Phantom (Kay novel)
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| Author | Susan Kay |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical novel |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
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Publication date
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1990 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 532 |
| ISBN | (hardcover first edition) |
| OCLC | 21412105 |
Phantom is a 1990 novel by Susan Kay, based on the Gaston Leroux novel The Phantom of the Opera. It is a biography of the title character, Erik.
The Phantom is born as Erik in Boscherville, a small town not far from Rouen, in the summer of 1831. His mother is the beautiful and talented daughter of an English woman and a French architect, a spoiled and vain woman who scorns her deformed child from birth, puts a mask on his face, and cannot bring herself to name him. Instead, she instructs the elderly priest who baptises him to name the child after himself. Due to his mother's shame but also for his own safety, Erik is forced to spend his childhood locked in his home lest he or his mother become a target for the violent attentions of the superstitious villagers of Boscherville.
Much of the verbal and physical abuse Erik suffers from his mother is chronicled in the opening chapters of the novel. After being forced to look at himself in a mirror Erik becomes fascinated, believing that mirrors are capable of performing magic. This fascination turns into an obsession and Erik quickly becomes a master of illusion, able to make people see only what he wants them to see. From a young age, Erik exhibits a strong interest in architecture and is privately tutored by a well-respected professor. However, his strongest abilities lie in the subject of music and he is an incredibly talented composer and performer. However, his mother does not encourage his pursuit of singing, claiming that his supernaturally beautiful voice cannot have been created by God.
At nine years old Erik's mother begins to respond to the attentions of the handsome, new town physician, which upsets Erik. He uses his new-found abilities to hypnotize her into rejecting the physicians advances and keep her trapped in their home under his care, but his relationship with the villagers comes to a boiling point when they kill his beloved dog. Erik runs away from home believing this will make his mother's life easier. After a week or so without food, he stumbles upon a Gypsy camp in the woods. He is discovered as a thief and is unmasked. Upon seeing his face, a freak show showman named Javert decides to exhibit him as the "Living Corpse" and Erik is locked in a cage. The act involves a great deal of abuse including keeping his arms and legs tied down so that attendees can look at him, and the showman regularly beats him. Eventually, he gains some personal freedoms as he develops his show to include the illusions that he had begun to master as a child in Boscherville. He travels around Europe with the Gypsies and masters their languages as well as their herbal remedies, remaining with the tribe until he is about 12 years old when the showman drunkenly attempts to force himself on him, at which point Erik kills him and is forced to once again flee.
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