The Phantom of the Opera is a French novel written by Gaston Leroux. It has been adapted many times into film and stage productions, the most notable of which were the1925 version and Andrew Lioyd Webber 's 1986 musical, which is now the longest running Broadway show in history, and the most lucrative entertainment enterprise of all time, its worldwide box office over the past 20 years out-grossing even the highest grossing film in history,Titanic.
The Phantom of The Opera is a Gothic novel, combining romance and horror.The story is about a man named Erik the Phantom of the Opera, a deformed genius who terrorizes the Paris Opera House. He builds his home beneath it and takes the love of his life, a beautiful soprano, Christine, under his wing.You can download the whole book from the website Project Gutenberg, it's free.
About the author:
Gaston Leroux (1868-1927) was a French journalist , detective, and novelist. Leroux went to school in Normandy and studied law in Paris, graduating in 1889 . He inherited millions of francs and lived wildly until he nearly reached bankruptcy. Then in 1890 , he began working as a court reporter and theater critic.
He suddenly left journalism in 1907, and began writing fiction. He first wrote a mystery novel entitled The Mystery of the Yellow Room（1908）, which is considered an important work in the history of detective fiction due to its being the first "locked-room puzzle”. Leroux's contribution to French detective fiction is considered a parallel to Edgar Allan Poe's in America and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's in the United Kingdom. Besides this, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera（1910）, which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name, such as the 1925 film starring Lon Chaney; and Andew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical. It was also the basis of the 1990 novel Phantom by Susan Kay.
