The Phantom of the Opera (French: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra) is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialisation in Le Gaulois from September 23, 1909 to January 8, 1910. Initially, the story sold very poorly upon publication in book form and was even out of print several times during the twentieth century; it is overshadowed by the success of its various film and stage adaptations. The most notable of these were the 1925 film depiction, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical. Christine Daaé travels with her father, a famous fiddler, throughout Europe and plays folk and religious music. When Christine was six years old, her mother died and her father was brought to rural France by a patron, Professor Valerius. When Christine was a child her father told her many stories about the "Angel of Music", who is the personification of musical inspiration. Christine meets and befriends the young Raoul, Viscount of Chagny. One of Christine and Raoul's favourite sto...