Gaston Leroux

For other people named Gaston Leroux, see Gaston Leroux (disambiguation).
Gaston Leroux

Leroux in 1907
Born Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux
(1868-05-06)6 May 1868
Paris, France
Died 15 April 1927(1927-04-15) (aged 58)
Nice, France
Occupation Journalist, Author
Nationality French
Notable works The Phantom of the Opera

Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux (6 May 1868[1] – 15 April 1927) was a French journalist and author of detective fiction.

In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera (Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, 1910), which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name, notably the 1925 film starring Lon Chaney, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical. His novel The Mystery of the Yellow Room is also one of the most famous locked-room mysteries ever.

Biography

Leroux was born in Paris in 1868. He went to school in Normandy and studied law in Paris, graduating in 1889. He inherited millions of francs and lived wildly until he nearly reached bankruptcy. In 1890, he began working as a court reporter and theater critic for L'Écho de Paris. His most important journalism came when he began working as an international correspondent for the Paris newspaper Le Matin. He was present at, and covered, the 1905 Russian Revolution.

Another case at which he was present involved the investigation and in-depth coverage of the former Paris Opera (presently housing the Paris Ballet).[1] The basement contained a cell that held prisoners of the Paris Commune.

He suddenly left journalism in 1907, and began writing fiction. In 1919, he and Arthur Bernède formed their own film company, Société des Cinéromans, to publish novels simultaneously and turn them into films. He first wrote a mystery novel entitled Le mystère de la chambre jaune (1908; The Mystery of the Yellow Room), starring the amateur detective Joseph Rouletabille. Leroux's contribution to French detective fiction is considered a parallel to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's in the United Kingdom and Edgar Allan Poe's in the United States.

Leroux published his most famous work, The Phantom of the Opera, as a serial in 1909 and 1910, and as a book in 1910 (with an English translation appearing in 1911).

Leroux was made a Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur in 1902.

Novels

The Adventures of Rouletabille

Chéri Bibi

Other novels

Still of Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Short stories

Gaston Leroux's "Not'olympe" was translated into English as "The Mystery of the Four Husbands" and published in the December 1929 issue of Weird Tales.

Plays


References

  1. 1 2 "Gaston Leroux - Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online. Discuss.". www.online-literature.com. Retrieved 2016-09-18.
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