So in Paris, there is this little bookshop called Shakespeare and Company. It's one of the best known English bookshops in the city, sitting in the center of the city on a tiny street across from Notre Dame. When you purchase a book from here they put a little stamp with the shop logo on the first page, so of course, I needed to buy something purely for the stamp. I decided to buy a story that is special to me and very stereotypically "French" to mark my time in the city. There was no better option than The Phantom of the Opera. The story that inspired my favorite musical of all time which is set right here at the Paris Opera house.
I had never read the novel before, so I was expecting it to be the same story that I've seen on stage and screen so many times. To my surprise, the two plots did not align perfectly. The focus shifted in a way I wasn't expecting, it was written from a point of view that was completely separate from the plot, and it was a much more drawn out story than I was expecting. It was interesting to read as a source text for an adaptation. The musical adaptation just pulls a few key concepts from the novel such as the character of the Phantom, the love triangle Christine gets tangled in, and the idea that the opera is gaining new ownership. The adaptation takes these and creates a more appealing story for the stage, something that a viewer would become more emotionally attached to, while the novel is much more descriptive with the events that happen and the character Vicomte de Chagny's journey to save his love.
Overall I think it was a perfect little story to read during my last few weeks in Paris and a great keepsake from my time there. I will always love the story of The Phantom of the Opera, but I think I prefer the adaption that I've watched far too many times.
Julia Carrington
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