He Lays At My Feet An Immense And Tragic Love

I recently finished reading The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux.

Artist Renata Krawczyk (@rena.illustration) has created this stunning cover that will look lovely on any bookshelf.

~POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT~

  Rating: 3.5/5 stars

"First published in French as a serial in 1909, The Phantom of the Opera is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christine's childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins successfully singing on the stage. The voice, who is the deformed, murderous 'ghost' of the opera house named Erik, however, grows violent in his terrible jealousy, until Christine suddenly disappears. The phantom is in love, but it can only spell disaster."

The Phantom’s greatest tragedy in life is the fact that he came so close to gaining the heart of the girl he loved, a sense of acceptance he has wanted for an entire lifetime, but because of his scarred and damaged soul, he did nothing but terrify her; ultimately, shattering the initial allure and glamour she felt in his presence.

In the vein of Frankenstein and Heathcliff, Erik’s shattered visage, his ruined face, permeates his soul. Society, humanity, perceives his appearance as evil and twisted; thus, he takes on these traits in a cruel mockery of what is expected of him: he becomes the very thing he is branded as. And it becomes his most powerful weapon, and it also becomes his downfall. He is beyond bitter. He is beyond twisted. His heart oozes with venom for a world that has always shunned him and left him an outcast in the darkness.

The Phantom of the Opera is a tragedy in every sense of the word. All the Phantom ever wanted was love, and when he finally finds it, it practically destroys him. It pushes him out of the shadows and makes him bold; it makes him yearn for what he thought impossible. And he acts. He sees his chance, the very essence of what has brought his voice and his soul back to life is before him, and he seizes it, albeit too forcefully. He becomes vicious, demanding, and overwhelming. The loneliness of his soul dominates his faculties. He loses the cold, practical, cunning that has kept him alive for so long and follows the unthinking possessive whims of his heart.

Such words are uttered with the utmost truth and geniality. Erik comes forth into the light. In this moment, he casts aside the guise of The Phantom and reveals his vulnerability and his ability to rejuvenate to Christine. He puts his heart out there, but like everything in his life, love is illusory. In his misguided state, he drastically misunderstands the situation, and his erratic behaviour destroys any chance he ever could have had. His love has power, but he fails to understand that not everybody is as painfully desperate as he.

Leroux clearly loved opera houses, and his Phantom is a beautifully dark concept. His descriptions of the theatre are vivid and verging on the enchanting. His prose is smooth and faultless, though his pacing is poor and the plot is weighed down with many non-essential characters that overcomplicate the situation. I love the story here, though the execution falls short of the faultlessness you would expect when you consider the sheer strength that surrounds the central plot and characters.

Check out Phantom of the Opera and discover what one will do for love.