Editing Gaston Leroux (section)

== Life and career ==
Leroux was born in [[Paris]] in 1868, the illegitimate child of Marie Bidaut and Dominique Leroux, who married a month after his birth. He claimed an illustrious pedigree, including descent from [[William II of England]] (in French, Guillaume le Roux), son of [[William the Conqueror]], and social connections such as having been the official playmate of [[Prince Philippe, Count of Paris]] at the College d'Eu in Normandy.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Hogle |first=J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GecYDAAAQBAJ |title=The Undergrounds of the Phantom of the Opera: Sublimation and the Gothic in Leroux's Novel and its Progeny |date=2016-04-30 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-11288-0 |pages=61–62 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Pellegrini |first=Laura Paola |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PnbQDwAAQBAJ |title=Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux: The novel's evolution and its theatrical and cinematic adaptations in the twentieth century |year=2012 |publisher=LED Edizioni Universitarie |isbn=978-88-7916-584-6 |pages=20–28 |language=en}}</ref> After schooling in [[Normandy]] and studying as a lawyer in [[Caen]] (graduating in 1889), He inherited millions of francs and lived wildly until he nearly reached bankruptcy. In 1890, he began working as a [[court reporter]] and [[theater]] critic for ''[[L'Écho de Paris]]''. His most important journalism came when he began working as an international correspondent for the [[Paris]] newspaper ''[[Le Matin (France)|Le Matin]]'' in 1893. He was present at, and covered, the [[1905 Russian Revolution]].  

He left journalism in 1907, after returning from covering a volcanic eruption and being immediately sent on another assignment without vacation time, and began writing fiction. In 1919, he and [[Arthur Bernède]] formed their own film company, [[Société des Cinéromans]], publishing novels and turning them into films. He first wrote a mystery novel titled ''Le mystère de la chambre jaune'' (1907; English title: ''[[The Mystery of the Yellow Room]]''), starring the amateur detective [[Joseph Rouletabille]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hall |first=Ann C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wOfBiuS-AqUC |title=Phantom Variations: The Adaptations of Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera, 1925 to the Present |year=2009 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-5377-1 |page=8 |language=en}}</ref> Leroux's contribution to French detective fiction is considered a parallel to those of [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]] in the United Kingdom and [[Edgar Allan Poe]] in the United States.

Leroux published his most famous work, ''The Phantom of the Opera'', as a serial in 1909 and 1910, and as a book in 1910 (with an English translation appearing in 1911).<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Wildgen |first=Kathryn E. |date=2001-01-01 |title=Making the Shadow Conscious: The Enduring Legacy of Gaston Leroux |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/00397700109598539 |journal=Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures |volume=55 |issue=3 |pages=155–167 |doi=10.1080/00397700109598539 |s2cid=192015448 |issn=0039-7709}}</ref> ''Balaoo'' followed in 1911, which was made into a film several times (in 1913, 1927 and 1942).

Leroux was made a [[Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur]] in 1909. He died at age 58 in Nice, France, in 1927.