The Phantom of the Opera.

LEROUX, Gaston.

$40,000.00

Item Number: 99560

New York, Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company , 1911.

First edition with the printer’s imprint “Press of Braunworth & Co. Bookbinders and Printers Brooklyn, N. Y.” at bottom of copyright page. Octavo, original cloth, publishers tissue guard. Illustrated by Andre Castaigne with one single-page and four double-page inserted plates with color illustrations. Near fine in the rare original dust jacket. The dust jacket design with the Phantom on the stairwell and not the bell tower on the front panel; one of only three total examples of the book known to have retained its dust jacket. An exceptional rarity of this cornerstone work.

Modern audiences are well acquainted with Gaston Leroux’s infamous Phantom of the Opera, the tale of Erik, a horrifically disfigured man who lives in the underground beneath the Paris Opera House, where his creative genius mingles – and festers – with madness. First published in 1910, the Phantom’s obsessive and consuming love for the beautiful young chorus girl Christine has captivated readers, film goers and musical theater fanatics for over 100 years. The Phantom of the Opera has become the source for numerous adaptations, including the 1925 film starring Lon Chaney and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony Award-winning musical.