The House of Chagny

[igenlode]

The fact that Raoul and Christine don't actually know that Philippe still believes him dead (not having opened the telegram dispatched from Paris in the last chapter, nor indeed any post for weeks) means that this chapter, being told from Christine's point of view, has ended up with a rather different slant so far from the one I was expecting. For her the anticipated tension is all about the coming confrontation with the Comte and getting his consent for their marriage, and the focus is very much on her arrival for the first time at the chateau as Raoul's intended bride. It's getting distinctly historical-romance-ish at the moment; "The Vicomte of the Opera" strikes again :-D

Meanwhile, having started the chapter on the train from Paris (all that railway research did come in after all), I still haven't managed to reach the second sentence of Plot Point 12...

What I hadn't considered is that Raoul has to arrive and traverse most of the house without realising that everyone in it presumes him dead; the fact that he is still bearded and wearing the travelling clothes he acquired from a Norwegian seaman in Tromso proved unexpectedly useful, since Christine can put down any consternation that appears in their wake, as Raoul rushes her off to see Philippe, as being due to the household simply not recognising him and taking him for an intruder! (The beard also means that it's credible that the vast majority of the servants haven't recognised him in passing as the 'drowned' younger brother, and therefore aren't reacting with screams and horror :-p)

Comments

[erimia]

"The Vicomte of the Opera"?

[igenlode]

It's an old in-joke based on a comment I read somewhere in some fan forum once, about the idea of writing a story entirely based on overcoming the social barriers existing between Raoul and Christine without any additional Erik-complications, to which someone else replied 'but then it wouldn't be The Phantom of the Opera but The Vicomte of the Opera' ;-p

In fact by the time I encountered that particular long-dead discussion I'd already written Count Philippe Takes a Hand, which does precisely that...