rather monogamous by nature, and despising the politics of the Mazanderan Court. Nadir and Erik take turns saving one another's lives, and in the process, become friends much closer than either is willing to admit. Nadir is ordered by the shahShahShāh is the title of the ruler of certain Southwest Asian and Central Asian countries, especially Persia , and derives from the Persian word shah, meaning "king".-History:...
to keep a close eye on Erik, and takes it upon himself to be the keeper of Erik's conscience. Nadir is also an English word meaning "the lowest point," or "the moment of deepest depression." - Reza is Nadir's young son, who is dying from Tay-Sachs DiseaseTay-Sachs diseaseTay–Sachs disease is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder...
. Reza becomes attached to Erik; Erik in turn becomes fond of the boy, makes beautiful toys for him and tries to ease his suffering. When the boy's suffering worsens to pain and no hope of a recovery, Erik gives him a painless poison that puts Reza to his death because Nadir cannot bear to do it. This complicates the relationship between Erik and the Persian. - The Persian shahShahShāh is the title of the ruler of certain Southwest Asian and Central Asian countries, especially Persia , and derives from the Persian word shah, meaning "king".-History:...
is the ruler of Persia (by the book's chronology probably Naser al-Din Shah Qajar). He is depicted as being rather self-centered and helpless. He is largely a puppet of his mother, the khanumKhánumKhanum or Khánum One of the female alternatives of Khan, notably in Turkic languages, for a Khan's Queen-consort, or in some traditions extended as a courtesy title to the wives of holders of various other titles;...
. He is a dangerous and powerful man, nonetheless, and Nadir worries very much for his and Erik's safety under the unstable favour of the shah. - The khanumKhánumKhanum or Khánum One of the female alternatives of Khan, notably in Turkic languages, for a Khan's Queen-consort, or in some traditions extended as a courtesy title to the wives of holders of various other titles;...
, referred to as the SultanaSultana (title)The term Sultana is an Islamic title reserved for a few Muslim women rulers in history. It is sometimes mistaken for the title of the chief wife of a Sultan.-Overview:The most famous Sultana was Razia Sultana of India....
or "the little sultana," in Leroux's book, is widely regarded as the most powerful woman in Persia. The khanum is a frightful woman. Drunk with the power that she has over her son, and therefore over Persia, she indulges in fetishes of every kind, normally involving some modicum of pain or humiliation. She is described as a woman of "intense and urgent passions," who finds a pleasure in death so powerful that it borders on sexual. Intrigued by Erik's macabre appearance and dexterity at murder, the khanum develops a great lust for him early on, and this she harbors spitefully, never quite daring to exercise her power in this particular area. Erik never learns of her infatuation with him, though it occurs to him in passing, but he puts it down to arrogance. - Christine DaaeChristine DaaéChristine Daaé is the main female character in Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera , the young singer with whom the main character Erik, the Phantom of the Opera falls in love.- Character history :...
is the beautiful young SwedishSwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
chorus girl whom Erik meets at the Paris OperaPalais GarnierThe Palais Garnier, , is an elegant 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier...
. She is deceived into believing that Erik is the "Angel of Music," a story told to her by her late, and very beloved, father. She is described as having a voice that would make an angel cry, with perfect pitch and excellent vibrato, but absolutely no feeling whatsoever. Erik trains her to use her voice properly and, having done so, Christine sings wonderfully. Unfortunately, due to the arrangements by the company's diva, La CarlottaCarlotta GiudicelliCarlotta is a fictional character from the French novel The Phantom of the Opera.In the novel she is a minor character hailing from Spain. The first time that she is mentioned in the novel is during the chapter "The New Marguerite", where it is revealed that she could not perform at the ceremony...
, she is upstaged as soon as she steps out into the public's eye. She was born in 1861, the same year Madeleine died, and is said to bear an almost perfect resemblance to her. - Charles is the son of Christine and Erik, born around 1881. Charles is born a few months after Raoul and Christine's wedding, and Raoul remarks that it is impossible that he is Charles's biological father, and that he looks nothing like either Raoul or Christine, but bears a striking resemblance to a portrait of Erik's handsome father Charles. Charles is an extremely handsome and talented young man, and a great musician. Seventeen years after Erik's death, Raoul brings him to visit the Opera House.
