Christine's age?

So,when I found put that the de Matto's translation cut at least a third of the novel I decided to give another of the different translations a try... After having read the Lofficier translation of POTO I feelt like I have been reading a whole different book! I could hardly believe it!

But it did leave me with a question. I have always thought that Christine was around 20 years old, and in this version they say she is 17?
I remember that when the 2004 movie was released there was a lot of talk about that Schumacher have decided the de-age the characters in order to make it a "young and sexy" version ... Also that it wasn't believable that a young woman in her 20's would buy the whole "Angel of Music" story .Many Leroux purist was firmly against that and pointed out that in the book she actually where in her early twenties.

So how old are Christine? What says the original French version?

I'm going by memory here, so bear over with me...

...but from what I remember, Leroux never wrote the exact age of Christine. What he DID write, however, was that she had graduated from the Academy of Music in Paris. Her singing was soulless, but adequate and it gave her a job in the chorus of the Parisian opera AKA Palais Garnier.

To be a graduate she would be between 18 and 20 somewhere. Granted she graduated a bit before the main story takes place, seeing she already worked at the opera, I would say she's 19 or 20.

Raoul is described as being a year or two her senior, and a navy man by profession. He would be 21-22-ish.

And as for translations, they're all very, very different. They ARE like reading different books. Some seems to be translated through three languages, as the lines depart so much from what Leroux wrote. Others skip big chunks, just because they felt like it... My favourite translation to date is the new translation by Mireille Ribiere. Read more about it here:
https://desertedphans.forumotion.net/t118-the-new-penguin-translation-by-mireille-ribiere

Oh, and welcome!

Hmm, I thought it was something like that .

Too bad I can't read the original text but my knowledge of the French language is limited to "oui" and "merci"

I heard about he new translation by Mireille Ribiere and as quickly I can (aka when it is released on Adlibris) I'm going to buy it!

Thank you for your quick reply ^__^

Lalilaloli wrote:I heard about he new translation by Mireille Ribiere and as quickly I can (aka when it is released on Adlibris) I'm going to buy it!

I've seen it in a couple of stores here in Norway, so I guess the Swedish equivalents would carry it as well. Or maybe they did, it's two years already since the book was released, so they might not have it in stock any more.

Ribiere said she was working on an annotated version, and the release has been pushed back several times. Now I doubt it'll happen at all, seeing the 25th anniversary is over etc. Too bad, it looked like she had done some interesting discoveries.

Scorp at this board majored in French literature, and has done quite a bit of research on Leroux's Phantom. He also got to see some pages of the original manuscript, where it turned out Christine had been re-named. Leroux originally called the character Pauline Bellini! So it seems he went from creating an Italian character to create a Swedish persona. He was probably inspired by the Swedish opera star Christina Nilsson (whose singing teacher was a Madame Valerius!), something another member at this board - phantomlove - has done research on. Ask, and they'll probably be able to give you interesting answers and additional info.

On adlibris homepage they give the info that it going to be in stock in March next year so I'm guess I have to be patient.
(A pity if she decides to not finish the annotated version.)

An Italian character you say? I had no idea I wonder what would have changed if he had went that way...

Lalilaloli wrote:On adlibris homepage they give the info that it going to be in stock in March next year so I'm guess I have to be patient.
(A pity if she decides to not finish the annotated version.)

Maybe that IS the annotated version?

If I recall correctly, Leroux does mention that Raoul was born 20 years after Philippe and that Philippe was 41 years old (putting Raoul at 21, although Leroux cites Raoul as being 20 later in the book - possibly a generalization).

In the Wolf translation, he mentions in chapter 2 that 2 years prior to the gala night, he had seen Christine at her tryouts for the Conservatory (so based on what age a student would try out for the Conservatory, just add 2 years). Generally, I think Leroux's Christine is assumed to be between 19 and 20 years old, which seems in sync with Raoul's apparent age.

And welcome to Deserted Phans, Lalilaloli

TAFKaR

operafantomet wrote:

Lalilaloli wrote:On adlibris homepage they give the info that it going to be in stock in March next year so I'm guess I have to be patient.
(A pity if she decides to not finish the annotated version.)

Maybe that IS the annotated version?

Lets hope !


And thank you for the welcome Raphael ^_^