The Kay Novel

"OG I became and OG I have remained.
But I still liked to think of myself as the Phantom..."

The Susan Kay novel is the most popular and well-known re-telling of the Phantom story, although there are several others, including many wonderful phanfic stories.

Unlike the Leroux novel, which focuses on the events at the Opera House, Kay's novel tells the story of Erik's life...from infancy to after his death. It is told from several different viewpoints along the way, all of which offer different perspectives of this complex and fascinating character. Having read this novel, you will never look at the original novel, or the musical, the same way again. I defy anyone to read this without at least getting a little misty-eyed.

So you've read this novel as many times as I have? Try my quiz!

There are so many fabulous quotes from this novel, but this one is perhaps the one that best sums up poor Erik's life:

"Such a little thing really, a kiss ... most people don't give it a moment's consideration. They kiss on meeting, they kiss on parting, that simple touching of flesh that is taken entirely for granted as a basic human right. I've lived on this earth half a century without knowing what it is to be kissed ... and I'll never know now."

My friend Melanie would also like to add her favorite quote from the novel, which she used to have a rather unhealthy obsession with :-):

"Killing is like opium, Nadir... it's a bad habit... an addiction..."

And now Alison would also like to add HER favourite quote...which happens to be another of MY favourites as well. I love Erik's sarcasm!!

"But ... but people must have been killed!"
"Oh, yes ... I daresay that's quite likely! It's really very difficult to be a murderer without killing people from time to time, you know."

Here's one I got by email, from Heather. It made me chuckle... :-)

"Are you so sure a small jar would contain me, madame?"

Another one from email...from Elizabeth Robertson. It's actually a Christine quote...one of the very few good ones! :-)

"Yearning to turn and reach out to him, I reamained unable to conquer that inner fear. It was a chasm I dared not cross. And so instead I sat there, like the little mouse in Aesop's fable, not daring to look upon the lion bound by cruel ropes. Chained by fate and shackled by pride, he starved in silent pain; and because I lacked the courage of a rose, I could not set him free."

Can't believe I left this one out:

"None of us can choose where we will love."

Yet another one by mail, from Georgina!

"At the bottom of the drawer was a small piece of paper, evidently cut from the score of an opera which I finally recognized as Aïda.
'My heart foreseeing your condemnation, into this tomb I made my way by stealth, and here, far from every human gaze, in your arms I wished to die...' "

And this one from Jana Lybarger:

"My mind has touched the farthest horizons of mortal imagination and reaches ever outward to embrace infinity. There is no knowledge beyond my comprehension, no art or skill upon this entire planet that lies beyond the mastery of my hand.... But as long as I live, no woman will ever look on me in love."

Here's one from Coriander Detwiler:

"Hell is not a place. It's an obsession with a voice, a face, a name."

Here's a whole bunch from Christine F.:

  • "There is no angel of music. And yet he continues to live in my mind...in my voice ...and in my soul." - Christine
  • "and whatever else you may have been in your time, Erik, you've always been a gentleman....haven't you?" - Nadir
  • "Are you really sure you want me to meddle, Erik? I might break something that you can't mend."
    "yes.....yes I think that is a thing you might well do eventually. Still, no matter. It's a risk that must be taken".     - Christine and Erik in the laboratory.
  • "I do not wish this friendship to continue." - Erik to his mother regarding Etienne.
    Already he possessed that dark powerful command of our beloved future opera ghost!

    • And another bunch, this time from Clara K.:

  • "To be so corrupted with vice and yet maintain a child's essential innocence! Strange, but whenever I looked at him I found myself remembering that Lucifer himself had been an angel before he fell....I felt cold at the thought of what tragedies might ensue if Erik should ever open his eyes and fall in love. Wurely God, who had punished him so cruely in his birth, would spare him the cruel travesty of such sight..."

    "...all the grief in the world seemed to be distilled through those soft vibrant notes. It was as though the devil himself wept teardrops of pure sound."

    "..and it's really very difficult to kill someone when all your inner instincts would oblige you to take off your hat first!"

    Here's one from Nia Heffelfinger:

    "There was so much beauty in your soul Erik. So much beauty that I fear now, because of...folly, will never see the light of day."

    And one from Grace C.:

    "Happiness is like the first intoxication of morphine. It doesn't last very long.""

