History Literature / Phantom

''Phantom'' is a 1990 novel by Susan Kay, based on ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' by Gaston Leroux, with obvious influence from Creator/AndrewLloydWebber's musical. It chronicles the title character's life, from birth to death. The story is split into seven sections, each narrated in the first person by a [[SwitchingPOV different character]].

This version is reputed as being the second most popular (the first being the original novel itself) literary adaptation of ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', even going into the realms of AscendedFanfic.

** The AngryMob going after Madeleine's home.

* {{Flanderization}} : A lot of people who love the book ''hate'' Kay's portrayal of Christine. While in the original novel Christine ''was'' rather naive and childlike at some points, she was still a fundamentally sensible and strong willed young woman who stood up to enormous mental pressure on all sides. In this book, however, it's flat-out stated she'll always have a child-like mentality and need a man to take care of her: "Whoever marries Christine is going to have to play the role of father as well as lover."

* {{Badass}}: Erik, as per the original.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Well, for one, Erik ''dies''. So does Christine, albeit about seventeen years later, and Raoul is left to look after a son who isn't even his. He does love Charles dearly, though, and has long come to accept the situation and glory in his child's accomplishments.]]

* MommyIssues: Erik's chalk full of them.

* HappilyMarried: Charles and Madeleine, Nadir and Rookheeya. Christine and Raoul [[spoiler: to an extent.]]

* LoveEpiphany: [[spoiler:During the climatic finale in Erik's lair, Christine realizes that she loves him, which leads to her kissing him, which leads to ''him'' realizing that [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy he'd rather see her happy with Raoul than sad with him]].]]

* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: [[spoiler:Christine gives birth to Erik's son after his death.]]

* WouldHurtAChild: Javert. [[spoiler: Erik too, though his reasons were more sympathetic.]]

* SexlessMarriage: [[spoiler: Christine and Raoul end up with this, as giving birth to Charles nearly kills her and the doctor makes it clear that having another baby would finish the job. Raoul, being a staunch Catholic, rejects the idea of birth control and decides there's only one way to make certain Christine life won't be put in danger again.]]

* SexlessMarriage: [[spoiler: Christine and Raoul end up with this, as giving birth to Charles nearly kills her and the doctor makes clear that having another baby would finish the job. Raoul, being a staunch Catholic, rejects the idea of birth control and decides there's only one way to make certain that won't happen.]]

* ForegoneConclusion: [[spoiler: Erik running away from home, the horrors in Persia, Nadir's exile, the events at the Opera House, etc.]] The majority of Erik's youth in general - anyone familiar with the original tale knows it will not end well.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Well, for one, [[ForegoneConclusion Erik ''dies''. ]] So does Christine about seventeen years later, and Raoul is left to look after a son who isn't even his. He does love Charles dearly, though, and has long come to accept the situation and glory in his child's accomplishments.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Well, for one, Erik ''dies'', so does Christine about seventeen years later, and Raoul is left to look after a son who isn't even his. He does love Charles dearly, though, and has long come to accept the situation.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Well, for one, Erik ''dies'', so does Christine about sixteen years later, and Raoul is left to look after a son who isn't even his. He does love Charles dearly, though, and has long come to accept the situation.]]

** [[spoiler: As per the original, Christine tries to kill herself via head bashing. She's stopped.]]

* MoralityPet: Marie is one for Erik; thanks to her kind example he never harms a defenseless woman.

** [[spoiler: As per the original, Christine tries to kill herself via head bashing. She's stopped.]]

* AbusiveParents: Madeleine, though portrayed more sympathetically than most cases: she's lost her parents and beloved husband in rapid succession, leaving her to struggle by while she's shunned by society for giving birth to a monster. In addition, Erik is ''not'' an easy child to live with, and nearly drives her insane, however unintentionally.

* AbusiveParents: Madeleine, though portrayed more sympathetically than most cases. Erik is ''not'' an easy child to live with, and nearly drives her insane, however unintentionally.

* AbusiveParents: Madeleine, though portrayed more sympathetically than most.

* AngryMob: One shows up at the gates of Erik's childhood home.
* AnimalMotifs: Christine's son is compared to a cuckoo in the last line of the book, [[spoiler:referring to his status as Erik's son and adoption by Raoul.]]
* ArtisticStimulation: The Khanum provides Erik with hashish in the hopes that it will "inspire" him to develop more new and twisted methods of torture.

