#phantom translation

On 22 September, 1909, the Parisian daily newspaper, Le Gaulois, ran the advertisement pictured above, announcing the serialization of Gaston Leroux's new novel, Le Fantôme de l'Opéra.

Leroux's novel premiered on 23 September, 1909 — 115 years ago today. It ran for 15 weeks, and it was segmented into 68 sections, each section covering roughly half a chapter's worth of content.

To celebrate 115 years of Le Fantôme de l'Opéra in print, over the next 15 weeks I will be posting all 68 sections of the Gaulois publication of Phantom to my blog. These posts will correspond with the original dates of publication.

Here is a link to Le Gaulois for 22 September, 1909. The advert for Phantom is in the middle of the page.

And in case you are wondering what the text of the advertisement above says, here is my translation:

Welcome to the 44th installment of 15 Weeks of Phantom, where I post all 68 sections of Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, as they were first printed in Le Gaulois newspaper 115 yeas ago.

In today’s installment, we have Part II of Chapter 18, “Révélations étonnantes de Mme Giry, relatives à ses relations personnelles avec le fantôme de l’Opéra” (“Mme Giry’s Astonishing Revelations, Regarding Her Personal Relations with the Phantom of the Opera”).

This section was first printed on Friday, 3 December, 1909.

For anyone following along in David Coward's translation of the First Edition of Phantom of the Opera (either in paperback, or Kindle, or from another vendor -- the ISBN-13 is: 978-0199694570), the text starts in Chapter 17 with, “In the morning, a note from the Phantom reminded that payment was due,” and goes to, “…'All it takes is an accomplice…' '…who could be male or female', Moncharmin added casually.”

There are some differences between the Gaulois text and the First Edition. In this section, these include (highlighted in red above):

1) Chapter 18 in the Gaulois text is Chapter 17 in the First Edition, etc.

2) Compare the Gaulois text:

Il lui avait dit cela le matin même en lui montrant une nouvelle missive du Fantôme qui leur rappelait l'échéance.

Translation:

He [Richard] said this to him [Moncharmin] that very morning, while showing him a new letter from the Phantom which reminded them that payment was due.

To the First Edition:

Le matin, une missive du fantôme qui leur rappelait l'échéance.

Translation:

That morning, a letter from the Phantom reminded them that payment was due.

3) “mam’ Giry” in the Gaulois became “Mame Giry” in the First Edition. Both mean roughly Ma Giry, or Mama Giry.

4) When Leroux rewrote “Mme Giry’s Astonishing Revelations” for his First Edition, he added in a number of details that are absent from the Gaulois text. I have indicated where these additional passages exist using Coward’s translation.

Regarding Mme Giry’s dialogue, Coward translates her words using Cockney speech patterns, making her sound much more affected than she does in Leroux’s text. So, please take Coward’s translation with several grains of salt in this instance. To be sure, Mme Giry doesn’t speak with a “posh” accent, but she isn’t at the level of “Ello gov'na!” either.

5) This passage was added to the First Edition:

Begin (Coward translation): “Are you still on good terms with the Phantom?”

End: “I’ll have you know that nobody’s ever had any doubts on that score!”

6) Leroux reworked this passage in the First Edition, expanding on the Managers’ interactions with Mme Giry. In the Gaulois, this section reads:

“I am going to have you arrested, Mme Giry, as a thief!”

Incredibly, Mama Giry suddenly seemed to calm down.

“If that’s on account of the twenty thousand francs,” she said, almost serenely, “you, Monsieur Richard, you should know better than me where they got to, those twenty thousand francs!”

In the First Edition, Leroux added this extended section:

Begin (Coward translation): The two black feathers on her shabby hat, which usually looked like question marks, immediately changed into exclamation marks, while the hat itself wobbled wildly, threatening the frayed chignon beneath.

End: “And another thing, M. Richard, you should know better than me what happened to them twenty thousand francs!”

7) Leroux added another section in his First Edition, immediately after Richard’s line: “Me?” said Richard, looked stunned. “And how should I know?”

Begin (Coward translation): But Moncharmin, suddenly grave and looking worried, wanted her to explain.

End: “Why do I know better than you about what happened to the twenty thousand francs? Tell me!”

8) Another extended section added to the First Edition, starting after: “Because they ended up in your pocket!…” gulped the old woman, staring at him as if he were the Devil in person.

Begin (Coward translation): It was now M. Richard’s turn to be blasted by this bolt from the blue and then withered by M. Moncharmin’s increasingly suspicious eye.

End: “I never said no such thing!” said Mme Giry, “seeing as how it was me in person that put the money in M. Richard’s pocket!”

9) Compare the Gaulois text:

Pardon ! Pardon ! Pardon ! Laisse cette femme s'expliquer !

Translation:

“Please! Please! Please! Let the woman explain!”

To the First Edition:

Pardon ! Pardon ! Pardon ! Laisse cette femme s'expliquer ! Laisse-moi l'interroger. 

