Paperback, 381 pages
English language
Published Nov. 11, 1997 by Corgi Books.
THE BLURB:
The show must go on, as murder, music and mayhem run riot in the night...
The Opera House, Ankh-Morpork...a huge rambling building, where innocent young sopranos are lured to their destiny by a strangely-familiar evil mastermind in a hideously-deformed evening dress...
At least, he hopes so. But Granny Weatherwax, Discworld's most famous witch, is in the audience. And she doesn't hold with that sort of thing.
So there's going to be trouble (but nevertheless a good evening's entertainment with murders you can really hum...)
"Pratchett is as funny as Wodehouse and as witty as Waugh" Independent
THE BLURB:
The show must go on, as murder, music and mayhem run riot in the night...
The Opera House, Ankh-Morpork...a huge rambling building, where innocent young sopranos are lured to their destiny by a strangely-familiar evil mastermind in a hideously-deformed evening dress...
At least, he hopes so. But Granny Weatherwax, Discworld's most famous witch, is in the audience. And she doesn't hold with that sort of thing.
So there's going to be trouble (but nevertheless a good evening's entertainment with murders you can really hum...)
"Pratchett is as funny as Wodehouse and as witty as Waugh" Independent
It has been a while since I read a Pratchett novel (I read these in ebooks, and I have been 4 years without one) and this one has been a great reintroduction to Discworld. It is witty, it is funny and it reads very, very nicely. Too nicely, as I was reading until well past midnight to finish the book.
Content warning plot/characer spoilers maybe?
I wanted to like this more than I did: witches, a Phantom-esque plotline, theater puns... but the anti-fatness really rubbed me the wrong way. I understand this is a huge factor in the motivation of Agnes/Perdita as a character. It just took the wind out of the story-sails and made the whole thing less enjoyable :(
Enjoyed the interweaving of character personalities and roles in this one. Ahead of his time politically as usual without being a political book. A who-dunnit that keeps you guessing.
Pratchett's take on Phantom of the Opera? Damn it, Terry, I had just decided I DIDN'T like the Witches!
Pratchett's take on Phantom of the Opera? Damn it, Terry, I had just decided I DIDN'T like the Witches!
Here are two quotes.
Quote #1:
Seldom Bucket had always enjoyed opera. He didn’t understand it and never had, but he didn’t understand the ocean either and he enjoyed that, too.
Quote #2:
Don Giovanni, Hamlet and the sea were the three finest things God ever made.
One of these quotes is from Gustave Flaubert, overrated French novelist. And the other is one of the numerous hilarious and incisive lines from this typically terrific Terry Pratchett novel.
Here are two quotes.
Quote #1:
Seldom Bucket had always enjoyed opera. He didn’t understand it and never had, but he didn’t understand the ocean either and he enjoyed that, too.
Don Giovanni, Hamlet and the sea were the three finest things God ever made.
