As can be seen, the entire opening chapter, including the creation of Célestine (and hence, every one of her subsequent appearances!), was written completely freestyle, without any plot outline at all... Some passages are very densely plotted, with the final version of the dialogue worked out in advance: some are glossed over simply as “reconciliation — remorse” or “drinking in stateroom”, with the entire content to be provided at the time of writing.There are a few — a very few — pre-planned elements that ultimately didn’t fit and were discarded. In rather more places, plot developments that would subsequently become significant are found not to exist at all in the original outline, having clearly been invented on the fly: characters such as Célestine and Mathilde, for example, and the whole “true de Chagny” exchange between Raoul and Gustave (see below) which would prove such a pivotal feature of Chapter 5.
One significant change (brought about by an alteration in implied timescale — Gustave’s bath was moved rather earlier in the evening) is that the news of Christine’s telegram became the cause of her return to Raoul’s bed rather than, as originally envisaged here, a consequence of it: the adults are no longer retiring for the night but dressing for dinner, and thus Christine’s invitation is no longer a natural extension of the ‘family time’ preceding it, but requires a specific impulse of its own. And Christine ends up in Raoul’s cabin rather than vice versa...
And perhaps the most significant change visible here is the glimpse of the interpolated agitated notes dealing with my sudden recollection that Gustave was not, in fact, supposed to be Raoul's son; somehow or other I had managed to plot out an entire fiction in which Raoul's improved relations with Gustave were to form a pivotal role, while forgetting this particular point! Apparently my mind had mercifully wiped that element of "Love Never Dies" from my imagination...
In consequence, every single mention of the subject in the story had to be worked in subsequent to this plot outline; had it existed at an earlier stage, the process of reconciliation might have worked out a little differently, but as can be seen from the notes that follow I did in fact — with a great deal of hair-tearing — manage to incorporate a whopping big illegitimacy scandal into my existing sequence of events more or less seamlessly, an achievement of which I'm quite proud.
what about Gustave’s parentage?
drinking in stateroom
in vino veritas — for it is always my fault
tears of alcoholic self-pity
Happy days
has thought of leaving her/suicide
Such happy days in first months of marriage
Resents Gustave because he took up so much of her time — and the doctor forbade any more children.
no need to fear pressing marital relations on you
Resents celebrity status — not singing. You are the most beautiful thing I ever heard
Mr Christine Daaé
?
only possible answer — I knew there was something wrong
He knew there was something wrong with their relationship — just not what (so would still be surprised by Phantom)
Christine gets steward to promise to make sure he meets her out on deck in morning
“Right-o, Madam — Mossoo dee Shanney —
High on ship — early, sunny, open
Raoul looking ill (head in hands? over rail?)
not mal-de-mer but self-inflicted
Dripping hair — did you induce that steward to throw water over me?!
She can’t help but laugh — he looks younger and so indignant. Towels him off with her wrap/shawl. His head in her lap.
“Sing for me.” You sing for impresarios — for audiences — even for Gustave in bath — why not for me?
But not warmed up — “You do breathing exercises every morning” — as he is all too well aware!
She gazes out to sea — sees tiny selecting what to sing — thin thread of smoke on far horizon — rhythm of engines and surge of waves — “Un bel dí”
The wind whips her voice away — just they two
She has prepared piece as concert encore (never sang role of Butterfly on stage — but aria would be popular as opera recent hit)
Not until Raoul asks does she realise: “one day my husband will come back to return to me”....
Reconciliation — remorse —
“Break your contract.” “What? But my reputation —
— we don’t need America — so
— you’ve broken contracts on my behalf before — last year in Vienna, drunken accident — who cares about what America thinks? something fishy about this from start, too much money for simple soloist, you would be celebrity, Comtesse on stage, freak
— but we need the money —
— Sell Chagny.
No — you can’t — your family —
— Gustave cares nothing for estate — happier tinkering around in workshop , or endless piano — and I... care too much. Care too much to see my father’s tenants beggared annually any longer to pay for my mistakes — estate needs investment, new owner — de Beaupré has already sold up to nouveaux riches —
But how will you live? get rid of town house, costs a mint to run, invest proceeds in Consols/Funds. A modest competence. enough to live quietly. school fees. As for rest — time to face truth. I’ve been you’ve been supporting both of us for years.
— you’ve really thought about this, haven’t you?
— for a long time, but easier just to keep going — wait for a big win, a miracle — American contract would have let me go on living off you — and hating myself
You have given up so much for me. Let me do this give this up for you and make a new start
Wait and see if he can stay sober until end of voyage at least...
— Gustave will be up/running riot. Must get back.
Raoul still grumpy about boy
— he won’t be a child after he goes off to away to school, we should enjoy it...
Raoul never had a father, only Philippe —
you don’t have to be the stern paterfamilias, can’t you be a brother to him?
Head still hurts...
Next day — watching husband and son chase each other round decks, game of quoits
Smiling, she sends telegram: “REGRET UNABLE TO FULFIL CONTRACT...”
Gustave in bath/cabin — family. (Raoul comes in freshly bathed from sweat of day.) She sings — and Raoul? Stories?
“Raoul — come to bed.”
“But —”
“We’ll be very careful.” (Stage performers must always have needed to be careful? She would know perhaps more than he after ten years’ gossip with other actresses...);
Luxuriating — “it will be third-class on way back!”
Back? Yes, telegram...
Ah, Christine!
You won’t mind another voyage so soon? Teasing.
Would gladly spend the rest of our lives like this — at sea — without demands...
Banana boat idea. Down to South America/Africa. Song at every port? — and the rest of the time M et Mme Nobody — Raoul et Christine Chaney Chagnet and their son — no pressmen, no photographers!
But you would be so bored, Raoul But what on earth would we do?
Watch the sea go by — forget ourselves — I’ll try to remember enough from my cadet days to make myself useful on deck, we’ll get Gustave my old fiddle — the grandson of Gustav Daaé should be able to pick up enough to play a hornpipe or two —
— And me?
— Why, you’ll sing the mermaids out of the water and the birds from the tropic shores — you’ll be the girl on the prow
His silky fair hair, new-washed, on pillow. Oh Raoul, you infant...
Hadn’t known until now how much she had been dreading America. Future unknown — but her head on husband’s shoulder. For the first time in years, completely happy.
White Star service Cherbourg->New York starts May 1907 w/Adriatic (maiden voyage)
Oceanic, Teutonic and Majestic. June 5
TOO LATE
(The following constitutes the entirety of the notes I made for the Epilogue, with the exception of the basic plot idea discussed in email — that Gustave picks up a piece of old newspaper that happens to mention Meg’s triumph in New York. As a result, the chapter was almost entirely unstructured, with reactions and consequences emerging as they went along, and causing considerable problems when Christine unexpectedly treated the revelation as a threat rather than a happy ending!)
Paramaribo
Dutch West Indian New York mail service
ship Prins Willem
Koninklijke West-Indische Maildienst — Paramaribo 1905
clapboard houses
Boschnegers brightly coloured striped coats, checked linen on shoulder?
big square in front of Govt House — Oranjeplein
waterfront market. Waterkant, Red Steps
Fort Zeelandia
Return to Bonus features / return to Phantom of the Opera fan-fiction page
