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Inspired by true events from the Paris Opera, ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ is the most famous novel from French author Gaston Leroux. A strange phantom haunts the opera, causing fatal accidents on stage and committing some gruesome murders when his demands aren’t met. The phantom soon becomes enamoured with the young singer Christine, becoming her ‘Angel of Music’ and guiding her musical career. However, when Christine’s childhood friend Raoul comes in to her life, the phantom’s jealously will have fatal consequences. It is an immortal tale of love, lust and tragedy. We can all sympathise with the love that never was or could be, in this tale of destructive desire reminiscent of ‘Wuthering Heights’. The novel was famously adapted in 1925, starring Lon Chaney as the Phantom and later arranged into a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Gaston Leroux (1868-1927) was a French author of detective fiction who’s contribution to the genre has drawn parallels to Arthur Conan Doyle. After working for several years as a journalist, he began to write fiction with tremendous success. He is best-known for his novel "The Phantom of the Opera" (1910) which has been successfully adapted numerous times for film and stage productions, most notably in Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical adaptation. Among his other most notable works are "The Mystery of the Yellow Room", "The Bride and the Sun", and "The Man Who Came Back From the Dead".