- Raoul, Vicomte de ChagnyRaoul, Vicomte de ChagnyRaoul, Vicomte de Chagny is a main character from Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera.-Biography:Raoul de Chagny is a viscount and Christine Daaé's childhood friend. They first met when he was a young child when he went on vacation in Northern France...
recognizes Christine during one of her performances as a childhood sweetheart. They eventually marry and Christine gives up her opera career. Raoul raises their son, Charles, after her death from cancer. Charles is actually Erik's son, but is never told this in the story. - La CarlottaCarlotta GiudicelliCarlotta is a fictional character from the French novel The Phantom of the Opera.In the novel she is a minor character hailing from Spain. The first time that she is mentioned in the novel is during the chapter "The New Marguerite", where it is revealed that she could not perform at the ceremony...
is the bratty diva of the Opera Garnier, and hails from SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. - Madame GiryMadame GiryMadame Giry is a character in the Gaston Leroux novel, The Phantom of the Opera. She is a fairly intermediate character in the novel, although her role is much increased in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical...
is Erik's loyal box-keeper. She waits on him, should he need it, and is one of the only characters in ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to have any form of intimate contact with him. She is also the mother of Meg GiryMeg GiryMeg Giry is one of the fictional characters from Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera. In the story she is Madame Giry's oldest daughter....
. - Meg Giry is a somewhat sassy character, with a broad imagination. She is a ballet dancer and the daughter of Madame Giry.
- Debienne and Poligny are the old managers of the Opera Garnier, and Poligny is described as being an easily spooked person, which made him an easy target for Erik's schemes.
- Moncharmin and Richard are the new managers of the Opera House, though they know little about Opera itself. They prove not to be quite so gullible as their predecessors, something which irks Erik to no end. It is an entirely mutual irritation, for Moncharmin and Richard are driven nearly mad by the arrogant, bossy, and magical "Opera Ghost." Moncharmin is quite small, Richard is quite large and strong
- Sasha was Erik's boyhood pet dog, a cocker spaniel who was murdered by a mob in trying to get Erik, the night before he ran away.
- Ayesha was a Siamese cat Erik adopted on the streets of Paris during the 1871 Commune, when meat was scarce and cats and horses routinely butchered. During her time as a prisoner of Erik's house, at one point Christine feels jealous of Ayesha and the way Erik caresses her fondly while avoiding physical contact with Christine.
Allusions/references to other works
Kay's Phantom is not a sequel, but rather a retelling of the original Leroux novel. While the book draws mainly from Leroux's text, there are also obvious references to Andrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
's musical: several phrases from the musical's lyrics are used to describe certain circumstances in the book. There are also nods to the Lon Chaney
Lon Chaney, Sr.
Lon Chaney , nicknamed "The Man of a Thousand Faces," was an American actor during the age of silent films. He was one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema...
film version of the story. As well, just the author's own tweaking and altering to fit the "Erik" she had developed in her own mind, and wanted to read/write about (as proclaimed in her own afterword). The character of Javert shares his name with the obsessive police captain who hunts Jean Valjean for twenty years in Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables. The storyline surrounding Erik's vain, childish mother bears some glancing similarities to Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary; like Emma Bovary, she lives in a stultifyingly provincial town and is courted by a medical man.
In total, it took Kay eighteen months to complete the novel, during which time she traveled to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and researched various aspects of nineteenth-century life in the countries in which the novel was set. Among her references were Munro Butler Johnson's A Trip up the Volga to the Fair of Nijni-Novgorod; Curzon
George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, KG, GCSI, GCIE, PC , known as The Lord Curzon of Kedleston between 1898 and 1911 and as The Earl Curzon of Kedleston between 1911 and 1921, was a British Conservative statesman who was Viceroy of India and Foreign Secretary...
's Persia and the Persian Question; Lady Shell's "Eyewitness account of Persian court life in the mid-nineteenth century" and Christopher Mead's thesis on Charles Garnier
Charles Garnier (architect)
Charles Garnier was a French architect, perhaps best known as the architect of the Palais Garnier and the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.-Early life:...
.
However, despite the many sources that Kay drew on, her story is original, and the ending is significantly different from those of other stories. The most obvious difference is that the famous grasshopper and scorpion scene, which forms the climax of Leroux's novel, has been completely removed. In addition, Kay's novel expands on themes, such as the Erik's time in Persia, that are only alluded to in the original story.
Release details
For several years, Phantom was out of print, and was only available on the secondary market. After the film version of Phantom Of The Opera was released in 2004, interest in the fandom—and prices for the book—rose dramatically. The novel was reprinted in October 2005; the new editions are also available in the UK, Canada and France (only in English).In Sweden the novel was only printed once, which makes it rather rare. In the Swedish translation, by Lena Torndahl, the whole sequence involving Christine finding a gigantic spider on her pillow and begs Erik to kill it (Whom during the whole novel compared himself with a spider) has been cut. Why it's been cut is not known, but the remaining chapter is hardly two pages long.
Hardcover:
- Delacorte Press, 1991, ISBN 0-385-30296-7
- Llumina Stars, 2005, ISBN 1-933626-03-8
Paperback:
- Island Books, 1992, ISBN 0-440-21169-7
- Media Creations Inc., 2005, ISBN 1-933626-00-3