Gaston Leroux

Gaston Leroux

Leroux in 1907
Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux
Born 6 May 1868
Paris, France
15 April 1927 (aged 58)
Died
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 one of the most
celebrated locked-room mysteries.

Contents
  1 Life and career
 2 Novels
o 2.1 The Adventures of Rouletabille
o 2.2 Chéri Bibi
o 2.3 Other novels
o 2.4 Short stories
o 2.5 Plays
 3 Filmography
o 3.1 Screenwriter
 4 References
 5 External links

Life and career

Leroux was born in Paris in 1868 and died in 1927 in Nice. 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 left journalism in 1907 and began writing fiction. In 1919, he and Arthur Bernède formed
their own film company, Société des Cinéromans, publishing novels and turning them into
films. He first wrote a mystery novel titled Le mystère de la chambre jaune (1908; English
title: The Mystery of the Yellow Room), starring the amateur detective Joseph Rouletabille.
Leroux's contribution to French detective fiction is considered a parallel to those of Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle in the United Kingdom and Edgar Allan Poe 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 1909.

Novels
The Adventures of Rouletabille

 1907 - Le mystère de la chambre jaune (English translation: The Mystery of the

Yellow Room, 1907; Rouletabille and The Mystery of the Yellow Room, 2009,
translated by Jean-Marc Lofficier & Randy Lofficier, ISBN 978-1-934543-60-3)
 1908 - Le parfum de la dame en noir (English translation: The Perfume of the Lady in
Black, 1908)
 1913 - Rouletabille chez le Tsar (Rouletabille and the Tsar; English translation: The
Secret of the Night, 1914)
 1914 - Rouletabille à la guerre (Rouletabille at War) consisting of
 o Le château noir (The Black Castle)
o Les étranges noces de Rouletabille (The Strange Wedding of Rouletabille;)
 1917 - Rouletabille chez Krupp (English translation: Rouletabille at Krupp's, 2013, by
Brian Stableford, ISBN 978-1-61227-144-6)
 1921 - Le crime de Rouletabille (The Crime of Rouletabille; English translation: The
Slave Bangle, 1925; The Phantom Clue, 1926, translated by Hannaford Bennett)
 1922 - Rouletabille chez les Bohémiens (Rouletabille and the Gypsies; English
translation: The Sleuth Hound [UK], 1926; The Octopus of Paris [US], 1927,
translated by Hannaford Bennett)

Chéri Bibi

 Première Aventures de Chéri-Bibi (1913, English translations: The Floating Prison

[UK] and Wolves of the Sea [US], Translated by Hannaford Bennett in 1923)
 Chéri-Bibi et Cécily (1916, English translations: Missing Men: The Return of Cheri-
Bibi [US], Cheri-Bibi and Cecily [UK], 1923, translated by Hannaford Bennett)
 Nouvelles Aventures de Chéri-Bibi (1921, English translations: Part I - The Dark
Road, 1924; Part II - The Dancing Girl [UK], Nomads of the Night [US], Translated
by Hannaford Bennett 1925)
 Le Coup d'État de Chéri-Bibi (1926, English translation: The New Idol, Translated by
Hannaford Bennett 1928)

Other novels

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

Poster of the film adaptation of Balaoo in 1913

 La double vie de Théophraste Longuet (1903, English translations: The Double Life,
1909, translated by John E. Kearney; The Man with the Black Feather, 1912,
translated by Edgar Jepson)
 Le roi mystère (1908)
 Le fauteuil hanté (1909, English translation: The Haunted Chair, 1931)
 Un homme dans la nuit (1910)
 La reine de Sabbat (1910, English translations: Part I as The Midnight Lady [UK],
1930; Part II as The Missing Archduke [UK], 1931)
 Le fantôme de l'Opéra (1910, English translation: The Phantom of the Opera, 1911)
 Balaoo (1911, English translation: Balaoo, 1913)
 L' épouse du soleil (1912, English translation: The Bride of the Sun, 1915)
 La colonne infernale (1916)
 Confitou (1916)
 L' homme qui revient de loin (1916, English translation: The Man who Came Back
from the Dead, 1916)
 Le capitaine Hyx (1917, English translation: The Amazing Adventures of Carolus
Herbert, 1922, translated by Hannaford Bennett)
 La bataille invisible (1917, English translation: The Veiled Prisoner [UK], 1923,
translated by Hannaford Bennett)
 Tue-la-mort (1920, English translation: The Masked Man, 1929)
 Le coeur cambriolé (1920, English translation: The Burgled Heart, 1925; The New
Terror, 1926)
 Le sept de trèfle (1921)
 La poupée sanglante (1923, English translations: The Kiss That Killed, 1934,
translated by Hannaford Bennett)
 La machine à assassiner (1923, English translation: The Machine to Kill, 1934)
 Les ténébreuses: La fin d'un monde & du sang sur la Néva (1924)
 Hardis-Gras ou le fils des trois pères (1924, English translation: The Son of 3
Fathers, 1927, translated by Hannaford Bennett)
  La Farouche Aventure (serialized in "Le Journal" as La Coquette punie, 1924;
English translation: The Adventures of a Coquette, 1926, translated by Hannaford
Bennett)
 La Mansarde en or (1925)
 Les Mohicans de Babel (1926)
 Mister Flow (1927, English translation: Part I as The Man of a Hundred Faces [USA]
and The Queen of Crime [UK], 1930; Part II as Lady Helena, or The Mysterious Lady
[USA], 1931)
 Les Chasseurs de danses (1927)
 Pouloulou (1990, posthumous)

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.

 1887 - "Le petit marchand de pommes de terre frites"

 1902 - "Les trois souhaits"
 1907 - "Baïouchki baïou"
 1908 - "L'homme qui a vu le diable" (English translation: "In Letters of Fire", 1908)
 1911 - "Le dîner des bustes" (English translation: "A Terrible Tale", 1925)
 1912 - "La hache d'or" (English translation: "The Gold Axe", 1925)
 1924 - "Le Noël du petit Vincent-Vincent" (English translation: "The Crime on
Christmas Night", 1930)
 1924 - "La femme au collier de velours" (English translation: "The Woman with the
Velvet Collar", 1929)
 1924 - "Not'olympe" (English translation: "The Mystery of the Four Husbands",
1929)

Plays
 1908 - Le Lys (co-author: Pierre Wolff)
 1913 - Alsace (co-author: Lucien Camille)