The Phantom of the Opera newspaper articles and interviews relating to the Paris Opera House, and the character Erik (the phantom) who fills the roles of the "mad genius", disfigured monster, and one of three in a love triangle all at once. Fitzpatrick argues that all of these elements make the book good for light reading. Myers agrees that the novel makes for a good "airplane read", but says that it fails in terms of being a good mystery novel. She claims that one of the book's downfalls is that one of the important characters - the mysterious Persian - is introduced too late in
The Phantom of the Opera (2004 film) their engagement. The Phantom crashes the ball, who orders his own opera, "Don Juan Triumphant", be performed. Upon seeing Christine's engagement ring, the Phantom flees, pursued by Raoul, but Giry stops him. Giry explains when she was a child, she met the Phantom, a deformed young boy, billed as the 'Devil's Child' in a freak show and abused by the owner. When the Phantom rebelled and strangled the man to death, Giry helped him to evade the resulting mob and hid him within the opera house. Christine visits her father's tomb, the Phantom posing as his angel to win her