The Phantom of the Opera (Le Fantôme de l'Opéra)

The French original has clear precedence and the census claim is confirmed: Paris, Pierre Lafitte & Cie, March 1910, preceded only by the serial run in Le Gaulois, 23 September 1909 to 8 January 1910. Both 1911 English editions are collected and both used Alexander Teixeira de Mattos's translation: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis/New York (first US — with André Castaigne plates, one single-page and four double-page inserted colour plates, and 'Press of Braunworth & Co., Bookbinders and Printers, Brooklyn, N.Y.' on the copyright page) and Mills & Boon, London (first UK). Priority between Bobbs-Merrill and Mills & Boon could NOT be established — sources describe them as concurrent — so do not assert either as 'the' English first. Note two traps for the unwary: the Teixeira de Mattos translation is heavily abridged (roughly 100 pages cut from Leroux), and the Castaigne plates never appeared in the French first despite Castaigne being French.