This book starts its journey with BookCrossing from Delphi, Greece
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" Erik, the Phantom of the Paris Opera House, is one of the great icons of horror literature. This tormented and disfigured creature has made his home in the labyrinthine cellars of this opulent building where he can indulge in his great passion for music, which is a substitute for the love and emotion denied him because of his ghastly appearance.
It is in the Opera House that he encounters Christine Daae whom he trains in secret to become a great singer. Erik's passionate obsession with a beautiful woman beyond his reach is doomed and leads to the dramatic tragic finale.
Gaston Leroux's novel is a marvelous blend of detective story, romance and spine-tingling terror which has fascinated readers ever since the work was first published. "


~~~~~~To the person who found this book:~~~~~~

Welcome to BookCrossing.com, where we are trying to make the whole world a library!

If you have not already done so, please make a journal entry so we know this book has found a new home. Drop a few lines on where and how you found this book and what you thought of it. You don't need to join BookCrossing and you can remain completely anonymous. However, I encourage you to join so that you can follow this book's future travels. It's fun and free, and your personal information will never be shared or sold.

This book is now yours, and you can keep it if you choose, although I would love you to read and then share it. You can pass it on someone you know or release it once again in the wild, leaving it on a park bench, a phone booth, a hostel lobby...wherever you think it's suitable for the book to continue it's journey. If you pass it along, please make a release note to let others know where you left it.

I hope you enjoy the book!

I read The Phantom of the Opera again after many years. It kept my interest, although at some points I got tired of too much melodrama and exaggeration. Also as much as we should read a book trying to get into the logic of the time it was written in, I was still annoyed by the way the female characters are portrayed as well as the way attempts are made to justify crimes and bad behaviors and attitudes. Some things can be explained, but this doesn't mean that they are justified or that they should be tolerated.

I liked the vividness with which Gaston Leroux describes the Opéra and its ambiance, especially in the first chapters, and I enjoyed the "journalistic" tone of the narrative that is supposed to be the product of research and be about real events. I'm not sure if the gimmick of changing the narrator at the very end of the story won me over completely though. I also think that in the excesses of the plot, the pace at some points slowed down a bit and the book could have been somewhat shorter.

All in all, the protagonist of the story is the Paris Opera rather than the characters of the book themselves. I liked The Phantom of the Opera, but I didn't get crazy about it or something.

The Phantom of the Opera got itchy feet and wants to explore the whole wild wide world and make many friends along the way. So it's now crossing the Pond in order to meet one of the winners of my 7th Bookiversary's Celebration Draw.
And then... Who knows?

Good Luck my book and Don't forget to write your news from time to time!

Thank you so much for all of the books and lovely gifts!

I'm a very special book. I'm traveling the world in search of new friends. I hope I have found one in you. If you are my new owner please make a brief journal entry with my BCID number. You can read and release me for a new friend to read or keep me. It's your choice!

If you are new to bookcrossing and want to join please consider listing bamaforever as your referral. Welcome to bookcrossing!

Happy reading!

This arrived as part of an extremely generous Halloween gift! I read this classic years ago, and will have to do at least a partial re-read.

Left on a bench outside, between the gift shop area and the conference center