Translation:

“Please! Please! Please! Let the woman explain! Let me question her.”

10) Compare the Gaulois text:

Mais Richard qui touche à l'apoplexie :

— Moi ! j'aurais mis les vingt mille francs dans ma poche ! Tu veux que je lui laisse dire cela !

Translation:

But Richard, who was becoming apoplectic, said:

“Me! I put the twenty thousand francs in my pocket! You want me to allow her say such things?”

To the First Edition:

Et il [Moncharmin] ajoute :

« Il est vraiment étrange que tu le prennes sur un ton pareil !… Nous touchons au moment où tout ce mystère va s'éclaircir ! Tu es furieux ! Tu as tort… Moi, je m'amuse beaucoup. »

Translation:

And he [Moncharmin] added:

“It’s truly odd that you are behaving in such a manner!... We are nearing the moment where this whole mystery shall be cleared up! You are furious! You are misguided… As for me, I’m rather enjoying myself.”

11) Compare the Gaulois text:

Je n'ai pas pu dire cela ! déclare-t-elle, attendu que c'était moi qui mettais, en personne, les vingt mille francs dans la poche de M. Richard ! si toutefois il y avait vingt mille francs dans l'enveloppe ; car moi, je le répète, je n'en savais rien… Ni M. Richard plus, du reste !

Translation:

“I couldn’t say that!” she proclaimed, “since it was me that personally put the twenty thousand francs in M. Richard’s pocket! If indeed there were twenty thousand francs in the envelope; for I, I repeat, I knew nothing about that... Nor did M. Richard, neither!”

To the First Edition:

Vous me dites qu'il y avait vingt mille francs dans l'enveloppe que je mettais dans la poche de M. Richard, mais, moi je le répète, je n'en savais rien… Ni M. Richard non plus, du reste !

Translation:

“You say there were twenty thousand francs in the envelope that I put in M. Richard’s pocket, but I, I repeat, I knew nothing about that… Nor did M. Richard, neither!”

12) Compare the Gaulois text:

Quant à celle que je déposais dans la loge du fantôme, c'était une autre enveloppe exactement pareille, et que j'avais, toute préparée, dans ma manche.

Translation:

“As for the one that I put in the Phantom’s box, it was another envelope that was exactly the same, which I had all ready up my sleeve.”

To the First Edition:

Quant à celle que je déposais dans la loge du fantôme, c'était une autre enveloppe exactement pareille, et que j'avais, toute préparée, dans ma manche, et qui m'était donnée par le fantôme !

Translation:

“As for the one that I put in the Phantom’s box, it was another envelope that was exactly the same, which I had all ready up my sleeve, and which was given to me by the Phantom!”

13) Compare the Gaulois text:

Ce disant, mame Giry sort de sa poche …

Translation:

Having said this, Mama Giry pulled from her pocket …

To the First Edition:

Ce disant, Mame Giry sort de sa manche …

Translation:

Having said this, Mama Giry pulled from her sleeve …

14) Compare the Gaulois text:

MM. les directeurs s'en emparent. Ils l'ouvrent…

Translation:

The Managers grabbed it. They opened it…

To the First Edition:

MM. les directeurs s'en emparent. Ils l'examinent, ils constatent que des cachets cachetés de leur propre cachet directorial, la ferment. Ils l'ouvrent…

Translation:

The Managers grabbed it. They examined it, and noted that a seal stamped with their own managerial seal closed it. They opened it…

15) Minor differences in punctuation.

This is how it all began! On Thursday, 23 September, 1909, the first section of Gaston Leroux’s Le Fantôme de l'Opéra was printed on page 3 in the feuilleton section of the Parisian daily newspaper, Le Gaulois.

Le Fantôme de l'Opéra ran for 15 weeks, from 23 September, 1909, to 8 January, 1910, and was printed in 68 sections.

To celebrate 115 years of Phantom in print, I will be posting all 68 sections of Leroux’s novel on each day that Le Fantôme originally appeared in Le Gaulois.

This first section includes the text of the Avant-Propos (Foreword) from Leroux’s novel (I’ve included it as a single panel, and as two panels for easier reading).

As you will see in the following sections, Leroux and his editors at Pierre Lafitte et Cie made significant edits to the Gaulois text when they published the First Edition of Le Fantôme de l'Opéra in April of 1910 (including some amusing typos that made their way into several of the published English translations).

In the following sections, I will be highlighting all of these edits that were made to the Gaulois text, so you can see exactly what was changed.

However, Leroux must have been happy with the Avant-Propos, because the text of the First Edition matches that of the Gaulois edition.

To read my translation of the Avant-Propos, click here.

If you are following along in David Coward’s translation of the First Edition of Phantom of the Opera (which I recommend for its accuracy and completeness), click here for the paperback, or click here for the Kindle version. Both link to Amazon US, but I encourage you to buy your copy from another vender if you so choose. The ISBN-13 of David Coward's translation is: 978-0199694570.

