The classic Gothic horror novel of haunted cellars, opera, murder, and unrequited love that inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical
Christine is a beautiful young singer at the Paris Opera. She is watched by the Opera's "phantom"—a mysterious masked figure who terrorizes the Opera's management and players. With the Phantom's help, Christine rises to become the Opera's star performer—but when the Phantom demands her heart in return, Christine is torn between gratitude and pity for her strange benefactor, and love for her childhood sweetheart, Raoul.
Gaston Leroux (1868–1927) was a French journalist and author of detective fiction. His most famous work, Le Fantôme de l'Opéra (The Phantom of the Opera), was inspired by a tour of the cellars at the Paris Opera, and published in 1911. The story has been adapted for film and, most notably, for Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, the longest running Broadway show in history.