The Undergrounds of The Phantom of the Opera: Sublimation and the Gothic in Leroux’s Novel and Its Progeny

269 Pages·2002·42.493 MB·English

by  Jerrold E. Hogle (auth.)

The Undergrounds of
The Phantom qfthe Opera

The Undergrounds of
The Phantom of the Opera
SUBLIMATION AND THE GOTHIC
IN LEROUX's NOVEL AND ITS PROGENY
JERROLD E. HOGLE
pal grave
*
THE UNDERGROUNDS OF THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
Copyright© Jerrold E. Hogle, 2002.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published 2002 by PALGRAVE'"
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. IOOIO and
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS.
Companies and representatives throughout the world.
PALGRAVE is the new global publishing imprint of St. Martin's Press LLC Scholarly
and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd. (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd).
ISBN 978-1-349-63410-1 ISBN 978-1-137-11288-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-11288-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hogle, Jerrold E.
The undergrounds of The phantom of the opera : sublimation and the Gothic in
Leroux's novel and its progeny/ by Jerrold E. Hogle.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
r. Leroux, Gaston, 1868-1927 Fan tome de !'Opera. 2. Phantom of the Opera
(Motion picture : 1925) 3- Phantom of the Opera (Motion picture : 1943)
4. Phantom of the Opera (Musical) I. Title
P~623.E6 F235 2002
843'.912-dc21
200!050000
Design by Letra Libre, Inc.
First edition: May 2002
!0987654 2
Transferred to Digital Printing 2006
For
Karen and Joanne
and
in memoriam
Jane and Howard Hogle

CONTENTS
cif
List Illustrations lX
Prefoce Xl
A Note on Translations XV
FIRST PART
THE NOVEL: LEROUX's DISTINCTIVE CHOICES
AND THEIR WIDER CONTEXTS
One The Original Fantome's Mysteries: An Introduction 3
Two The Psychoanalytic Veneer in the Novel: Le Fantome's
"Unconscious Depths" and their Social Foundations 41
Three Leroux's Sublimations of Cultural Politics:
From Degeneration and the Suppression of Carnival
to the Abjection of Mixed "Otherness"
Four The Ghost of the Counterfeit:
Leroux's Fantome and the Cultural Work of the Gothic 103
SECOND PART
THE MAJOR ADAPTATIONS:
NEO-GOTHIC SUBLIMATIONS OF
CHANGING CULTURAL FEARS
Five Universal's Silent Film: The Recast Scapegoat, the Qlest
for the Widest Audience, and the Management of Labor 135
Six The 1943 Remake: Recombining Film Styles,
Struggling with Psychoanalysis, and Sanitizing World War I I 153
Seven The Culture of Adolescence: The Lloyd Webber Musical
and the Adaptations that Paved the Way, 1962-1986 173
Eight Different Phantoms for Different Problems:
Some Adaptations Since the Musical 205
Epilogue The Phantom's Lasting Significance:
An Assessment of Its Cultural Functions 233
Notes 241
Works Cited 245
Index 255

List of Illustrations
Figure I.I Lon Chaney in the masked ball scene of the 1925
Phantom oft he Opera (Copyright© 2002 by Universal Studios.
Courtesy of Universal Studio Publishing Rights, a Division
of Universal Studios Licensing, Inc. All rights reserved.
Also courtesy Ron Chaney Lon Chaney™ likeness as the
Phantom of the Opera is a trademark and copyright of
Chaney Entertainment, Inc. Copyright© 2002.
All rights reserved). 5
I I
Figure !.2 Claude Rains, 1943 Herbert Lorn, 1962
Michael Crawford, 1986 (Courtesy of the Kobal Collection,
the kind permission of the Really Useful Group Limited,
and Michael Crawford through Knight Ayton Management). 6
Figure !.3 From a Danse Macabre in the Cloister
of the Innocents in Paris, 1485 (Warthin, 12). 7
Figure I.4 James Ensor's Skeleton Painter, 1896. (Copyright
© James Ensor I Licensed by VA GA, New York, NY). 8
Figure 1.5 The Paris Opera, ca. 1900
I
(By permission of Roger Viollet Getty Images). 19
Figure 1.6 George du Maurier illustration for his own Trilby, 1894. 23
Figure 2.1 Edvard Munch's The Scream, 1893
I
(© 2001 The Munch Museum
I
The Munch-Ellingsen Group Artists Rights Society). 48
Figure 3-I Illustration from Coombs' Popular Phrenology, r865 (Levine, 222). 70
Figure 3.2 "The Sponge," drawn by H. G. Ibels, 1899
I
(By permission of Roger Viollet Getty Images). 89
Figure 5.1 Lon Chaney and Mary Philbin in the 1925 Universal
Phantom (Copyright© 2002 by Universal Studios.
Courtesy of University Studio Publishing Rights,
a Division of University Studio Licensing, Inc.
All rights reserved. Also courtesy Ron Chaney
Lon ChaneyT M likeness as the Phantom of the
Opera is a trademark and copyright of Chaney
Entertainment, Inc. Copyright© 2002. All rights reserved). 139
Figure 5.2 Lon Chaney on Universal's 1924-25 underground set
of
for its Phantom the Opera (Copyright© 2002 by