Studying the Phantom: Some Resources, and a Search for More

Hey again!

I recently discovered a review of a Phantom-related book that, until recently, I wasn't really interested in getting (mainly due to its cover price -- a new copy is $110 on Amazon.com). This review, though, made me want to get the book.

The book's title is a bit long and ungainly, but sounds fascinating all on its own -- The Undergrounds of the Phantom of the Opera: Sublimation and the Gothic in Leroux's Novel and its Progeny, by Jerrold E. Hogle, published in 2002. The review was one of many (and I do mean many) posted on The Phantom Project, a website by Anne Myers that was itself started as an academic project. Ms. Myers' self-made project is to review every version of POTO she can, ranging from the original novel to the various film and stage versions, and even down to things like video games, radio shows, and self-published spinoffs and sequels created by Phans. It seems like a monumental task, but I admire Ms. Myers' gusto in taking it on, and it seems that getting to read superb works like Hogle's book would make the whole thing worthwhile.

Serious academic discussions and writings on POTO, Leroux's novel or otherwise, seem to be pretty rare. I think a part of that is probably due to the fact that the novel was never that popular in France (where M. Leroux was far more famous for his mystery stories featuring Detective Joseph Rouletabille, considered to be the French answer to Sherlock Holmes). Although Phantom was much more popular in the US (and even then, mainly due to the 1925 film), there wasn't a decent translation of the novel until after the debut of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version. The adaptations, meanwhile, tend to be seen as merely enjoyable diversions (though some, like the 1925 and 1943 films, are considered classics by many), and so most scholars don't find them to be worthy of academic discussion in the way that films like Citizen Kane are.

On the other hand, there are thousands of Phantom Phans worldwide, most of whom were introduced to the story through the film and stage adaptations, but in some cases have gone on to discover Leroux's original novel. Considering how many I've interacted with online who like to analyze the story's symbolic, psychological, and other aspects, I'm surprised more don't write scholarly papers on POTO for school projects (or even just for fun) and then share them online with other Phans.

A few years ago, there was a popular website by Carrie Hernandez (known among most Phans for her collection of short stories called Angel of Music: Tales of the Phantom of the Opera). On the website, Ms. Hernandez posted several extremely well-written, fascinating essays about POTO ranging from analyzing symbolism in the story to comparing the different English translations of the novel that existed at the time. Unfortunately, the website was closed down around 2005, and all traces of it were wiped from the Internet -- you won't find it with the Wayback Machine.

As for professionally published studies of the Phantom's story, it looks like Hogle's book is the best bet for an in-depth one. Though I don't necessarily agree with Freud's ideas, he was certainly very much in fashion when Leroux was writing the novel, and so it's quite possible that Leroux used more Freudian symbolism and explanations than would be obvious to a modern reader.

I'm also intrigued by Hogle's suggestion that Erik may have been of African descent. A friend of mine had similar ideas, and the novel alludes to that possibility in quite a few ways, most obviously when Erik and Christine sing a duet from the opera Otello. The possibility of Erik being of a different ethnicity from "the norm" would also add quite a bit of subtext to his isolation from others in both France and Persia; not only is he incredibly deformed and brilliant, but also ethnically different, making it pretty much impossible for him to fit in. I also like the idea Anne Myers draws from Hogle's book that Leroux, whether he was aware of it or not, made Erik a combination of everything that would have made 19th-century French people nervous (especially in upper class society):

Erik is, in one person, everything that the average nineteenth century reader was afraid of: foreign, occult, bestial, gender-undefined, immature, revolutionary, German, African, Asian, sexual, and, of course, Death itself. He is a potpurri [sic] of terror. He is the stuff of 1800s French nightmare.

There are other academic works discussing POTO as well, notably Phantoms of the Opera by John L. Flynn (reviewed by Anne Myers here). I'm a bit more wary of getting that book, though, partly because it doesn't seem to go as in-depth as Hogle's, and partly because Flynn is a bit infamous among Phans for inaccuracies in his work. (His introduction in the Signet Classics edition of Leroux's novel is notoriously riddled with misinformation, and most of his views on the novel and other adaptations seem to be filtered through his opinion that the Lloyd Webber musical is the most "correct" depiction of the Phantom's story.)

So those are some of the resources I've been able to find that talk about POTO in an academic context. If anyone reading this knows of other good ones that deal with the original novel or any adaptations, feel free to link me to them in a comment or e-mail!


I remain your obedient servant,
I.A.E.