Preface

The Opera ghost really existed. Yes, he existed in flesh and blood, although he assumed the complete appearance of a real phantom ; that is to say, of a ghost.

When I began to go through the records of the National Academy of Music, I was at once struck by the surprising coincidences between the phenomena ascribed to the “ghost”and the most extraordinary and fantastic tragedy that ever excited the Paris upper classes; and I soon conceived the idea that this tragedy might reasonably be explained by the phenomena in question. The events do not date more than thirty years back; and it would not be difficult to find men who would remember as though they happened yesterday the mysterious and dramatic things, such as the kidnapping of Christine Daae,the disappearance of the Viscount de Chagny and the death of his elder brother, Count Philippe, whose body was found on the bank of the lake that exists in the lower cellars of the Opera.But none of those witnesses had until that day thought that there was any reason for connecting the more or less legendary figure of the Opera ghost with that terrible story.

One day I had just left the library when I met the delightful acting-manager of our Opera, who stood chatting on a landing with a lively and well - groomed little old man, to whom he introduced me gaily . The acting-manager knew all about my investigations and how eagerly and unsuccessfully I had been trying to discover the whereabouts of the Chief Inspector in the famous Chagny case, Mr. Faure. Nobody knew what had become of him , alive or dead; and here he was back from Canada, where he had spent fifteen years. The first thing he had done, on his return to Paris, was to come to the Opera house and ask for a seat. The little old man was Mr. Faure himself.

We spent a good part of the evening together and he told me the whole Chagny case as he had understood it at the time. He was bound to conclude in favor of the madness of the viscount and the accidental death of the elder brother, for lack of evidence to the contrary; but he was nevertheless persuaded that a terrible tragedy had taken place between the two brothers in connection with Christine Daae. He could not tell me what became of Christine or the viscount. When I mentioned the ghost, he only laughed. He, too, had been told of the curious manifestations that seemed to point to the existence of an abnormal being, residing in one of the most mysterious corners of the Opera, and he knew the story of the envelope; but he had never seen anything in it worthy of his attention as Chief Inspector in charge of the Chagny case, and it was as much as he had done to listen to the evidence of a witness who appeared of his own accord and declared that he had often met the ghost.This witness was none other than the man whom all Paris called the “Persian” and who was well-known to every subscriber to the Opera.

I was immensely interested by this story of the Persian.I wanted, if there were still time, to find this valuable and eccentric witness. My luck began to improve and I discovered him in his little flat in the Rue de Rivoli , where he had lived ever since and where he died five months after my visit. I was at first inclined to be suspicious; but when the Persian had told me,with childlike frankness, all that he knew about the ghost and had handed me the proofs of the ghost's existence—including the strange correspondence of Christine Daae, I was no longer able to doubt. No, the ghost was not a myth!

I have, I know, been told that this correspondence may have been forged from first to last by a man whose imagination had certainly been fed on the most seductive tales; but fortunately I discovered some of Christine's writing outside the famous bundle of letters and, on a comparison between the two,all my doubts were removed. I also went into the past history of the Persian and found that he was an upright man, incapable of inventing a story that might have defeated the ends of justice.This, moreover, was the opinion of the more serious people who,at one time or other, were mixed up in the Chagny case, who were friends of the Chagny family.

Lastly, with my bundle of papers in hand, I once more went over the ghost's vast domain , the huge building which he had made his kingdom. All that my eyes saw, all that my mind perceived, agreed with the Persian's documents precisely; and a wonderful discovery crowned my labors in a very definite fashion. It will be remembered that, later, when digging in the lowest area of the Opera, workmen laid bare a corpse. Well, I was at once able to prove that this corpse was that of the Opera ghost.

For the present, I must conclude this very necessary introduction by expressing my thanks to all who helped me to be able to reproduce those hours of sheer love and terror, in their smallest details.

Gaston Leroux

The Opera 巴黎歌剧院，由拿破仑三世于1861年下令建造，耗时十四年修建，装饰极尽奢华，结构极其复杂

phantom /ˈfæntəm/ n. 幽灵，鬼魂

go through 仔细查阅

ascribe to 归咎于；归功于；归因于

conceive /kənˈsi:v/ vt. 构思；想象

Viscount de Chagny viscount 子爵，地位高于男爵（baron），低于伯爵（count）。de为法语，意为of

more or less 或多或少

well-groomed /welˈɡru:md/ ˌ a dj. 穿着打扮干净利索的

gaily /ˈɡeɪlɪ/ adv. 喜气洋洋地

whereabouts /ˈhweərəˈbaʊts/ n. 下落，行踪

what becomes of sb. / sth. 某人、某物情况如何

in favor of 倾向于，赞成

manifestation /ˌmænɪfesˈteɪʃən/ n. 鬼神显灵

of one's own accord 主动，自愿

subscriber /səbˈskraɪbə/ n. 订购者；消费者

eccentric /ɪkˈsentrɪk/ adj. 古怪的，不合常规的

Rue de Rivoli 里沃利街。法语，rue意为“街道”； de 同of；Rivoli 为该街的名字，里沃利

forge /fɔ:dʒ/ vt. 伪造

seductive /sɪˈdʌktɪv/ adj. 诱人的，有魅力的，吸引人的

domain /dəʊˈmeɪn/ n. 领地

crown /kraʊn/ vt. 圆满结束或完成