Welcome to the 19th installment of 15 Weeks of Phantom, where I post all 68 sections of Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, as they were first printed in Le Gaulois newspaper 115 yeas ago.

In today’s installment, we have Part III of Chapter 8, “Où MM. Firmin Richard et Armand Moncharmin ont l’audace de faire représenter « Faust » dans une salle « maudite » et de l’effroyable événement qui en résulta” (“Where MM. Firmin Richard and Armand Moncharmin Have the Audacity to Have ‘Faust’ Performed in a ‘Cursed’ House and the Horrifying Event Which Thereby Ensued”).

This section was first printed on Friday, 22 October, 1909.

For anyone following along in David Coward's translation of the First Edition of Phantom of the Opera (either in paperback, or Kindle, or from another vendor -- the ISBN-13 is: 978-0199694570), the text starts in Chapter 8 at, “Moncharmin, ever a man for a joke, said, ‘Actually, quite a good house for a theatre which has a curse on it!'” and goes to Chapter 8, “But a few, who seemed slightly better informed, agreed that 'they'd kick up a storm' at the start of the ballad of the King of Thule, and hurried off to the subscribers' door to tell La Carlotta.”

Please note, however, that a large portion of this section was omitted from Leroux’s First Edition.

There are some significant differences between the Gaulois text and the First Edition. In this section, these include (highlighted in red above):

1) This section in the Gaulois was sadly cut from the First Edition:

The Persian was a living enigma who was beginning to annoy Paris. He spoke to no one. He never smiled. He seemed to love music since he attended all of the musical productions, and yet he was not enthusiastic, he did not applaud, and he never became impassioned.

Here is how M. A.D…, a former journalist who had been the Opéra’s secretary, spoke of the Persian:* “For many years, he has been sneaking his way through our Parisian lives, always alone, always silent, but loving and seeking out the crowds, displaying in broad daylight and by lamplight a stone-faced countenance and a slightly hesitant gait, and well, appearing at every performance with his perpetual attire, a Persian hat and a great, black houppelande coat,** in the sleeves of which he continuously wrings his unceasingly nervous hands.”

That evening, like every evening, our Persian was thus dressed in Persian attire; but the new Ambassador of Persia himself was dressed in the latest Parisian fashion, and there was nothing surprising about this, since he had come directly from London.

The seat occupied by the Persian was located right below the Ambassador’s box. At the close of the curtain, the Persian rose and remained standing, turning his back to the box. But certainly he would soon turn around, and the Ambassador would see him. What would he do? Would he recognize him? Was there even anyone in Persia who knew the Persian? There were those who said that he was a very important figure; well, they were going to see!

They saw nothing at all. M. Moncharmin relates in his Memoirs that the Persian appeared before the Ambassador of Persia without even acknowledging him and that there was in the demeanor of the former more aloofness and quiet disdain than usual. In this regard, M. Moncharmin writes that the Persian was one of the most handsome men that one could see, “of average height, with even features, an expressive and masculine face etched with a profound melancholy, with black eyes*** that are intense and sad, a jet black beard, and an amber colored complexion made golden by the sunlight of the Orient.” M. Moncharmin recounts that when the public’s attention turned to the Persian, one heard in the house the discrete sound of rattling keys. The spectators were wary of the “evil eye.” And he says nothing more about that incident.

When the Managers were once again alone in their box, M. Moncharmin said to M. Richard, still with a light-hearted air: (this is where the First Edition picks back up)

*NOTE: As revealed by Raj Shah in his article, “No Ordinary Skeleton" (read more about his research here), "M. A.D…" was M. Adolphe Dupeuty. He described a real incident which happened at the old Opéra Le Peletier in 1857, in which the Persian Ambassador attended a performance at which the "Persian" (Mohammed Ismaël Khan) was also present. This article was published in "La Vie parisienne à travers le XIXe siècle: Paris de 1800 à 1900 d’après les estampes et les mémoires du temps,” edited by Charles Simond.

In his “factional” style (fact+fiction), Leroux “borrowed” heavily from this article in writing his fictional account of the Persian and the Persian Ambassador. The quote from “M. A.D.” was taken verbatim from Dupeuty’s article.

**NOTE: This image below possibly depicts the outfit that Dupeuty was describing, and that Leroux copied into Le Fantôme de l'Opéra (Leroux described the Persian wearing a houppelande and an Astrakhan cap in his narrative).

This image is from Les Célébrités de la rue, by Charles Yriarte, published in 1864, a book that listed notable figures in Paris in the early to mid 1800s. It was published seven years after the incident described in Dupeuty's article, and so is reasonably contemporary with his account. It was also published during Mohammed Ismaël Khan's lifetime, as M. Khan passed away in 1868.

