The Phantom of the Opera is Gaston Leroux's masterpiece of horror and romance. Written in serial form from 1909-1910 for Le Gaulois, it was released as a novel in 1910 and translated into English the following year. An immediate publishing sensation, the book was quickly adapted for the stage and screen, most famously for the 1925 silent film starring Lon Cheney and then in 1986 by Andrew Lloyd Weber, which became the longest running musical in Broadway history. The novel relates the story of a ghost - a phantom - who haunts the world-famous Paris Opera House. After a young understudy named Christine Daaé is tapped to sing at a retirement party for one of the opera's managers, the management receives a letter from the "Opera Ghost" demanding that Christine be allowed to sing the lead role in Faust, the next opera on the bill. But the opera management dismisses the request as a prank, casting their preferred soprano, Carlotta, in the role. The Phantom retaliates, reducing Carlotta's voice to a croak and dropping a chandelier on the audience at the opera house, killing a patron. A fierce tug-of-war ensues between the Phantom and Christine's lover Raoul. Eventually, Christine is kidnaped by the Phantom and Raoul pursues her into the bowels of the opera house, eventually discovering the Phantom's secret lair and confronting his rival. A classic of gothic horror and romance, Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of the Opera" is presented here in its original and unabridged format

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