    And now a great big bunch of them, from Stacey Robinson:

    "My mouth dropped open in astonishment, for nothing in his grim and austere appearance had prepared me for his voice. Even in that cold, clipped comment its astonishing beauty was quite unmistakable. Only those who heard him speak and sing will ever know just what a voice could be, for it was necessary to hear the extraordinary resonance and depth of timbre to truly understand the magnitude of his power. I never expected to hear such a voice outside paradise. To encounter it here, in this drafty, ill-lit tent, held its own kind of terror, for who was he-what was he?- to be possessed of such divinity of sound? That first moment when I heard him speak I wondered whether I beheld an angel or a devil; and even now, after all these years, it is a question I still ask myself. For each time I thought I finally knew the answer, he would only confound me once again."
    -Nadir

    "I have already agreed to your damned eccentric terms, have I not? At least permit me to make one gesture of myself toward my keeper . . . and my friend."
    -Erik

    "There is no angel of music.
    There is only Erik!"
    -Christine

    "You want me to kill it? . . . Oh, I don't mind at all. I rather think the spider might have one or two objections to make-but then, after all, it's only a spider, isn't it? Just a mindless, soulless, ugly thing that has no right to live and frighten people!"
    -Erik

    "The blue eyes, half closed with pleasure, seemed to regard me with the superiority of unquestioned possession, as though suddenly she understood that she had nothing to fear from me. No need for jealousy, no need to flaunt her little powers of seduction. I could not hope to take him from her. I did not dare!"
    - Christine regarding Erik's cat, Ayesha

    "Perhaps you'd find me less distracting if I possessed a tail and a diamond collar!"
    -Christine to Erik

    "Damn you! Damn your infernal innocence! You bloody ignorant child . . get out of this room quickly and bolt your door! Do you hear me? Bolt your door!"
    -Erik to Christine

    "Neither innocence nor ignorance was a shield against the music that was deep inside me now, gathering a throbbing momentum that made me twist and writhe, reaching out instinctively into the shadows as though to pull some unseen presence down upon me. My arms had wrapped around the pillow and I rode each thrusting note until the crescendo burst inside my head, flooding my entire body with extraordinary sensation. When the organ stopped I lay still in the darkness listening to the slowing drum of my heart in the awesome silence. Was this what he had meant by danger?"
    -Christine

    "Oh, yes, I believe in You. . . . I've always believed in You! You're so infinitely cold and cruel, You simply have to exist! I've seen enough of Your handiwork in my time, and it knocks my malice into palest insignificance by comparison."
    -Erik to God

    "Oh, Daroga, what a truly boring little fart you are at times!"
    -Erik to Nadir (lol. I love the whole "would you care for a diamond?" scene!)

    "Stealing from a thief is no theft."
    -Erik

    "If I had been a Catholic, I suppose I would have crossed myself. . . "
    -Nadir

    "I have completed the final process of metamorphosis . . . All that remains to be done is for me to tear through the chrysalis of mortality and reveal the ravening black-winged creature that lusts to live. A dark and towering shadow, rising like the phoenix from the ashes . . . malevolent . . . omnipotent . . . The Phantom of the Opera!"
    -Erik

    Here are a couple more, from Megan T.

    "He gestured for me to take his seat by the fire, the same, slow. rather elegant unfurling of his hand and wrist which he often drew me toward him when he sang. There was something infinitely powerful and irresistible in that movement; something that made me feel I would follow that hand even if it led me over the edge of the world."
    - Christine.

    "He's not ugly, he's not some kind of monster! I won't let him be ugly, Papa... I won't let him be!"
    - Luciana.

    Here's one from Kayleigh:

    "I see you don't care for my voice half as well when it speaks of things you do not wish to hear. Simple words can be reduced to obscenities by my tongue, can they not? .... Wife ... Husband ... Love"
    - Erik

    And two more Hannah:

    "And now, if you don't mind... I should prefer to conduct my final performance without an audience... Ask nicely and I'm sure they will give you your money back at the door!"
    - Erik to Nadir

    "He wished always to surround himself with beauty and I knew that a diamond or a butterfly was of equal value in his eyes"
    - Nadir of Erik

    One from Madison:

    "I don't have much call for handkercheifs, my dear... There are certain advantages, you see, in being without a nose."
    - Erik

    Here's one from Debbie:

    "Time ravages beauty and preserves plainness"
    – Erik, observing his mother and Marie Perrault

    Do you have a favorite quote you'd like to add? Email me!

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