PROLOGUE
_ IN WHICH THE AUTHOR OF THIS SINGULAR WORK INFORMS THE READER HOW
HE ACQUIRED THE CERTAINTY THAT THE OPERA GHOST REALLY EXISTED
The Opera ghost really existed. He was not, as was long believed,
a creature of the imagination of the artists, the superstition of
the managers, or a product of the absurd and impressionable brains
of the young ladies of the ballet, their mothers, the box-keepers,
the cloak-room attendants or the concierge. Yes, he existed
in flesh and blood, although he assumed the complete appearance
of a real phantom； that is to say, of a spectral shade.
When I began to ransack the archives of the National Academy of
Music I was at once struck by the surprising coincidences between
the phenomena ascribed to the "ghost" and the most extraordinary
and fantastic tragedy that ever excited the Paris upper classes；
and I soon conceived the idea that this tragedy might reasonably
be explained by the phenomena in question. The events do not
date

......
全部内容，请购买此书。