-
Главная
-
- Книги
-
- Авторы
-
- Гастон Леру
-
- Призрак Оперы
-
- Стр. 1/258
The Phantom of the Opera
The
Opera
ghost
really
existed
.
He
was
not
,
as
was
long
believed
,
a
creature
of
the
imagination
of
the
artists
,
the
superstition
of
the
managers
,
or
a
product
of
the
absurd
and
impressionable
brains
of
the
young
ladies
of
the
ballet
,
their
mothers
,
the
box
-
keepers
,
the
cloak
-
room
attendants
or
the
concierge
.
Yes
,
he
existed
in
flesh
and
blood
,
although
he
assumed
the
complete
appearance
of
a
real
phantom
;
that
is
to
say
,
of
a
spectral
shade
.
When
I
began
to
ransack
the
archives
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
at
the
present
day
,
in
the
foyer
of
the
ballet
,
old
men
of
the
highest
respectability
,
men
upon
whose
word
one
could
absolutely
rely
,
who
would
remember
as
though
they
happened
yesterday
the
mysterious
and
dramatic
conditions
that
attended
the
kidnapping
of
Christine
Daae
,
the
disappearance
of
the
Vicomte
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
on
the
Rue
-
Scribe
side
.
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
.
The
truth
was
slow
to
enter
my
mind
,
puzzled
by
an
inquiry
that
at
every
moment
was
complicated
by
events
which
,
at
first
sight
,
might
be
looked
upon
as
superhuman
;
and
more
than
once
I
was
within
an
ace
of
abandoning
a
task
in
which
I
was
exhausting
myself
in
the
hopeless
pursuit
of
a
vain
image
.
At
last
,
I
received
the
proof
that
my
presentiments
had
not
deceived
me
,
and
I
was
rewarded
for
all
my
efforts
on
the
day
when
I
acquired
the
certainty
that
the
Opera
ghost
was
more
than
a
mere
shade
.
On
that
day
,
I
had
spent
long
hours
over
THE
MEMOIRS
OF
A
MANAGER
,
the
light
and
frivolous
work
of
the
too
-
skeptical
Moncharmin
,
who
,
during
his
term
at
the
Opera
,
understood
nothing
of
the
mysterious
behavior
of
the
ghost
and
who
was
making
all
the
fun
of
it
that
he
could
at
the
very
moment
when
he
became
the
first
victim
of
the
curious
financial
operation
that
went
on
inside
the
"
magic
envelope
.
"
I
had
just
left
the
library
in
despair
,
when
I
met
the
delightful
acting
-
manager
of
our
National
Academy
,
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
examining
magistrate
in
the
famous
Chagny
case
,
M
.
Faure
.
Nobody
knew
what
had
become
of
him
,
alive
or
dead
;
and
here
he
was
back
from
Canada
,
where
he
had
spent
fifteen
years
,
and
the
first
thing
he
had
done
,
on
his
return
to
Paris
,
was
to
come
to
the
secretarial
offices
at
the
Opera
and
ask
for
a
free
seat
.
The
little
old
man
was
M
.
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
magistrate
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
.
The
magistrate
took
him
for
a
visionary
.
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
child
-
like
candor
,
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
—
to
do
as
I
pleased
with
,
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
.
