Erik does not appear to know the difference between right and wrong and is prepared to use extortion, intimidation and murder to get what he wants. Erik lives beneath the Paris Opera House and is able to move freely around the building because he is believed by most people who work in the theater to be a ghost that haunts it. The Phantom of the title is an extremely talented but hideously ugly man who hides his ugliness beneath a mask and calls himself Erik. The best known adaptations are the 1925 silent movie which stars Lon Chaney as the Phantom and the 1986 Andrew Lloyd-Webber stage musical.

The Phantom of the Opera was out of print for much of the 20th century but was adapted numerous times during that period. The first English translation of the novel was published in 1911. It was first published in book form in 1910, having originally been published as a serial in the newspaper Le Gaulois between Septemand January 8, 1910. The Phantom of the Opera (French: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra) is a novel by the French author Gaston Leroux. Front cover of a 1920 French edition of the novel.

1962 phantom of the opera mask