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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ? The true tale of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the cunning serial killer who used the magic and majesty of the fair to lure his victims to their death. ??Relentlessly fuses history and entertainment to give this nonfiction book the dramatic effect of a novel .... It doesn??t hurt that this truth is stranger than fiction.? ??The New York Times Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.
Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America??s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair??s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country??s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his ??World??s Fair Hotel? just west of the fairgrounds??a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium. Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake. The Devil in the White City draws the reader into the enchantment of the Guilded Age, made all the more appealing by a supporting cast of real-life characters, including Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and others. Erik Larson??s gifts as a storyteller are magnificently displayed in this rich narrative of the master builder, the killer, and the g… (mer)
thatwordnerd: Both books tell a true story, with a multitude of sources, but are written in a way that makes the reader feel as if it is almost fiction. The reader (see more) is not hit over the head with facts and is able to get sucked into the story and the era.
BookshelfMonstrosity: Offering rich details of Savannah in the 1980s (Midnight in the Garden) and Chicago in the 1890s (Devil in the White City), these well-researched and dramatic recreations of terrible crimes are equally compelling, despite differences in time period and location.… (mer)
CarlT: Though AMERICAN GOTHIC is fiction and THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY is non-fiction, both books are based on the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 (nicknamed "The White City") and the horrific murders committed by serial killer Henry H. Holmes.
Stbalbach: Both concern late-19th C American killers in the backdrop of a bigger social story of advancement (Chicago Fair and Oxford English Dictionary).
BookshelfMonstrosity: The Devil In the White City and The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher are compelling and richly detailed books about historical true crime. These stories present not only details about the crime but also about the social mores of the time.
Twenty years later and I have finally read this book! It was worth the wait. It has Chicago, a world's fair--the greatest of them--full of interesting characters and talented men and women who brought together a sum of creative genius rarely equaled in so sublime a way, a madman disappointed that a corrupt political system refused to offer him spoils he felt he'd rightly earned, and a psychopathic serial killer who used the fair as an opportunity to prey upon those unfortunate to fall into his (inexplicable) power.
Larson's book is a real-life page turner that shows a moment of humanity at both its pinnacle and its nadir at the same place and time--accentuating the achievement and the depravity of both. In some ways, this could easily have been two separate books. There is no inherent necessity to raise the murders and machinations of Mudgett/Holmes to the same narrative plane as the productive genius and striving of Burnham, Olmstead, Sullivan, Ferris, Cody, et al. making the impossible a reality. In some ways, the juxtaposition elevates Holmes unjustly while bringing the Fair down just as unjustly.
That flaw aside, this book is compelling, well researched and written. It is crafted more like a novel than a historical monograph--and that certainly accounts for its accolades and urgency. As long as you don't find either half of the book (intertwined in alternating chapters for most of the book) inherently uninteresting, this will be a pretty thrilling read. ( )
pretty enjoyable read. i found the holmes stuff more interesting in general. these books always make me wonder how much was speculation, since it's written in a novel format
I'm giving this 3.5 stars rounded up. I felt like I was really there, getting to walk around the City of Chicago and I could definitely understand that Mr. Larson put a heck of a lot of time, energy and research into this, I just wish it was more about HH Holmes in the middle. It felt a little disjointed at times and didn't flow very well, but I think that was more about the scope he was trying to cover in a less than 500 page book than his talent. I had known a little about HH from listening to podcasts about him, and I was looking forward to meeting Minnie and Nannie most, I don't know if that's just because Last Podcast on the Left did such a great job of exaggerating them, or because they were kind of boring, but I was a little disappointed in them on the page. ( )
Mr. Larson has written a dynamic, enveloping book filled with haunting, closely annotated information. And it doesn't hurt that this truth really is stranger than fiction.
Information från den engelska sidan med allmänna fakta.Redigera om du vill anpassa till ditt språk.
Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood. Daniel H. Burnham
Director of Works
World's Columbian Exposition, 1893
I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than a poet can help the inspiration to sing. Dr. H. H. Holmes
Confession
1896
Dedikation
Information från den engelska sidan med allmänna fakta.Redigera om du vill anpassa till ditt språk.
To Chris, Kristen, Lauren, and Erin,
for making it all worthwhile —and to Molly, whose lust for socks
kept us all on our toes
Inledande ord
Information från den engelska sidan med allmänna fakta.Redigera om du vill anpassa till ditt språk.
The date was April 14, 1912, a sinister day in maritime history, but of course the man in suite 63–65, shelter deck C, did not yet know it.
Citat
Information från den engelska sidan med allmänna fakta.Redigera om du vill anpassa till ditt språk.
"Suddenly New York and St. Louis wanted the fair. Washington laid claim to the honor on the grounds it was the center of government, New York because it was the center of everything. No one cared what St. Louis thought, although the city got a wink for pluck."
"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood"
"They are blue. Great murderers, like great men in other walks of activity, have blue eyes."
"In all the workforce in the park numbered four thousand. The ranks included a carpenter and furniture-maker named Elias Disney, who in coming years would tell many stories about the construction of this magical realm beside the lake. His son Walt would take note."
Avslutande ord
Information från den engelska sidan med allmänna fakta.Redigera om du vill anpassa till ditt språk.
On a crystalline fall day you can almost hear the tinkle of fine crystal, the rustle of silk and wool, almost smell the expensive cigars.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ? The true tale of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the cunning serial killer who used the magic and majesty of the fair to lure his victims to their death. ??Relentlessly fuses history and entertainment to give this nonfiction book the dramatic effect of a novel .... It doesn??t hurt that this truth is stranger than fiction.? ??The New York Times Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.
Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America??s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair??s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country??s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his ??World??s Fair Hotel? just west of the fairgrounds??a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium. Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake. The Devil in the White City draws the reader into the enchantment of the Guilded Age, made all the more appealing by a supporting cast of real-life characters, including Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and others. Erik Larson??s gifts as a storyteller are magnificently displayed in this rich narrative of the master builder, the killer, and the g
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Google Books — Laddar...
History; Nonfiction; True Crime; Erik Larson; Daniel Stashower
3
Larson's book is a real-life page turner that shows a moment of humanity at both its pinnacle and its nadir at the same place and time--accentuating the achievement and the depravity of both. In some ways, this could easily have been two separate books. There is no inherent necessity to raise the murders and machinations of Mudgett/Holmes to the same narrative plane as the productive genius and striving of Burnham, Olmstead, Sullivan, Ferris, Cody, et al. making the impossible a reality. In some ways, the juxtaposition elevates Holmes unjustly while bringing the Fair down just as unjustly.
That flaw aside, this book is compelling, well researched and written. It is crafted more like a novel than a historical monograph--and that certainly accounts for its accolades and urgency. As long as you don't find either half of the book (intertwined in alternating chapters for most of the book) inherently uninteresting, this will be a pretty thrilling read. (