It is worth noting that the Opera House that M. Khan frequented was the Salle Le Peletier, which was destroyed in a fire in 1873 (five years after M. Khan's death). Two years later in 1875, the Paris Opera was moved to the newly opened Palais Garnier (aka Erik's Opera House). So, M. Khan never actually frequented the Palais Garnier, contrary to what Leroux depicts in Le Fantôme de l'Opéra.

***NOTE: Throughout the rest of the narrative, the Persian’s eyes are described as being “jade” rather than black. This was a case of internal inconsistency. In the Gaulois text of the chapter, "The Vicomte and the Persian" (as well as in the First Edition), Leroux described that the Persian had ebony skin and jade-green eyes (instead of bronze-colored skin and black eyes).

It is also worthy of note that the Persian as a character is an example of Lerouxian trope subversion. The Daroga is a foreigner and an outcast. The Parisian operagoers make no attempt at hiding their prejudice against him. And yet he is one of the heroes of Leroux’s novel, and he puts his life on the line to save the very Tout-Paris who rattle their keychains at him.

2) This sentence was cut from the First Edition:

Yes, this was the appointed replacement for the old madwoman, and with her in place, they would see if Box 5 continued to cause a sensation.

3) These paragraphs were cut from the First Edition:

None of the sounds of the sort that are heard at séances and which, as everyone knows, are generally attributed to interference from the beyond, resounded against or within the partition walls, the ceiling, or the floor; the chair upon which Richard was sitting behaved itself in the most admirable way possible, and the voice, the notorious voice, still remained silent.

The Managers were busy noting this, when the door of their box was abruptly flung open by the panic-stricken stage manager.

4) This sentence was cut from the First Edition:

They would see to this in a little while.

5) Sadly, this section in the Gaulois was cut from the First Edition, and replaced with a brief summary:

At this time, MM. Moncharmin and Richard descended from their box. The wings were already overrun. Having arrived on the stage, they headed immediately to the right, towards La Carlotta’s dressing room, whose windows overlooked the administrative courtyard. They then ran into La Sorelli, who was rushing to see the Comte de Chagny before he returned to his box.

They gestured to her, which she understood, for she straightaway left the Comte and came over to the two Managers who begged her to discretely ask the Comte about what might be the basis of the rumors of a cabal organized against La Carlotta.

While they awaited La Sorelli’s reply, they entered La Carlotta’s dressing room. The room was full of friends and comrades, and high above all the various conversations, one could hear the singer’s voice, which proclaimed a thousand threats against La Daaé.

Of Spanish origin, La Carlotta had retained an accent of a very particular flavor, and when some excessive emotion, like anger, hurried her speech, she expressed herself in such a way that it was difficult for those listening to refrain from smiling. And so despite the gravity of the situation, there were many smiles that evening in La Carlotta’s dressing room.

The two Managers approached the singer, who was in the process of placing upon her magnificent tresses, blacker than the night, another no less magnificent coiffure, paler blonde than the dawn’s first light. It was the wig with two thick plaits worn by the gentle Marguerite. The twinkling of La Carlotta’s jet black eyes stood out even more within this golden frame. She rose when she saw “these gentlemen,” and placing a hand upon her heart, she professed her sincerest feelings to the new management so passionately that certainly MM. Moncharmin and Richard would have been moved to tears if they had been able to understand a word of that astounding gibberish. Finally, she handed them a piece of paper whose writing in red ink had the effect of thoroughly commanding the interest of the two Managers. They had no difficulty recognizing it.

6) Minor differences in punctuation and capitalization.

Welcome to the 20th installment of 15 Weeks of Phantom, where I post all 68 sections of Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, as they were first printed in Le Gaulois newspaper 115 yeas ago.

In today’s installment, we have Part IV of Chapter 8, “Où MM. Firmin Richard et Armand Moncharmin ont l’audace de faire représenter « Faust » dans une salle « maudite » et de l’effroyable événement qui en résulta” (“Where MM. Firmin Richard and Armand Moncharmin Have the Audacity to Have ‘Faust’ Performed in a ‘Cursed’ House and the Horrifying Event Which Thereby Ensued”).

This section was first printed on Sunday, 24 October, 1909.

For anyone following along in David Coward's translation of the First Edition of Phantom of the Opera (either in paperback, or Kindle, or from another vendor -- the ISBN-13 is: 978-0199694570), “The two Directors left their box during the interval to find out more about the cabal the stage manager had talked about,” and goes to Chapter 8, “The garden act unfolded with the usual turns of the plot.”

Please note, however, that a large portion of this section was omitted from Leroux’s First Edition.

