Gaston Leroux (May 6, 1868, Paris – April 15, 1927, Nice) was a French journalist, detective and novelist. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing The Phantom of the Opera (Le Fantôme de l'opéra, 1910) which has been made into several film and stage productions, such as The Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney and a novel by Susan Kay called "Phantom", based solely on his work.

 

Leroux went to school in Normandy and studied law in Paris, graduating in 1889. He lived wildly with millions of inherited francs until the money was gone. Then he began working as a court reporter and theater critic for L'Echo de Paris in 1890. His most important journalism came, however, when he began working as an international correspondent for the Paris newspaper Le Matin. In 1905 he was present at and covered the Russian Revolution. Another case he was present at involved the investigation and deep coverage of an ex-opera house in Paris.

 

Leroux left journalism in 1907 and began writing fiction, and in 1919 he formed his own film company, Cinéromans. He first wrote a mystery novel entitled Le Mystère de la chambre jaune (1908; The Mystery of the Yellow Room), starring the amateur detective Joseph Rouletabille. The Mystery of the Yellow Room is an important work in the history of detective fiction as it was the first "locked-room puzzle," which has become a staple in the genre. Leroux's contribution to French detective fiction is considered parallel to Edgar Allan Poe's in America and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's in the UK.

 

Leroux died in Nice on April 15, 1927 of a urinary tract infection.

 

Some of Leroux's works, in both French and English, can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg.

 

The Adventures of Joseph Rouletabille

 

Le mystère de la chambre jaune (1907) aka The Mystery of the Yellow Room

Le parfum de la dame en noir (1908) aka The Perfume of the Lady in Black

Rouletabille chez le tsar (1912) aka The Secret of the Night

Le château noir (1914)

Les étranges noces de Rouletabille (1914)

Rouletabille à la guerre (1914)

Rouletabille chez Krupp (1917)

Le crime de Rouletabille (1921)

Rouletabille chez les Bohémiens (1922)

 

Adventures of Chéri-bibi

 

Chéri-bibi (1913)

Chéri-bibi et Cécily (1913)

La nouvelle aurore: Palas et Chéri-bibi & Fatalitas (1919)

Le coup d' état de Chéri-bibi (1925)

 

Others

 

Le petit marchand de pomme de terre frites (1897)

Un homme dans la nuit (1897)

Les trois souhaits (1902)

Une petite tête (1902)

La double vie de Théophraste Longuet (1903)

Le roi mystère (1908)

L'homme qui a vu le diable (1908)

Le lys (1909)

Le fauteuil hanté (1909)

La reine de Sabbat (1910)

Le fantôme de l' Opéra (1910)

Balaoo (1911)

Le dîner des bustes (1911)

La hache d'or (1912)

L' épouse du soleil (1912)

Première aventures de chéri-bibi (1913)

La colonne infernale (1916)

Confitou (1916)

L' homme qui revient de loin (1916)

Le capitaine Hyx & La bataille invisible (1917)

Le coeur cambriolé (1920)

Tuelamort (1920)

Le sept de trèfle (1921)

La poupée sanglante & La machine à assassiner (1923)

Le Noël du petit Vincent (1924)

Not'olympe (1924)

Les ténébreuses: La fin d'un monde & du sang sur la Néva (1924)

Hardis Gras ou le fils des trois pères (1924)

La coquette punie ou la farouche aventure (1924)

La femme au collier de velours (1924)

La mansarde en or (1925)

Les Mohicans de Babel (1926)

Les chasseurs de danses (1927)

Mister Flow (1927)

Pouloulou (Found by Leroux's granddaughter in the attic)] (1990)

 

English Titles

 

The Adventures of Joseph Rouletabille

The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1908)

The Perfume of the Lady in Black (1909)

The Secret of the Night (1914)

The Sleuth Hound aka The Octopus of Paris (1926)

 

Adventures of Chéri-bibi

Cheri-bibi and Cecily aka Missing Men (1923)

The Veiled Prisoner (1923)

[Wolves of the Sea aka The Floating Prison

The Dark Road (1924)

Nomads of the Night aka The Dancing Girl (1925)

The New Idol (1928)

 

Other

The Double Life (1904) aka The Man with the Black Feather] (1912)

The Bride of the Sun (1915)

The Man Who Came Back from the Dead (1916)

The Phantom of the Opera (1910)

The Haunted Chair (1922)

The Kiss that Killed (1924)

The Machine to Kill (1924)

The Adventures of a Coquette (1926)

The Man of a Houndred Faces aka Mister Flow (1930)

Balaoo