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| The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America | 
 enlarge | Author: Erik Larson
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $1.98
You Save: $12.97 (87%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $1.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  (755 reviews)
Sales Rank: 295
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 447
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 1
ISBN: 0375725601
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.15230977311
EAN: 9780375725609
ASIN: 0375725601
Publication Date: February 10, 2004
Release Date: February 10, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Bringing Chicago circa 1893 to vivid life, Erik Larson's spellbinding bestseller intertwines the true tale of two men--the brilliant architect behind the legendary 1893 World's Fair, striving to secure America?s place in the world; and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. 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.
Amazon.com
Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that The Devil in the White City is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison. The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims. Combining the stories of an architect and a killer in one book, mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd choice but it works. The magical appeal and horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's skillful writing. --John Moe
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| Customer Reviews: Read 750 more reviews...
 Serendipity Does Not Literature Make August 18, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I must admit. I don't get it. Two books with grotesque murders related in gory detail against backgrounds of world historical events the intersections of which have little to do with each other. There is a bit of a problem with partially fictionalized history. It becomes a little like infomercials. How much info and how much mercial? And does the fiction begin to stand for the real history rather than admitting when it comes to history there is a lot we don't know and may never know as much as we would like our understanding of the past to read like a novel? It does not and maybe never can. I know a superb writer/historian/anthropologist who has filled an excellent book with words his hero might have said, and the hero in his old age came to believe that the fictionalized account was indeed what he had done. That is a touching confirmation but nonetheless a distortion. Holmes, the villain of this book may have gotten sexual gratification while listening to his victims being gassed to death and I guess that titillates the reader, but the author has no real idea of Holmes' state of mind. Also the Chicago World's Fair had little to with Holmes' murders and the reverse. Then as an extra the author throws in the murderer of Chicago's mayor by an unbalanced newspaper distributor. Yes there were nuts, as there have always been--- John Hinckley, Jr. shot Reagan because of a crush on Jodie Foster---and girls have always disappeared. Both Chicago's painted ladies and the Fair's commotion were not unique. So it is all a literary artifice. I am not sure readers would have been interested in the social history of the Fair without the murders.
As to that social history, it is interesting. Larsen has done a formidable amount or research and presents it in an interesting manner. But Larsen often lapses into purple prose. The biggest, greatest, etc. It gets a bit tiresome and is not true of history. That Westinghouse beat Edison with alternating current I don't think can be attributed to the Fair. And so it goes. Were it not for books on tape, grinding California traffic, and too many hours in a car, I would not have made it through the book. Fast forwarding helps. I must admit that I skipped a lot of detail such as Olmstead's various ailments and even his theory of color but found myself going back to the murder. Yet I could have done without some of the gory stuff. I don't quite understand how Holmes got away with it. But then I guess Larsen does a good job of conveying his charm even if that might have been somewhat fictionalized. With the murderer, he is so unimportant to history that it doesn't really matter. Lots of people who read fiction will like this book a lot more than I did and maybe they will thereby learn some history. I am all for that.
Charlie Fisher, author of Dismantling Discontent: Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World
 magical August 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
not many books transport you to a time of great changes like this one does. for the too brief of period I have lived in the book I have lived the rise of a nation and the dawn of great evil and vision. wonderfull depictions, great people and amzing time.
Exciting History August 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Loved it from start to finish! Wanted it to never end. As an enthusiest of non-fiction, I was pleased with all of the interesting tidbits of history as well as the main "plot". I never review anything but this is worth spreading the news about. Read it 1st, then get the audio CD for a trip. I could read it again and again.
Very entertaing! August 9, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Not too many people these days have heard of the infamous Doctor HH Holmes or the Columbian Exposition. Both were major news stories over a hundred years ago, but now are forgotten.
This book aims to change that, and it does so admirably. You get a real feeling of what life was like in Chicago and, indeed, much of America in the Guilded Age. You also see that serial killers like John Wayne Gacey, Ted Bundy and others are hardly a new development in crime.
What I found particularly fascinating about this story was reading about the logistics involved in creating something like the Columbian Exposition. It must've been a wonderful sight to see! I only wish it had survived into the modern age.
If, like me, you have an interest in the Guilded Age I could hardly find a book I'd recommend more! An excellent read.
 A Non-Fiction Tale of Two Cities August 3, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Larson captures the best and worst of mankind. Two bigger than life men, Daniel Burnham and H.H.Holmes set about creating beauty or destroying life on grand scales. Both were successful and both had setbacks.
Burnham was the visionary who was largely responsible for the success of the 1893 Chicago Worlds' Fair, commemorating the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the New World. Holmes took advantage of (mostly) vulnerable women who made their way to Chicago on their own, killing them when he tired of them.
The story of the fair or of the slaughters would have been interesting books on their own. Weaving the tales took away from the story of the fair. While the fair was the background that enabled Holmes to have his pick from thousands of potential subjects, the detail of the how the fair developed didn't add to the story of the slaughters.
Larson is a good writer, but I would have preferred that he wrote two separate books.
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