There are some significant differences between the Gaulois text and the First Edition. In this section, these include (highlighted in red above):

1) This section from the Gaulois was sadly cut from the First Edition. It was replaced with a brief, one sentence summary — "The Managers left the box during the entr'acte to inquire about the tale of the cabal of which the stage manager had told them, but they soon returned to their seats, shrugging their shoulders and treating the whole business as so much nonsense":

"P. of the O.!... Always P. of the O.!" cried M. Richard, to the singer's great astonishment, and he asked for the envelope that she held out to him. The letter had been sent from the post office on the Boulevard des Capucines, a stone's throw from where the former Managers lived. Without saying another word, they left the dressing room; M. Richard was furious, convinced that MM. Debienne and Poligny had vowed to make a fool of him. That idea anchored itself conclusively in his mind when, after he had gone up to his office with Moncharmin, his personal secretary, M. Rémy, brought him an evening paper which ran an interview where M. Debienne implied that he would prefer to go bankrupt at the Opéra than to make his fortune there conducting himself "as a money-grubber." M. Richard assumed — quite mistakenly, of course — that this unwelcome opinion was directed at him, finding a connection between this interview and an article which appeared two evenings before in the same paper, where the new Managers were admonished for not attempting to produce anything interesting, for confining themselves to the same old shows, and ultimately for conducting themselves with the utmost frugality.

Shaking with barely contained fury, Richard turned toward Moncharmin and told his colleague point-blank that he found his face strangely placid for having gone through an ordeal as upsetting as this which they were obliged to endure.

"What ordeal?" asked Moncharmin calmly. "Is it P. of the O. who has put you in such a state?"

"Ah! It is indeed a matter of your Phantom!" replied Richard, enraged. "Don't you see that Debienne and Poligny are making a mockery of us? That they have organized a press campaign on the outside, a cabal on the inside, and that they are causing us a thousand different troubles!... I don't give a toss about your Phantom!"

As M. Moncharmin was about to protest his associate's claim, which attributed to him the sole ownership of the Phantom, the door of the Managers' office swung open and La Sorelli entered.

Moncharmin straightaway put on his monocle, in honor of the young lady's famous legs, clad in pink silk; but Richard immediately brought him back to the mood of the situation, which, if La Sorelli was to be believed, was more serious than one could imagine.

She started off by asserting that the Comte de Chagny had henceforth lost interest in Christine Daaé. She made this statement with all the more haste, since she had not been unaware of the Comte's enthusiasm for the talent of this little minx. But this enthusiasm had well and truly dried up. In short, the Comte had only agreed to get momentarily involved due to the entreaties of his brother, the young Vicomte, who had developed feelings for La Daaé which were truly ridiculous. The Comte now had a very dim view of the attentions that his brother paid the singer. As La Sorelli understood it, he had remarked about this to his brother, but the Vicomte would not be otherwise distracted, which must have greatly aggravated the Comte. As for the cabal, the Comte could not deny that La Daaé, whom he judged to be a little hypocrite and a trickster of the first degree, was capable of dragging his brother into such an affair, since he was a naïve and kindhearted child. La Sorelli did not leave the managerial office without insisting that these gentlemen have the utmost discretion regarding the "terrible secret" that she had confided in them, given that, if the Comte ever learned that she had thus abused his trust in relating such things which should be forgotten as soon as they were heard, he would never forgive her for the rest of his life.

Having said this, she withdrew and returned to the dance foyer. Men from the financial sector, the nobility, academia, the popular newspapers, and the political scene, represented by a deputy from the left, two senators from the right, and the personal secretaries of several members of the ministry, were whispering, giggling, and gossiping about the most beautiful legs in our National Academy of Music. Several coryphées, after glancing at themselves in the mirror, lifted their tutus with one hand, went up en pointe, lips puckered, and came down again, near to a cluster of young ladies where Meg Giry bitterly recounted the outrageous misadventure that had happened that very morning to her worthy mother in the managerial office. Naturally, as everyone had noted that MM. Richard and Moncharmin were attending the performance in Box 5, the primary cause of Mme Giry's dishonor and her daughter's despair, Meg's confidences were a tremendous success and once again, the talk was only that of the Phantom and his box, although the young ladies made a little sign of the devil's horns to ward off bad luck.

Suddenly, there was a great commotion and loud bursts of laughter. It was little Jammes who, followed by her comrades, "Nez qui danse" and "Jambe d'acier,"* made her entrance into the foyer. All three of them were leaning on pitchforks that they had retrieved from their properties. Thusly armed, they defied the Phantom and his maledictions, for he was capable of anything, they said, and he'd had the audacity to steal César, the white horse from Le Prophète, right under the nose of good M. Lachenal, who was worried sick because of it.

Upon hearing about this new exploit by the Phantom, the small army of terrified dancers tried to touch the wood of the pitchforks, and La Sorelli herself could not resist this superstitious temptation before going to rejoin the Comte de Chagny, who was standing in a corner, alone and quite concerned. Did he already foresee that the amorous affinity his brother had for La Daaé — an affinity that he had at first entertained — would descend into a formidable passion?

But where was the Vicomte? Leaning on an upright for a set piece that had just been put up — standing between an idling and melancholy walk-on actress, and a petit rat, who, far from her mother, was busy munching some nuts, and letting herself be charmed by a gallant old man — he was waiting for Christine to pass by. She would not be long, since as she was singing the role of Siébel, she had to be ready to go on stage when the curtain went up on the third act.

