“Thanks to them, I am now able to recount in every detail those moments of intense love and terror,” (Leroux, 9).
The first chapter of The Phantom of the Opera reveals to the readers that the novel is not a simple thriller, but is told from the perspective of a private investigator. This narrator mentions one key fact: all of his information is second-hand, retrieved from the personal accounts of witnesses. While the narrator has stated that he ensured the credibility of these witnesses, the fact remains that the information comes solely from secondary sources, which calls the reliability of the portrayal of these events into question.
