Gaston Leroux (1868-1927) was the leading feuilletoniste of the Belle Époque, best known for his classic The Phantom of the Opera (1910) that skillfully mixed fantastic events with real-life facts. Leroux was an investigative journalist. His reporting skills helped the French fantastique become more real and contemporary. Today, Leroux is also remembered as the author of a series of brilliant detective novels starring the dashing young journalist Rouletabille, conceived as a direct challenge to Conan Doyle. Leroux also penned the tragic yet murderous man-ape Balaoo (1911) and the adventures of Chéri-Bibi, a man unjustly pursued by a hostile fate (1913, 1919).   novel: The Phantom of the Opera (2004) more on Leroux in: Shadowmen 1: Heroes and Villains of French Pulp Fiction (2003)