The Phantom of the Opera (French:
Le Fantôme de l'Opéra) is a
novel by French writer
Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialisation in
Le Gaulois from September 23, 1909, to January 8, 1910. It was published in volume form in April 1910 by Pierre Lafitte. The novel is partly inspired by historical events at the
Paris Opera during the nineteenth century and an apocryphal tale concerning the use of a former ballet pupil's skeleton in
Carl Maria von Weber's 1841 production of
Der Freischütz. Nowadays, it is overshadowed by the success of its various stage and film adaptations. The most notable of these are the
1925 film depiction featuring
Lon Chaney and
Andrew Lloyd Webber's
1986 musical.