Gaston Leroux's novel is written in the style of a historical detective story and, according to the author, describes real events that occurred in Paris at the end of the last century (Gaston Leroux worked for many years in the archives of the National Academy of Music). He reconstructed the events associated with the period when legends about the Phantom of the Opera existed in Parisian society. The prototype of such a famous character, which is the Phantom of the Opera, is a real person named Eric. This was a man who was deformed from birth, but at the same time possessed many truly brilliant abilities, including psychic ones. He was originally from Persia. Being an outcast from society because of his deformity, he was forced to wander from country to country all his life. Once in France, he worked as a magician and ventriloquist at fairs, and then got a job as a simple mason for the construction of the grandiose building of the Paris Opera. Upon completion of construction, Eric decided to hide from the world in the basements of the Opera and actually turn this building into his empire: this is where the art of magic and sorcery came in handy. This is how the Phantom of the Opera arose...