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The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
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MSRP: $26.95
Your Price: $17.79
Savings: $ 9.16 ( 34% )
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Manufacturer: Crown
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The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America Features
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ISBN13: 9780609608449
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Additional The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America Information
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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 a time of magic and majesty, 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. In this book the smoke, romance, and mystery of the Gilded Age come alive as never before.
Erik Larson’s gifts as a storyteller are magnificently displayed in this rich narrative of the master builder, the killer, and the great fair that obsessed them both.
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What Customers Say About The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America:
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I actually find myself sometimes skipping parts in order to get back to the more interesting story line (at least for me), that of H.H.Holmes. The book tells two stories that occur in the Chicago world's fair of 1893. We get a very interesting description of the discussions, meeting and reasoning behind various decisions that were taken in the construction of the fair, including a detailed description of the people involved and their backgrounds. The overall result is debatable: people who are looking for accurate historical novels might love it, while regular novels readers might get bored.
However, I feel that this is acceptable as a mean to tell the genuine story. To sum up, I would say that this is a new and a very interesting way to tell the two stories. The fact that the story is based on real information has its costs as you sometimes left with a desire for more details for things that are left unanswered. While reading, it is sometimes unreal to see what kind of sick mind that guy had.
The descriptions are very interesting and you get sucked pretty fast into the dark and cold Chicago of 1893. This story is built upon real information that is known about Holmes conducts. The first story is an historical account that describes the construction of the fair from the design stage until it is up and running. The story of the young pharmacist , H.H.Holmes is a very interesting one.
However, unless you are real enthusiastic about historical information, this kind of description gets tedious very fast. The second storyline, which intertwine with the first story is the tale of the handsome, women charmer murderer H.H.Holmes, who builds an horror hotel near the fair to catch and murder female tourists during the event.The first couple of chapters in the historical account are very intriguing. You read the stories of the different architects and artists how the buildings were built, the authentic entertainments that came from across the world and so on.
If you like history and mystery - this is your book. Devil in the White City is a page turner.
I would strongly recommend the book (and have done so many times already). Fantastic novel. Keeps you in suspense until the very end.
Giving anyone a picture perfect image of Chicago in the late 1800's. This book is very well written.
I have read MANY novels in just a day or 2. Obviously many people enjoyed reading about that, but I found it difficult to get through. I found those chapters to be quite boring and frankly a drag to get through. This book took me more than 2 months of evening reading to finish completely. But I thought there would be much more to that part of the story. I purchased this book while traveling, I had a very long layover.
Holmes, it is in fact much more focused on the building of the World's Fair. If a book interests me enough I will stay up until 3 or 4 am, just so I can finish it. It definitely looks interesting, and the synopsis had me intrigued. Most of the book is the mundane details of the buildings, dates, and architecture. Informative about the fair, but it really left me disappointed. What I thought would be a book centered around H.H.
Yes, there are definitely aspects of the true crime, and those parts do read like a novel.
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