Abbreviated

After a lot of brutal editing of characters and plot elements, I managed to produce a 500-word synopsis of Arctic Raoul -- having with much labour cut my original attempt down to 800 words, I then discovered that other sites recommended that it should be no more than 500, or even 300 words! (In fact I have cut it so far -- phrases like "after many adventures", "a battle of wills ensues" cover four or five chapters -- that it might now make sense to remove all reference to both Kulla and d'Artois, just as I had already excised Lancard and Philippe... :-O)

Young opera singer CHRISTINE DAAÉ has fled Paris with the assistance of the Vicomte RAOUL DE CHAGNY to escape the sinister attentions of ERIK, who used his talents of deception and illusion to pass himself off as the PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Now she is safe in her birth country of Sweden, she resolutely sends Raoul away for his own good, since the gulf between them in rank makes marriage an impossibility.( Read more... )