The Phantom of the Opera | Gaston LeRoux, Faust and the Phantom
In the following excerpt, Riley examines the historical background which led to the conception and writing of The Phantom of the Opera.
Gaston Leroux is known to the American audience today as the author of The Phantom of the Opera, but in France he is known as one of the most popular and well read mystery writers in the country.
In April of 1907, Leroux had just returned from another exhausting journey to Morocco when the phone rang at 3 a.m. The editor of Le Matin, Maurice Bunau-Varilla, was on the line. He was ordered to take the next train to Toulon, where the largest French battleship had just sustained extensive damage in an explosion. He looked at Jeanne, at his children, at the warm bed in...
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