Les Enfants du LimonGaston Leroux “Phantom of the Opera” Kobunsha Classics New Translation Collection 2013

“The Phantom of the Opera” was serialized in the paper “Le Gaulois” from September 1909 until January 1910. Among the more than 30 full-length novels that Gaston Leroux left behind, it is the most famous work, in par even with his classic masterpiece locked-room mystery “The Mystery of the Yellow Room”. While it is an old work of more than 100 years old from today, it has become widely familiar through its film and stage adaptations, and it attained a large readership even at the present time. It is also proof that it is full of fairy tale-like elements, which strongly work on the imagination of the general public. The protagonist is a strange mysterious person who lives under the opera house, the heroine is a young singer who stands in the middle of the brightly-lit stage. The vivid contrast of light and dark, beauty and ugliness, good and bad holds fascination for readers. There have been 3 different Japanese translations that already have come out. Each are excellent works with their own special traits, but translations are destined to grow old with time. To take on a new translation means coming up with a translation that is easy to read to conform to the times, has a good rhythm, as well as finding a way to bring to life the old-fashioned air of a well-known classic novel.