Just then, she arrived and passed close by him without seeing him, or pretending not to see him. As she passed by, there were some hostile whispers uttered by the friends of La Carlotta, but again it seemed that she had not heard them.

The Vicomte looked away, heaving a heavy sigh. He then saw the two Managers, who were looking at each other and whispering in each other's ear. He imagined that they were mocking him for his love. He blushed and walked away. The Managers left the stage as well, and went back up to Box 5.

*NOTE: There is a brief mention of similar figures of the Opéra's ballet in Sept ans à l'Opéra. Souvenirs anecdotiques d'un secrétaire particulier, by Nérée-Desarbres (Paris: E. Dentu, 1864, page 64)

2) This sentence is slightly different in the Gaulois text, as compared to the First Edition:

Mais personne ne put les renseigner, puis ils revinrent auprès de la tablette ; ils trouvèrent, à côté de la boite de bonbons anglais, un lorgnette.

Translation:

But no one could tell them anything, so they came back to the armrest shelf; beside the box of English chocolates, they found a pair of opera glasses.

3) Compare the Gaulois text:

Ils s'assirent en silence. (They sat in silence.)

To the First Edition:

Ils s'assirent en silence, réellement inpressionnés. (They sat in silence, genuinely unnerved.)

4) This line of Marguerite's in the Gaulois was omitted from the First Edition, but was curiously added back in by De Mattos in his abridged translation of the First Edition:

Je voudrais bien savoir quel était ce jeune homme, Si c'est un grand seigneur, et comment il se nomme.

Translation:

I should dearly like to know who this young man was, Whether he is a noble lord, and what his name is.

5) This sentence in the Gaulois was omitted from the First Edition:

Rien, ni sur la scène, ni dans la salle, ni dans la loge ne venait troubler l'ordre du spectacle.

Translation:

Nothing on the stage, in the house, or in the box occurred to disrupt the order of the performance.

6) Minor differences in punctuation.

Welcome to the 64th installment of 15 Weeks of Phantom, where I post all 68 sections of Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, as they were first printed in Le Gaulois newspaper 115 yeas ago.

In today’s installment, we have Part III of Chapter 27, “Faut-il tourner le scorpion ? Faut-il tourner la sauterelle ?” (Shall You Turn the Scorpion? Or Shall You Turn the Grasshopper?).

This section was first printed on Monday, 3 January, 1910.

For anyone following along in David Coward's translation of the First Edition of Phantom of the Opera (either in paperback, or Kindle, or from another vendor -- the ISBN-13 is: 978-0199694570), the text starts in Chapter 27, “I had been struck by the thought, for I knew Erik all too well, that he might have tricked her once more” and goes to the Persian’s line, “And before losing consciousness, I seemed still to hear a voice calling above the swish and boil of water: any old barrels!… barrels!… any old barrels for sale?”

There are some differences between the Gaulois text and the First Edition. In this section, these include:

1) Chapter XXVII was printed as Chapter XXVIII. This numbering error was made in Chapter VII, and was not corrected, so it was propagated throughout the Gaulois publication.

2) Each chapter in the Gaulois publication is one number ahead of the chapters in the First Edition, due to the inclusion of “The Magic Envelope” chapter in the Gaulois.

3) Minor differences in punctuation.

NOTE: Leroux and the editors at Pierre Lafitte & Cie. must have been satisfied with this section, because there are no other textual changes that appear in the First Edition.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE I: 

The text highlighted in blue in the first half-panel above indicates the only instances in the novel where Christine switches from using 2nd person plural (formal “you”) to using 2nd person singular (informal “you”) to address Erik. Christine is at her breaking point with Erik here, and this switch from vouvoyer to tutoyer is intended to be condescending.

This text translates as:

“Erik,” cried Christine, who must have rushed towards the monster’s hand, “swear to me, monster, swear to me on your infernal love, that it is the scorpion that I must turn…”

“Yes, to go off to our wedding…”

“Ah, you see! We are going to go off!”

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE II: 

In designating the grasshopper (sauterelle) as the switch that will ignite the gunpowder, Erik is making a pun on the French word “sauter,” which means both “to jump” and “to explode.” It can also mean “to go off,” which is how I translated it above when Erik says, “go off to our wedding,” and Christine thinks he is making a horrible pun on “go off/explode” to trick her into turning the switch that will ignite the gunpowder.

But there is another, more derogatory meaning to “sauterelle,” as well. “Sauterelle” is French slang for a prostitute, as well as French slang for a picky woman who examines items in a shop without buying anything, as we can see from Albert Barrère's French-English dictionary of Argot and Slang from 1889:

So, in addition to telling Christine that she will blow everyone up if she turns the grasshopper, Erik is also telling her that if she doesn’t agree to marry him, she is a picky whore.