* BerserkerTears: [[spoiler: The phantom, in his tirade against Christine, during the climax of ''Counterpoint''.]]
* BiggusDickus: When the Khanum threatens to castrate Erik and have him put his manparts in a jar, he asks her if she's sure the jar will be big enough. He was likely joking.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Well, for one, Erik ''dies'', so does Christine, and Raoul is left to look after a son who isn't even his.]]

* ChildProdigy: Erik.

* CompellingVoice: The phantom's voice, UpToEleven here, almost pornographically so. Literally everyone comments on how sexual, unearthly and hypnotic it is, even when he only says one word.

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: The Shah. And arguably Erik.

** In Persia, [[spoiler: one man has candles stuck into holes in his body. He's then dragged around the city before finally being put to death.]]

* ForegoneConclusion: [[spoiler: Erik running away from home, the horrors in Persia, Nadir's exile, the events at the Opera House, etc.]] The majority of Erik's youth in general- anyone familiar with the original tale knows it will not end well.

* FunctionalAddict: Erik manages to be a fully operating Opera Ghost and be addicted to morphine.
* [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen God Save Us From the Kharnum]]: Pretty much sums her up in a nutshell.

* HeelRealization: After [[spoiler:Erik is nearly killed by an angry mob, his mother realizes what a terrible mom she's been and resolves to be better. Unfortunately, he runs away before she gets the chance]].

* IdenticalGrandson: [[spoiler: Erik's son to Charles.]]

* LoveAtFirstNote: A variant. Erik immediately becomes obsessed with Christine after first hearing her sing because her voice is the most technically perfect thing he's ever heard, but she sounds completely soulless.

* MissingMom: Reza's mother, Nadir's dead wife.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Marie, when Madeleine won't go to Erik after he's injured himself, has finally had enough:

* SpoiledBrat: Madeleine - which does not help when she has to deal with trying to raise Erik; Luciana - which likewise does not end well when she gets a crush on Erik. Also the Khanum, in a sense, since she often behaves childishly and her life of luxury has definitely turned her rotten.

* CharaterDevelopment: Despite being {{Flanzerized}}, Christine does manage to go through this; while she keeps her child-like mentality, she [[GrewASpine grows a spine]] over the course of the novel, culminating in her going to visit [[spoiler:the dying]] Erik after Raoul forbids her to.

* DrivenToSuicide / InterruptedSuicide: Erik attempts and fails to kill himself after being captured and caged by Javert. Also, Luciana [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation possibly threw herself off the roof]] when Erik showed her his face.

* LoveEpiphany: [[spoiler:During the climatic finale in Erik's lair, Christine realizes that she loves him, which leads to her kissing him, which leads to ''him'' realizing that [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy he'd rather see her happy with Raoul than sad with him].]]

* CatsAreMean: Just to Raoul, though. Erik's cat, Ayesha, loved Erik and later loves Christine's son. Although she also constantly interrupts Erik's playing by jumping on the keyboard.

* LikeASonToMe: Giovanni considers Erik to be the son he never had.
* LikeFatherLikeSon: [[spoiler: Christine's son, Charles, has been noted to be rather similar to Erik.]]

* AscendedExtra: Nadir Khan, AKA the Persian/daroga.

* LoveAtFirstNotes: A variant. Erik immediately becomes obsessed with Christine after first hearing her sing because her voice is the most technically perfect thing he's ever heard, but she sounds completely soulless.

* InterruptedSuicide: A pubescent Erik attempts to poison himself when he's feeling particularly miserable among the gypsies. He abandons the idea after remembering that it would just lead to his going to hell.

* WakingUpElsewhere: Erik faints after the gypsies first pull his mask off. He wakes up in a cage.

* AscendedFanon: This was the root of most of it.

* CatsAreMean: Just to Raoul, though. Erik's cat, Ayesha, loved Erik and later loves Christine's son.

* FateWorseThanDeath: Erik fears this at the gypsy's hands after [[spoiler: Dunicha says she'll frame him for rape, leading to his decision to flee the camp.]]

* FreudianExcuse: Erik's got a ton of these.'

** When Erik first wakes in his cage, some gypsy children poke him with sticks, only stopping when Javert arrives and when Erik stops responding. Erik also mentions the children throwing rocks at him and chanting names whenever he walked by them.

* OedipusComplex: Erik's relationship with his mother is pretty twisted; then he goes and falls madly, passionately and irrevocably in love with Christine - who happens, by pure coincidence, ''to resemble Madeline exactly.'' Huh.