The thrilling story of the Opera Ghost legendary for making performers at the Paris Opera House apprehensive when they sit in their dressing-rooms or walk alone in the buildings corridors. But it isnt until the triumphant performance the sensual Christine & her startling disappearance that a sense of dread begins to pervade. In an ever increasing pattern of fear & violence the phantom of the opera begins to strike but always with the beautiful young singer at the centre of his macabre desires. Filled with the colour & theatrical spectacle of the Paris Opera House & the fascination of love transformed into murderous obsession this classic work of suspense remains a rivetting journey into the dark regions of the human heart. ...

Harper Collins is proud to present its new range of best-loved essential classics. ' Look! You want to see! See! Feast your eyes glut your soul on my cursed ugliness! Look at Erik's face! Now you know the face of the voice!' Living secretly beneath the Paris Opera House ' The Phantom of the Opera' Erik has haunted those who work there with his demands & shrouded the opera house in fear with the legend of his disfigured face. When Christine joins the company a young woman with a beautiful voice Erik is instantly smitten & secretly teaches her to become a great singer. He soon develops an obsessive love for his beautiful protege even though she has fallen for her childhood friend resulting in her disappearance during a performance & sparking a tragic & terrifying chain of events. One of the most well-known & well-loved gothic horror stories Leroux's suspenseful tale of unrequited love passion & tragedy is both dark & moving in its portrayal of Erik the anti-hero in his yearning for Christine. ...

One of the most successful musicals of all time Andrew Lloyd Webbers The Phantom of the Opera has been running for nearly 20 years on Broadway & in the West End. It has delighted over 100 million people in 22 countries. The Phantom of the Opera Companion is the definitive account of the award-winning masterpiece tracing the phantom legend from its origins in historical fact through numerous artistic incarnations to the present-day theatre production & film. Divided into three parts the first section introduces the reader to Gaston Lerouxs classic story based on the Paris Opera House during la belle epoque; the second section provides a unique insight into the renowned theatre production with backstage pictures & enlightening interviews with the director designers & crew. The final section covers the making of Joel Schumachers 2004 film production. As the authorised volume book to accompany the film The Phantom of the Opera is a lavish insight into this classic story & its modern-day reincarnation. ...

Returning to her luxurious home in an exclusive Minneapolis suburb a wealthy widow is horrified to discover blood everywhere
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When Milo finds an enormous package in his bedroom he's delighted to have something to relieve his boredom with school. & when he opens it to find
- as the label states
- One Genuine Turnpike Tollbooth he gets right into his pedal car & sets off through the Tollbooth & away on a magical journey! Milo's extraordinary voyage takes him into such places as the Land of Expectation the Doldrums the Mountains of Ignorance & the Castle in the Air. He meets the weirdest & most unexpected characters (such as Tock the watchdog the Gelatinous Giant & the Threadbare Excuse who mumbles the same thing over & over again) & once home can hardly wait to try out the Tollbooth again. But will it be still there when he gets back from school? This new edition of Norton Juster's classic story

Includes:: a special Why You'll Love This Book" introduction by award-winning author Diana Wynne Jones."



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Yesterday Snowfield California was a charming little town basking in the golden afternoon sun. Today it is a place of nightmare. An ancient awesome force has spirited away almost the entire population of the town & left the bodies of those remaining bizarrely disfigured. What hope can there be for the few still left alive...? ...

Phantoms in The Brain takes a revolutionary new approach to theories of the brain from one of the worlds leading experimental neurologists. Phantoms in The Brain using a series of case histories introduces strange & unexplored mental worlds. Ramachandran through his research into brain damage has discovered that the brain is continually organising itself in response to change. A woman maintains that her left arm is not paralysed a young man loses his right arm in a motorcycle accident yet he continues to feel a phantom arm with vivid sensation of movement. In a series of experiments using nothing more than Q-tips & dribbles of warm water the young man helped Ramachandran discover how the brain is remapped after injury. Ramachandran believes that cases such as these illustrate fundamental principles of how the human brain operates. The brain needs to create a script" or a story to make sense of the world a unified & internally consistent belief system. Ramachandrans radical new approach will have far-reaching effects." ...

It is 1919 in Breslau. The hideously battered bodies of four young sailors are discovered on an island in the River Oder. When Criminal Assistant Mock arrives at the scene to investigate he discovers a note addressed to him asking him to confess his sins & to become a believer. As he endeavours to piece together the elements of this brutal crime Mock combs the brothels & drinking dens of Breslau & is drawn into an insidious game: it seems that anyone he questions during the course of the investigation is destined to become the murderers next victim. Ultimately he uncovers a secret society which has the Inspector himself clearly in its sights. Dark sophisticated & uncompromising the distinctive Breslau series has already received broad critical acclaim. Phantoms of Breslau confirms Criminal Assistant Mock as surely the most outrageous & original detective in crime fiction. ...

The first book to convey the full experience of what it was actually like to be pharaoh one of the most powerful rulers of the ancient world Garry Shaw covers through eight themed chapters all aspects of the realities of pharaohs life from mornings waking in the palace to evenings spent banqueting with all his duties & activities in between. This vividly written & authoritative account provides new insights into key official ceremonies including the accession & coronation & the pomp & protocol of an audience before the king & is supplemented by numerous box features from the internal decoration of pyramids & the women who became pharaoh to pharaonic pets as well as"ations from contemporary sources & a complete king list with brief biographies of the major pharaohs. Beautifully illustrated with a wide range of images most in colour including temples & tombs reliefs & wall paintings jewelry & statues line drawings & reconstructions maps & plans this book charts the development of a uniquely Egyptian vision of kingship exemplified by the men & women who ascended the throne from mythical beginnings & the first ruler of a unified country through renowned & supreme monarchs such as Khufu Seti I & Ramesses II to the decadence of the all-too human Ptolemies & pharaonic kingships last gasp under Roman rule. ...

Fans of Dan Brown & Clive Cussler will love the thrilling new Jack Howard action adventure from Sunday Times bestseller David Gibbins. 1351 BC: Akhenaten the Sun-Pharaoh rules supreme in Egypt...until the day he casts off his crown & mysteriously disappears into the desert his legacy seemingly swallowed up by the remote sands beneath the Great Pyramids of Giza. AD 1884: A British soldier serving in the Sudan stumbles upon an incredible discovery
- a submerged temple containing evidence of a terrifying religion whose god was fed by human sacrifice. The soldier is on a mission to reach General Gordon before Khartoum falls. But he hides a secret of his own. Present day: Jack Howard & his team are excavating one of the most amazing underwater sites they have ever encountered but dark forces are watching to see what they will find. Diving into the Nile they enter a world three thousand years back in history inhabited by a people who have sworn to guard the greatest secret of all time...
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