There are rumors
of a phantom living at the Paris Opera House, and he makes himself known to the
managers through letters and malevolent acts. Singer Christine is kidnapped by
the phantom and is taken to his home in the cellars of the Opera where he
reveals his true identity to her simply as Erik, though not his real name. He
plans to keep her there for a few days, hoping she will come to love him.
But she causes
Erik to change his plans when she unmasks him and, to the horror of both,
beholds his noseless, lipless, sunken-eyed face which resembles a skull dried
up by the centuries, covered in yellowed dead flesh. Fearing that she will
leave him, he decides to keep her with him forever, but when Christine requests
release after two weeks, he agrees on condition that she wear his ring and be
faithful to him. But he hears her telling her childhood friend Raoul that Erik
abducted her. Raoul promises to take Christine away the next day to a place
where Erik can never find her. Neither is aware that Erik has been listening
to their conversation and that he has become extremely jealous.
The next night,
Erik kidnaps Christine and forces her to promise to marry him, lifting his mask to kiss her on her forehead, and is
given a kiss back. Erik reveals that he has never received a kiss (not even
from his own mother) nor has been allowed to give one and is overcome with
emotion. He lets makes Christine go after exacting a promise that she will
visit him once on his death day, and return the gold ring he gave her. Upon his
death, she returns to his lair, buries him and returns the gold ring.
469 pages
first published in 1910
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