I have to admit that I (personally) completely disliked this novella.
I spent a great deal of time in search of this story, as you may have read on the previous page... but as soon as I began it I knew something was not RIGHT about it. Based on the premise that Christine marries Erik and stays with him, it promised to be the epitome of the perfect romantic Phantom. But by the time I reached the ending, I could hardly believe what I had just read. My first reaction was to say to myself, "That was perfectly AWFUL." I was most upset because this story had been at the top of the list of Phantoms that I was dying to read ever since I heard about it this fall. Following are some of the many reasons I greatly disliked this novella.
First of all, I really took offense at Charnas's unforgiveably brutal writing style. One of the first thing she does is, narrating as Christine, make harsh and derogatory comments about "Mr. Leroux's novel". I don't mind writers taking liberties with the tale, but I do object to direct criticism of Leroux's novel - all we have to go on for the truth behind the legend!
As I continued to read, I also developed a great dislike for the characterizations. The narrator was nothing like the Christine Daae *I* know, especially in her style of speaking. She is very callous and, in my opinion, utterly devoid of any feeling at all when she describes how she chooses to marry Erik to save Raoul. This is only the beginning of very un-Christine-like behavior, since frankly, I think Christine would be far to silly and naive to think up such an outlandish bargain as the one she offers Erik- to stay and be his lover and his songbird for five years, whereupon he must release her. I can't imagine Christine being so cold; childish, yes- foolish, definitely! But not frigid.
As much as I disliked Charnas's Christine, I had an even bigger problem with her Erik. True to the phrase "the Phantom Beast", he was nothing like the proud and imperial Erik I like to envision; in fact, in one scene he even strikes Christine. I think that, because of his upbringing, Erik would have been too afraid to touch Christine in ANY manner without her express invitation- and surely he wouldn't want to harm her in any way! He also was horribly cruel, setting fire to poodles and going to see criminals gullotined for fun. I would think that Erik had seen enough violence in his life, and wouldn't want to be witness to carnage that didn't occur out of necessity and at his own hands.
But the biggest beef I had with this story is the fact that Charnas never has her Christine feel any affection for Erik, at least as far as I could tell. She invites him into her bed many times, but only because she "needs" it- not because she cares for him. She has Christine call Erik vile and disgusting names during what could have been the most romantic scenes of the novel. And even at the end, after Charnas kills Erik off, Christine says that no man could ever surpass him- but only as a lover and a maestro, nothing more. The complete lack of love between the two was very distressing to me. I enjoy romantic interpretations where Erik and Christine end up together, but there has to be some love there for it to work!
Of course, this is just my opinion, and maybe some readers would enjoy Charnas's work. Apparently some do, since this tale has gotten a lot of recognition. But I personally was very dissatisfied with Beauty and the Opera.