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The Novel
The Musical
The Movies
Prequels, Sequels, and Knock-Offs
This Site
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The Story Through Its Notes, Letters, and Documents A Visit to Box Five Moncharmin’s Memoirs of a Manager ‘This moonshine about the Opera ghost in which, since we first took over the duties of MM. Poligny and Debienne, we had been so nicely steeped had no doubt ended by blinding my imaginative and also my visual faculties. It may be that the Exceptional surroundings in which we found ourselves, in the midst of an incredible silence, impressed by an unusual extent. It may be that we were the sport of a kind of hallucination brought about by the semi-darkness of the theater and the partial gloom that filled Box Five. At any rate, I saw and Richard also saw a shape in the box. Riachard said nothing, nor I either. But we spontaneously seized each other’s hand. We stood like that for some minutes, without moving, with our eyes fixed on the same point; but the figure had disappeared. Then we went out and, in the lobby, communicated our impressions to each other and talked about ‘the shape.’ The misfortune was that my shape was not in the least like Richard’s. I had seen a thing like a death’s head resting on the ledge of the box, whereas Richard saw the shape of an old woman who looked like Mame Giry. We soon discovered that we had really been victims of an illusion, whereupon, without further delay and laughing like madmen, we ran to Box Five on the grand tier, went inside and found no shape of any kind.’ |
Notes, Letters, Documents |
