Product Description

"In "Night Magic", Charlotte Vale Allen rewrites "The Phantom of the Opera" and sets it in a Connecticut suburb".--"New York Post".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1209228 in Books
• Published on: 1997-12-01
• Released on: 1997-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 276 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Following the author's engaging Dream Train , this tedious romance, based on the tale "Beauty and the Beast," is particularly disappointing. At 16, Risa Crane falls in love with the mysterious Erik D'Anton, a gifted architect who, hideously scarred in a car accident, lives as a recluse. After two years' of evening trysts in Erik's subterranean music room (Risa has the voice of an angel), they marry--but Risa's gentle efforts to draw her husband to the outside world are obstructed as Erik refuses to have the child she desperately wants, and becomes ever more fearful of losing her to another man. Allen's gushing prose seems more suited to preteen fantasy than an adult novel, even one slated for the "women's market."
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Isobelle Carmody's Obernewtyn Chronicles established her at the forefront of fantasy writing in Australia. Her books published in the U.S. include two in the Little Fur series for young readers (The Legend Begins and A Fox Called Sorrow), two in the Gateway series for middle readers (Night Gate and Winter Door), and four in the Obernewtyn Chronicles for young adults. She lives in Apollo Bay, Australia, and Prague, Czech Republic.

Declan Lee works as an illustrator and fine artist and his work is featured in collections in Australia and Germany. He has illustrated a number of book covers and readers for young children. Magic Night is illustrated in pastels, his preferred medium.

Customer Reviews

A good read, but not quite good enough.
Overall I had no problems getting through the book and I was never bored at any point in the story. Though since I am a huge Phantom of the Opera phan, this story just couldn't compare with the story written by Leroux and Susan Kay. I felt Marisa was a bit too whiny and practically near nervous break down the entire book, and Erik was a weak sap..he posessed none of the power and majesty a character like Erik should have.

Could've Been Better
I'm giving this one three stars because I feel that the story could have been done well with a few changes...
1. Marisa was too annoying, especially at first. The whole "I'm gonna starve myself over someone I barely know because he hasn't called" ordeal? Childish. And I may not feel as strongly as some about the sex between a sixteen year old and thirty-one year old, but I'd like to see both people mature enough to realize what's happening, and her behavior does NOT signify that to me.
2. Erik's revulsion at having a child is also fairly annoying. So he's able to accept (though with some difficulty) that this woman loves him heart and soul, regardless of his appearance, but a child they create wouldn't be able to get past his face?
3. Lastly, why does Marisa look beyond his appearance right away? I think it would be wonderful if we could all be so selfless and caring in the name of love, friendship and compassion, but let's be real. Most people, especially a teeange girl, are going to find it hard to simply "get past" something like that right away...UNLESS...(and this is what I personally would have liked to see most of all) the person has some specific reason for dismissing his features, i.e., she's disfigured herself. Maybe her face is pretty, but Erik could discover that underneath her nightgown she's deformed in some way, she's been horribly burned in a fire, she's got some handicap, whatever, just give me some reason as to why she didn't even flinch when she first saw him!
So, the worst book on earth it is not, but I think it needed a slight more "realism" added to the Magic.

Beauty and the Beast
Marisa, at the age of 16, falls in love with a brilliant older man in spite of his horrible scars and reclusive lifestyle. Erik was in a tragic auto accident at the age of 7 that killed both of his parents and left his face so hideously scarred that he chooses to live his life in the confinement of his home, from which he rarely ventures forth. He is a successful architect, and meets Marisa after completing a remodeling job on her father's home. His partner and housemate, Raskin, handles most of the public interface.

Marisa starts to sneak out of her house late at night to meet Erik, and initially their relationship is platonic. However, their passionate response to each other eventually leads to intimacy. Marisa told her father that Erik was giving her music lessons. Marisa's dad dies of a massive heart attack, and soon after she turns 18, she marries Erik.

Thus begins a cloistered life style lived in the seclusion of their dark home. Marisa and Erik have no social life outside their home, and they do not travel or even go out in the daylight because of Erik's fear of being ridiculed. Marisa wants to have children, but Erik is afraid to subject them to the shame and derision of having such a badly disfigured father. This eventually causes a rift between them that requires the help of friends and a chase across two continents to sort out.

The unrealistic setting and situation of these characters makes it difficult to develop any empathy toward them, since it is difficult to imagine living such a secluded, cloistered life. However, I did want both Marisa and Erik to eventually find happiness, which of course they did.