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 in the graveyard are lined with human bones. Indeed, Drumright notes that "The Phantom of the Opera" checks off every trope necessary to have a Gothic novel according to the "Encyclopedia of Literature's" description which says, “Such novels were expected to be dark and tempestuous and full of ghosts, madness, outrage, superstition, and revenge.” Although the Phantom is really just a disfigured man, he has ghost-like qualities in that no one can ever find him or his lair and he is seen as a monster. People are frightened by him because of his deformities and the acts of violence he