Hi, I noticed something really weird in a French language version of poto I got off Amazon (and was printed by them). It claims it's the original unabridged text, but right near the start of the second chapter (New Marguerite) it describes Raoul as being assigned to go on a naval mission to East Africa (to connect the two oceans?? it's weirdly vague), rather than to the Arctic, as my other French version (bought at Palais Garnier!) and English translations say. Have you heard of this before?? Any idea what's going on?
Hi @batherik -- thank you for your question.
I believe this is an international issue with Amazon, which appears to have limited copies of the unabridged French edition of Gaston Leroux's Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, which is published by Livre de Poche. Livre de Poche bases their text on the 1910 First Edition of Le Fantôme de l'Opéra published by Pierre Lafitte et Cie.
I also checked Amazon France and Amazon UK, they have the same issue. On some Amazon sites, you can purchase the Livre de Poche edition of Leroux's novel used, but they have limited supplies of new copies. Here is the Livre de Poche edition on Amazon France, where they have limited new copies. And here is the Livre de Poche edition on Amazon UK, where they still appear to have some copies available new.
This may also be a distribution issue with Livre de Poche. When I checked the Livre de Poche website for Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, some of their French retailers appear to be low on copies of Leroux's novel as well.
But as to your question -- unfortunately, the edition you purchased from Amazon is abridged, despite its claims to be an "Édition originale et intégrale".
I am guessing the cover of the book you bought from Amazon looks like this?
If your edition of Le Fantôme de l'Opéra looks like this, it is abridged and heavily edited. It is NOT the original text.
This issue appears to stem from the fact that Le Fantôme de l'Opéra is no longer in copyright in France. French copyright states that published works are copyright protected for the life of the author plus 70 years (or 100 years if the author died in combat serving France).
People are taking advantage of this by publishing abridged and highly edited versions of Gaston Leroux's original French text, and then lying and calling the text "originale et intégrale".
Now, you can still buy the Livre de Poche unabridged edition of Le Fantôme de l'Opéra on Amazon US, but it is currently only available in limited quantity new, or else you can buy it used.
Here is the link to purchase the Livre de Poche edition on Amazon US new, but it is in limited availability.
And here is the link to purchase the Livre de Poche edition on Amazon US used.
The important thing is to verify the ISBN, no matter which website you're purchasing from.
The ISBN you're looking for is:
ISBN-10: 2253009504
ISBN-13: 9782253009504
Now, Livre de Poche is the edition of Leroux's novel that the Palais Garnier giftshop sells. When I was there in 2015, the cover of the Livre de Poche edition that I bought looked like this:
I have also purchased a Livre de Poche edition with this cover (this is the cover that Amazon is currently selling used):
I also have a Livre de Poche edition with this cover:
Now, here are my recommendations for reading the unabridged First Edition text of Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, if you can't get it through Amazon:
1) I recommend looking for a used copy of Leroux's novel through an online used books retailer, like ABE Books. Here's a link to the Livre de Poche edition on ABE Books.
2) Do an ISBN search through a site like BookFinder.com, which will show you all the online retailers that are selling the Livre de Poche edition used. Again, the ISBN you're looking for is ISBN-10: 2253009504, ISBN-13: 9782253009504.
3) Or, if you don't want to purchase through used bookstores like ABE, you can also read Le Fantôme de l'Opéra for free online through Project Gutenberg.
Unfortunately, Amazon appears to be pushing their fake, abridged copy of Leroux's novel, so I would be wary when buying through Amazon, and always make sure to verify the ISBN of the copy that you are purchasing.
