Righty-oh totally bored at this moment and no points for guessing what and who’s in my head, the same thing which is always there, the same thing thats been there since I discovered it, Phantom. Basically I started with the show then continued to the book and the film but I'm starting with thoughts on the book as it is the most important. It is the real POTO. I had planned to save reading it until my holiday yet when it came in the post I sat on the floor where I opened it and just read it all. I meant to just start it but once I had read the first pre chapter and learnt that the story was true I couldn’t put it down. I believe that it is real, I know there is a controversy to the truth but Leroux was an investigator, its what he did and he had sources who were there. On his death bed it is said that he looked to his friend and spoke how no-one believed him and asked his friend if he believed him. I believe him.
I read the book and I fell in love with Erik, this genius, this man with such a hard life yet was still so kind. A man who even his parents couldn’t look into the eyes of. He wept for the one he loved, killed for her, there are no words for him. I don’t know how much of the book is conjecture on Leroux’s part but I trust that it is atleast mainly true, all of Erik’s past I believe. As for his death (actually cried on the book at the thought of him being dead despite it haven being written 100 years ago of course he was dead) I'm not sure if the corpse was his, a wedding ring is hardly convincing evidence. Either way I would like to know what happened to the body as I would like to pay my respects, for I respect him so much. This talented man of so many skills, of so many lives, this man who somehow so many of us love. Also I have to go to paris one day, I have to see his theatre, I have to visit box five.
Although im biased liking the book for loving Erik i honestly belive it is a brilliant book. It kept my attention which is quite a task in itself. I really an not a fan of romance books, the characters are always anoyying and would never behave that way if they were real, but then there is POTO its so romantic yet writen asif the romance is there almost acidently, only slight bits of the book seem romantic to read and the most of the book has painful angry themes yet its is romantic enough for me to actually love the main character and the general feeling of the book is a romantic one in my opinion. I dont know how Leroux managed it. As for the dark parts of the book well all i can say is they are exciting, you as the reader really want to know what and how it happens, you want the characters to be ok. The characters behave as they are real because guess what they are, thats why they are so relatable, thats why you would go without sleep to see how their lives turned out.
The book beautifully researched with so much evidence proving that it is true which i think makes the story all the more magical as all the seeming impossibilities are explained in a way to be seen as reality. Nothing is left unexplained, futhuring my belief that it is all true. But not only is a wonderful and true story is is beautifly writen considering that at this point Leroux was not a writer. How it shifts in time, how it goes from third person to first, how it is serious yet lighter hearted at points, a romance yet muder mystery of spirits and things beond our world, the best book in the world by far in my opinion. To be a non writer and yet write a book to last a century in many forms and languages is miraculous.
I could rant on about how wonderful the book is, how life changing it is, but I won't, we all know, we have all been touched by this amazing book writen by a very clever man about an even cleverer man, a man I think will always stay a part of all who have been truly touched by him.