Just a Scary Guy in a Mask: The Phantom of the Opera
by Marilyn Green Faulkner

Dear Fellow Readers:

For a year and a half I have been writing little essays about the books we read together, but this month I am stuck. Yes, I know I recommended The Phantom of the Opera as our May selection. The book was recommended to me, and I found it on the classics shelf at the bookstore, and thought it would be fun to read together. But I don't like this book! The prose is labored, the characters are flimsy, and the moral value of the book is negligible at best. Why then, is this book found on the classics shelf?

To find out, I did a little research about Gaston Leroux, the author of this and a few dozen other novels, and found in him a character more fascinating than his fictional creations. Leroux was a Frenchman who started his career as a journalist. He had a talent for nosing out a story and the courage to investigate it fully. On one occasion he achieved an extraordinary scoop by interviewing in his cell a prisoner accused of a serious crime. To gain access to the prisoner Leroux disguised himself as a prison anthropologist, producing forged credentials to back up his pretense. Following the interview he wrote a brilliant article demonstrating the innocence of the prisoner, resulting in his eventual release.

As a roving correspondent for the French newspaper, Le Matin, Leroux traveled throughout Russia, Europe and Asia, frequently adopting disguises to infiltrate the scene of the next great story. His adventures invariably resulted in exciting copy that made him a celebrity, and the eyes and ears of a nation. He saw Armenians fighting Turks and the Russians at war with the Japanese. He stood in the erupting crater of Vesuvius and, in the robes of an Arab, was the only European witness to the riots in Fez. He attended the trial of Dreyfuss and visited the court of the Tsar with President Faure. He wrote:

"No one can equal the reporter's zest for life, since nobody else possesses such a delight in observation. The reporter watches on the world's behalf, he is the spy-glass of the world. Oh, how I love my profession!"

Leroux's wife did not approve of his globetrotting career; however, and in 1907 he gave up reporting to become a full-time novelist. He greatly admired Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allen Poe, the inventors of the mystery and horror genres, and modeled his stories after their styles. In 1911 he published The Phantom of the Opera in serial form. It received very little attention at the time, though it was well received. Leroux continued writing his stream of mystery and horror stories. (His son reported that every time his father finished a book he would celebrate by shooting a pistol into the air outside his study!) In 1924 Universal Studio was searching for a new vehicle for Lon Chaney, who had scored a triumph in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The illustrations of the masked phantom, swinging on the chandelier in the Paris Opera, caught the attention of studio researchers, and Leroux's story was secured. Leroux lived to see his obscure work become a major motion picture.

Once in awhile a fictional character will catch the fancy of the public, and such was the case with the tormented, talented phantom created by Leroux. Lon Chaney's inspired portrayal of the monster added to the mystique, and the moment when the phantom tears off his mask in the film is still listed as one of the defining scenes in screen history. The film's popularity undoubtedly inspired the two stage productions of the Phantom that still run in theaters today. Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical version catapulted the phantom to the realm of a cultural icon, and caused Leroux's novel to be reprinted. Since it is an old book it landed on the classics shelf, but you won't find greatness here. Just a scary guy in a mask. The stage versions are far superior to the original story. Perhaps some of you will see more in this book than I did, and I invite your comments about this and our other selections.

My advice is to skip the Phantom and take a look at June's selection, The Once and Future King, by T.H. White. If you love the legends of King Arthur and Camelot you'll love this book, which served as the basis for the Disney movie, The Sword in the Stone. Here is a list of our readings through the fall of 2002:

If you love classic literature, join us at the Best Books Club. We read a book each month and share comments via the internet. To join the Best Books Club, log on to our website at www.thebestbooksclub.com, or write me at bestbooks@meridianmagazine.com. I've had some interesting comments from Best Books Club members:

All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque
I have read your April selection twice and have traveled that part of France, which of course is the book's local. There were a number of war books besides those of Erich Maria Remarque, published after the war. I read many of them as a boy. One was a personal account of a man who climbed hill 304. Hills 304 and 305 were artillery observation posts. They overlooked the reaches of the battlefield at Verdun, and the Argonne Forest, where most of the Americans fought and died. He wrote that he climbed 304 at dusk, and the place was impacted, and churned up from thousands of rounds of artillery shells. He said the soil was saturated with blood to a depth of several inches from the many thousands on both sides who died there. He said he thought about this, as he walked around on top of the ridges between shell holes. And he became frightened of what he thought were the spirits of the many dead. These two hills had changed hands many times and were the scenes of the heaviest fighting of the war. He said he panicked, and he turned and ran as fast as he could off the very high hill. He said he stopped only after he was completely exhausted. This story made a deep impression on me when I was a young boy, as you might well imagine. I thought about it again, a few years ago, and I decided to go see for myself. I found it to be just as described. Although there is a monument there now, the shell holes are still just as they were described. They were deep enough that it would be difficult to climb out if you fell in. And the only way to get around was to walk along the narrow ridges between the holes, just as the author who was there after the war had done.

Likewise, hill 305 is in the same condition, except the French have placed a large berm between the monument and "no mans land" to keep the curious away. The area is posted, and entry is forbidden, and has been since 1918... From here, you can look across to the North and see where the famous American "lost patrol" was pinned down. I met some Germans on the top of 305. I began to converse with them. I speak no German but they spoke some English. I was attempting to describe the artillery that made the holes, since they were too young to know much about the subject. I was not doing too well. Then one of them took me back down the narrow road and showed me three live shells he had hidden under a pine tree. I foolishly picked one up, and then quickly put it back down, when I realized it was unstable and dangerous. The Germans laughed. And then they showed me other battlefield paraphernalia they had dug out of the shell craters that morning.

It was a few days after I returned to San Diego that I read in our local paper, how two French sailors on leave had been blown-up, while digging in these same old shell holes at Verdun.

We Were Soldiers Once, And Young, by Lt. Gen Harold Moore
My review of this harrowing retelling of one of the major battles in Vietnam inspired a veteran of the conflict to write this moving tribute:

I served personally under Col. Moore and he was a true caring professional. He exhibited great compassion and concern constantly for all of his men. Those who survived those horrible battles at Ia Drang all showed great respect for Col. Moore. In many cases considered him a father 'Protector' figure and commented that if they were asked to go back into that Valley of Death they wanted Col. Moore as their leader. I concur. His assignments were completed as directed but not without the personal challenges of his internal feelings, as we all had. As far as Humility, I would say it all depends on how you intended to use the word. It can be used to describe a form of humbleness but I would say it is a better descriptor as a kind of selflessness or modesty.

Phil Anderson
A Co. 2nd Bn 7th Cav '66

Possession, by A.S. Byatt
Marilyn, I just read the exchange of letters between Ash and Christabel at lunch today where they discuss faith. Doesn't this sound familiar, "The truth is--my dear Miss LaMotte--that we live in an old world--a tired world--a world that has gone on piling up speculation and observations until truths that might be graspable in the bright Dayspring of human morning. . .are now obscured by palimpsest on palimpsest, by thick horny growths over that clear vision...." And then Christabel replies in her letter, "I do not dispute your vision of our historical Situation--we are far from the Source of Light--and we know Things--that make a Simple Faith--hard to hold, hard to wrestle, hard to grasp....But of the true tale of the Son you say wondrous little--and yet that lies at the Centre of our living faith--the Life and Death of God made man, our true Friend and Saviour, the model of our conduct, and our hope, in his Rising from the Dead, of a future life for all of us, without which the failing and manifest injustice of our earthly span would be an intolerable mockery." Wow!!!

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Marilyn Green Faulkner likes to read and talk about books. She holds a B.A in Humanities and a M.A. in Literature and lives in Poway, California with her husband Craig. They are the parents of five children. She is founder of the Best Books Club and editor of a new literary website, Jade Falcon Press.

The Best Books Club now includes several hundred members who read classic literature together and discuss the books via the internet. It's the perfect book club: no meetings, no obligation, and no refreshments to prepare! Just read the reviews and join the conversation on any book that interests you. To get back to the classics with the Best Books Club, just click on www.thebestbooksclub.com.

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