Christine once again shows herself to be a pinnacle of restraint and dignity. Erik deserves far worse than to have Christine belittle him, tutoyer him, and call him a monster.

Because Christine is right — Erik has shown himself to be a monster here. Not because of his face, and she doesn’t mean it that way, but because of his terrible actions. And his redemption at the end is a redemption of his character, of his soul. 

Le Fantôme de l’Opéra is Leroux’s retelling of the Beauty and the Beast myth. Erik’s transformation is that he lives out his remaining days as a man, and he dies and is buried a man.

Erik's appearance does not change, but his heart does. His life has been anything but fair — for instance, in Leroux’s novel, Erik helped design and build the Opera House, yet he is given little “official” pay, and he receives no recognition for his work. But because of Christine, he learns that this doesn’t give him the right to impose his will on others in a way that harms or kills them.

The tragedy of Erik’s story is that, in an ideal world, he would have been able to use those revelations in his life for many years to come — as Leroux writes, “Il avait un coeur à contenir l’empire du monde” (”He had a heart that was great enough to have ruled the world”).

But Leroux reminds us that Erik does not live in an ideal world, and neither do we. However, just because Erik doesn’t get a traditional “happily ever after,” that does not negate the importance and power of his transformation, and that’s a lesson that we can all take to heart. We might not get a “happily ever after,” but we can still make a great difference to the people in our lives.

Welcome to the 56th installment of 15 Weeks of Phantom, where I post all 68 sections of Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, as they were first printed in Le Gaulois newspaper 115 yeas ago.

In today’s installment, we have Part IV of Chapter 23, “Intéressantes et instructives tribulations d’un Persan dans les dessous de l’Opéra: Recit du Persan” (Interesting and Informative Tribulations of a Persian in the Underside of the Opera: The Persian’s Narrative).

This section was first printed on Friday, 24 December, 1909.

For anyone following along in David Coward's translation of the First Edition of Phantom of the Opera (either in paperback, or Kindle, or from another vendor -- the ISBN-13 is: 978-0199694570), the text starts in Chapter 22, “I must tell you how I read the situation,” and goes to, “So imagine the shock I had, the moment I found myself inside the monster’s lair, to realize that the room into which the Viscount and I had dropped was an exact reproduction of the torture chamber from the Rosy Hours of Mazanderan.”

There are some differences between the Gaulois text and the First Edition. In this section, these include (highlighted in red above):

1) Each chapter in the Gaulois publication is one number ahead of the chapters in the First Edition, due to the inclusion of “The Magic Envelope” chapter in the Gaulois.

2) Compare the Gaulois text:

Le monstre travaillait, toutes portes ouvertes, à son Don Juan triomphant. Je savais que c'était là l'œuvre de sa vie.

Translation:

The monster was working, with all the doors open, on his Don Juan Triumphant. I knew that this was his life’s work.

To the First Edition:

Le monstre travaillait, toutes portes ouvertes chez lui, à son Don Juan triomphant. Je savais que c'était là l'œuvre de sa vie. Je n'avais garde de bouger et je restai prudemment dans mon trou obscur.

Translation:

The monster was working, with all the doors open in his house, on his Don Juan Triumphant. I knew that this was his life’s work. I was careful not to move and I stayed cautiously in my dark alcove.

3) Compare the Gaulois text:

Après avoir évité le commissaire de police, quelques fermeurs de portes, les pompiers

Translation:

After evading the Commissary of Police, several door-shutters, and the firemen

To the First Edition:

Après avoir évité le commissaire de police, quelques fermeurs de portes, puis les pompiers

Translation:

After evading the Commissary of Police, several door-shutters, and then the firemen

4) Compare the Gaulois text:

Je conaissais trop mon Erik 

Translation:

I knew my Erik too well

To the First Edition:

Je conaissais assez mon Erik 

Translation:

I knew my Erik well enough

5) Minor differences in punctuation, capitalization, and italicization.

Welcome to the 54th installment of 15 Weeks of Phantom, where I post all 68 sections of Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, as they were first printed in Le Gaulois newspaper 115 yeas ago.

In today’s installment, we have Part II of Chapter 23, “Intéressantes et instructives tribulations d’un Persan dans les dessous de l’Opéra: Recit du Persan” (Interesting and Informative Tribulations of a Persian in the Underside of the Opera: The Persian’s Narrative).

This section was first printed on Monday, 20 December, 1909.

For anyone following along in David Coward's translation of the First Edition of Phantom of the Opera (either in paperback, or Kindle, or from another vendor -- the ISBN-13 is: 978-0199694570), the text starts in Chapter 22, “It followed me, went where I went, and it was so silky-smooth on the ear that I felt no fear,” and goes to, “On that occasion, I also discovered the secret tunnel which led to the spring which trickled out of the wall, the cell dug out by the Communards and the trap which acted as Erik’s short cut down to the third level.”

