9 h 37 minAudiobook11 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the ghost whispered about backstage is a living man who expects the whole opera house to obey?
Inside the Paris Opera House, stagehands trade stories of a ghost, and the new managers dismiss every warning. Then letters arrive in red ink, signed by the Opera Ghost, who claims Box Five as his own. Meanwhile, Christine Daaé, a shy young Swedish singer, follows a mysterious teacher whose voice she cannot place.
Raoul de Chagny loves Christine and wants to protect her, but she pulls away from the friend she knows from childhood. What holds her back? Gaston Leroux tells this romantic mystery like a reporter checking a strange case, drawing on witnesses and memoirs. Love, fear, and the search for truth lead into the theater’s hidden corridors.
What you’ll discover
- A theater full of secrets Step behind the stage, where box keepers, dancers, and scene shifters each have a ghost story.
- Christine’s mysterious teacher Follow a young singer whose longing to sing well draws her toward an unseen voice.
- Love shadowed by fear Watch Raoul struggle to reach Christine as her strange attachment keeps them apart.
- Clues beneath the rumors Weigh warnings, letters, and witness accounts in a tale that invites you to question appearances.
- The man behind the mask Explore a story about hiding, judgment, and a world that sees looks before the person.
Who will love it
For readers who love atmospheric mysteries, old theaters, and love stories shadowed by fear. It also rewards anyone who knows the musical and wants the source.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A reporter insists the ghost was real
- The old managers leave in a hurry
- Backstage the rumors grow darker
- The new managers learn to be afraid
- Christine Daaé, a voice that comes from nowhere
- Raoul follows the voice behind the wall
- A great chandelier falls on the audience
- What the story is really about
- How Leroux builds the tale
Who’s who
- Christine DaaéA young Swedish singer, shy and devoted to her late father's memory, who follows a mysterious teacher and longs to sing well.
- Raoul de ChagnyA young viscount who loved Christine as a child and now wants to win her and protect her from whatever haunts her.
- The Opera GhostA hidden presence in the Opera House who sends letters, claims Box Five and wants the theater to obey his rules.
- Madame GiryThe stern box keeper of Box Five, who treats the ghost with respect and knows more about him than she admits.
- Count Philippe de ChagnyRaoul's older brother, a worldly nobleman who loves the boy and fears that his love for a singer will bring ruin.
- Firmin Richard and Armand MoncharminThe new managers of the Opera, practical men who scorn the ghost story and want to run the theater in their own way.
- CarlottaThe leading soprano of the Opera, proud and sure of her place, who sees a rival in the rising Christine.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 9 h 37 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 11 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Das Phantom der Oper in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Das Phantom der Oper
by Gaston Leroux · 1909
In the Paris Opera House, Christine hears a hidden teacher's voice, and Raoul tries to protect her from its power.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Phantom of the Opera is a French novel by Gaston Leroux, a newspaper reporter and crime writer. It was printed in installments in a Paris paper in 1909 and 1910 and then as a book.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A reporter insists the ghost was real
Leroux opens with a preface in which he speaks as himself. He says that the Opera Ghost truly existed, and that he spent long hours researching the matter. He describes talking to witnesses, reading the memoirs of a former manager, and searching through the archives of the Opera.
This claim shapes everything that follows. The book does not present itself as a fairy tale but as a report on events that the public once laughed at. Leroux tells us that the ghost was no spirit, but a man of flesh and blood, and that this is the surprise of the case.
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What is The Phantom of the Opera about?
It is about a mysterious figure said to haunt the Paris Opera House, a young singer named Christine Daaé who hears a hidden teacher's voice, and the nobleman Raoul who tries to understand and protect her.
Is The Phantom of the Opera a true story?
No. Leroux wrote it as fiction in 1909 and 1910, though he presents it as a report of real events. The Paris Opera House is real, and its cellars and underground lake inspired the setting.
Is the book different from the musical?
Yes. The musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber draws on Leroux's novel, but the book is more of a mystery, with a reporter's frame, comic managers and many scenes and characters that the stage show leaves out.
The author
Gaston Leroux
1868–1927 · French mystery novelist
Gaston Leroux was a French author and journalist born in Paris in 1868. He wrote mystery novels, including The Mystery of the Yellow Room, published in 1907, and The Phantom of the Opera, serialized in 1909–1910. He later lived in Nice, where he died in 1927.
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