Filled with the spectacle of the Paris Opera House in the nineteenth century, this classic work of suspense remains a riveting journey into the dark regions of the human heart. The tale begins as an investigation into the strange stories of an “Opera ghost,” legendary for scaring performers as they sit alone in their dressing rooms or walk along the building’s labyrinthine corridors. Some even think they’ve seen the ghost in evening clothes moving in the shadows. But it isn’t until the triumphant performance of beautiful soprano Christine Daaé that the Phantom begins his attacks—striking terror in the hearts of everyone in the theater. A story that has captured the imagination for a century, The Phantom of the Opera continues to this day as an unparalleled work of sheer entertainment.   With an Introduction by Dr. John L. Flynn and an Afterword by J.R. Ward “Ingenious . . . breathless suspense.”— The Nation Gaston Leroux  (1868-1927) was a French journalist, playwright, and detective/thriller writer. After beginning his career as a crime reporter and war correspondent, he lived an adventurous life that took him to Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, and even into North Africa disguised as an Arab. His high-spirited, often dangerous, escapades and questioning nature provided much of the background and plot material for his sensational mystery and adventure stories, particularly those starring his reporter/sleuth Joseph Rouletabille. One of his most famous detective novels, The Mystery of the Yellow Room , was published in 1907. His works have been called “among the finest examples of the detective stories we possess.” But Leroux’s best-known story is The Phantom of the Opera (1911), whose macabre hero has been played in films by classic horror film stars Lon Chaney and Claude Rains.    Dr. John L. Flynn is a Chicago-born author, university professor, psychologist, and science-fiction enthusiast. Among his published words are Cinematic Vampires , Dissecting Aliens , Visions in Light and Shadow , and Phantoms of the Opera . A lifelong fan of Gaston Leroux, Dr. Flynn was inspired to write his definitive study of the Opera Ghost after seeing Michael Crawford on Broadway in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tony Award-winning musical. In 1997, he switched gears from writing and literature to study clinical psychology. Today, he lives in Baltimore and is a department chair at Baltimore City Community College. J. R. Ward is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of numerous novels, including the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. With millions of copies of her books in print, she is at the forefront of the urban fantasy/paranormal romance genre. 1. Is It the Ghost? It was the evening on which MM. Debienne and Poligny, the managers of the Opera, were giving a last gala performance to mark their retirement. Suddenly the dressing-room of La Sorelli, one of the principal dancers, was invaded by half-a-dozen young ladies of the ballet, who had come up from the stage after “dancing” Polyeucte. They rushed in amid great confusion, some giving vent to forced and unnatural laughter, others to cries of terror. Sorelli, who wished to be alone for a moment to “run through” the speech which she was to make to the resigning managers, looked around angrily at the mad and tumultuous crowd. It was little Jammes—the girl with the tip-tilted nose, the forget-me-not eyes, the rose-red cheeks and the lily-white neck and shoulders—who gave the explanation in a trembling voice: “It’s the ghost!” And she locked the door. Sorelli’s dressing-room was fitted up with official, commonplace elegance. A pier-glass, a sofa, a dressing-table and a cupboard or two provided the necessary furniture. On the walls hung a few engravings, relics of the mother, who had known the glories of the old Opera in the Rue le Peletier; portraits of Vestris, Gardel, Dupont, Bigottini. But the room seemed a palace to the brats of the corps de ballet, who were lodged in common dressing-rooms where they spent their time singing, quarreling, smacking the dressers and hair-dressers and buying one another glasses of cassis, beer, or even rhum, until the callboy’s bell rang. Sorelli was very suspicious. She shuddered when she heard little Jammes speak of the ghost, called her a “silly little fool” and then, as she was the first to believe in ghosts in general, and the Opera ghost in particular, at once asked for details: “Have you seen him?” “As plainly as I see you now!” said little Jammes, whose legs were giving way beneath her, and she dropped with a moan into a chair. Thereupon little Giry—the girl with eyes black as sloes, hair black as ink, a swarthy complexion and a poor little skin stretched over poor little bones—little Giry added: “If that’s the ghost, he’s very ugly!” “Oh, yes!” cried the chorus of ballet-girls. And they all began to talk together. The ghost had appeared to them in the shape of a gentleman in dress-clothes, who had suddenly sto