Tonight, for the start of our third annual Classic Horror sleep story series, we’ll read the opening to “The Phantom of the Opera” written by Gaston Leroux, published in 1909. Be sure to catch our other snoozy, and a bit creepy, sleep stories every Wednesday this October.

This novel is partly inspired by historical events at the Paris Opera during the nineteenth century, and party by an apocryphal tale concerning the use of a former ballet pupil's skeleton, inspired by a German opera.