There are some differences between the Gaulois text and the First Edition. In this section, these include (highlighted in red above):

1) Each chapter in the Gaulois publication is one number ahead of the chapters in the First Edition, due to the inclusion of “The Magic Envelope” chapter in the Gaulois.

2) Compare the Gaulois text:

…je l'avais moi-même trop étudié jadis avec Erik pour ignorer combien quelquefois, avec les trucs les plus simples, quelqu'un qui connaît son métier peut fair travailler la pauvre imagination humaine.

Translation:

…I myself had studied the subject too much in days past with Erik to remain unaware of how much, with the simplest of tricks, one who knows his trade can manipulate the weak human imagination.

To the First Edition:

…je l'avais moi-même trop étudié jadis : avec les trucs les plus simples, quelqu'un qui connaît son métier peut fair travailler la pauvre imagination humaine.

Translation:

…I myself had studied the subject too much in days past: with the simplest of tricks, one who knows his trade can manipulate the weak human imagination.

3) Compare the Gaulois text:

cet air terrible

Translation:

that terrifying look

To the First Edition:

cet air de menace enfantine 

Translation:

that look of childish menace

4) Compare the Gaulois text:

demanda-t-il en reprenant son air enjoué 

Translation:

he asked, regaining his cheerful air

To the First Edition:

demanda-t-il en prenant un air aimable 

Translation:

he asked, taking on an amiable air

5) Compare the Gaulois text:

fin juillet 1909 

Translation:

late July, 1909

To the First Edition:

fin juillet 1900* 

Translation:

late July, 1900

* NOTE: The First Edition incorrectly states that the newspaper article in question was dated July, 1900. The article that Leroux was likely referencing was this front-page piece, "Le Dé-Tham vient de nous tuer,“ which appeared in Le Matin on 28 July, 1909.

6) This text appeared in the Gaulois, but was removed from the First Edition:

au bord d'une rivière 

Translation:

on a riverbank

7) The text highlighted in blue above indicates an anachronism in Leroux’s narrative. As we recall from Chapter 8, Erik abducted Christine on the same night that he caused the chandelier to crash. In this chapter, however, the Persian accuses Erik of causing the chandelier crash some time before he abducted Christine.

8) Compare the Gaulois text:

Ah ! ricana-t-il, ça, le lustre… je peux bien te le dire !… Le lustre, ça n'est pas moi !… Il était très usé, le lustre… et je n'étais pas chargé, n'est-ce pas ? de le réparer.

Translation:

"Ah!” he laughted, “the chandelier… I can tell you about that!… The chandelier, that wasn’t to do with me!… It was very worn, the chandelier was… and I wasn’t responsible for fixing it, was I?”

To the First Edition:

Ah ! ricana-t-il, ça, le lustre… je veux bien te le dire !… Le lustre, ça n'est pas moi !… Il était très usé, le lustre…

Translation:

“Ah!” he laughted, “the chandelier… I will tell you about that!… The chandelier, that wasn’t to do with me!… It was very worn, the chandelier was…”

9) Compare the Gaulois text:

fatal nocher

Translation:

grim ferryman of the Underworld

To the First Edition -- NOTE: this is a typo:

fatal rocher** 

Translation of this typo:

grim rock

** NOTE: This is the typo to end all typos! Read more about it here.

ALSO NOTE: Coward (mis)translated this typo literally as “wrecking rock.” In fact, the other major English translators who worked from the First Edition text also (mis)translated this phrase.

A notable exception is Lowell Bair, who based his 1990 translation of The Phantom of the Opera on a later abridged French edition of Leroux's novel, which corrected several of Leroux's First Edition typos, including "fatal rocher." Bair translated "fatal nocher" correctly as "the grim ferryman from the Styx." Unfortunately, since the French edition that Bair was translating from was abridged, Bair's translation is also abridged. Other than being abridged, it is one of the better English translations of Leroux's novel.

It is baffling why the First Edition translators didn’t sense that this was a typo, because "fatal nocher" was a common French literary phrase used to describe Charon, the grim ferryman of Hades in Greek mythology. It should have been easy enough to guess that the First Edition had misprinted the "n" as an "r".

The job of a translator isn’t to highlight an author’s mistakes; it is to make the author look their best in another language. It is not ethical for a translator to translate a typo literally without context. The First Edition translators should have rendered the phrase correctly, and then mentioned the "fatal rocher" typo in a footnote.

As it is, all the First Edition translators have transformed Erik from the "Grim Ferryman" into into a "Grim Rock." It would be a cool band name -- Erik could be the "Grim Rocker" -- but it's still not what Leroux wrote or intended.

10) Compare the Gaulois text:

S'ils avaient vu seulement ce dont Erik était capable

Translation:

If they had only seen what Erik was capable of

To the First Edition:

S'ils avaient su seulement ce dont Erik était capable

Translation:

If they had only known what Erik was capable of

11) Minor differences in punctuation, capitalization, and italicization.