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Your Learning Zone - The Devil in the White City
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List Price: $26.85
Our Price: $15.00
Your Save: $ 11.85 ( 44% )
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Manufacturer: Doubleday
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780385602051
ISBN: 0385602057
Label: Doubleday
Manufacturer: Doubleday
Number Of Pages: 289
Publication Date: 2003-03-03
Publisher: Doubleday
Studio: Doubleday
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Worth the read, fascinating non-fiction, uneven storytelling
Comment: This is an engrossing non-fiction book that tells two stories in parallel - the development of Chicago's World Fair and the criminal life of Dr. Holmes (aka Mudgett). If you're interested in history, architecture, project management, or Chicago, this book is full of fascinating tid-bits & facts. If you're interested in serial killers and crime details, this book will leave you looking for more. What I like is that it's a non-fiction book with a great author writing as though it's fiction. Larson includes descriptions of the "characters'" appearances and mannerisms and ends chapters with cliff hangers and foreshadowing.
It's probably unfair to criticize a non-fiction writer for the outcome of the story, but I was disappointed with conclusion of Holmes' tale. The story of the World Fair is interesting and very detailed, and having Holmes' story told in parallel did make the book more worthwhile and nicely broke up monotony of one subject. The World Fair's development was built up quite thoroughly, and as a reward, the details of the Fair in motion and the life of its stakeholders after the fact were satisfying. But Holmes' side of the story was lacking. While his life during the Fair was strange and interesting, the book seemed to be building up to a climax that never occurs. The conclusion of Holmes' story seemed hasty compared to the thoroughness of the first three quarters of the book, especially when it appears there are more details and accounts of his criminal activities during this period of his life than any other.
Again, it's a true story, but the build up and pay off of each story is uneven. In the end, although I was not totally satisfied, it was a worthwhile and enjoyable read and I took away several interesting facts about Chicago and the 1893 World Fair that are meaningful even 115 years later.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Many interesting bits, but bogs down at times
Comment: For a native Chicagoan, I found the descriptions of the city in the late 1800's fascinating. The grit and crime juxtaposed with wealth and luxury was especially compelling. The narrative style was very enjoyable, but I was rather disappointed that the murder-mystery element (the "Devil" from the title) went relatively undeveloped until the closing chapters. As a result, the story seemed to drag at times, spending a bit too much time on less interesting details.
Customer Rating:
Summary: this book was a bestseller for good reason
Comment: This is an excellent book which stands out amongst true crime books as one of the best. The author handles a gruesome topic without making the reader feel depressed. Every aspect of the crime is examined while the writer illuminates an historical perspective which is fascinating.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Devil in the White City
Comment: Great historical prosective of a wonderful city everyone claims to know..but doesn't know that much history about!
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Chicago World's Fair Era
Comment: This book is about two subjects: the 1892 Chicago World's Fair, and the murderer who killed scores of young women while operating a rooming house. [What a combination!] There is no Index, the Bibliography lists many old books that few can easily reference. I wonder how many readers know anything about the 1890s? They were not "The Good Old Days"; they had the worst depression of the 19th century. The first error is "a young woman named Borden killed her parents". Surely not the exonerated Lizzie? Larson describes colorful events, and shows his skill in creating a popular history. You will learn how they were able to build skyscrapers on the gumbo of Chicago soil. This non-fiction book lacks any photographs of the people and places described there!
Either the 1893 Columbian Exposition or the career of Herman Webster Mudgett would make an interesting book. Combining the two stories could create a wider audience, or, hinder a person without any interest in one of these stories. Both stories coincided, but there must have been other events at that time that were more appropriate for this book. There was a lot of things happening politically and economically, but its mostly been censored. Some true crime stories tell a lot about the era, like Curt Gentry's "Frame-Up". Linking a serial killer with this World's Fair is certainly unusual.
Is this book padded out with inconsequential details, like the hiring of Frederick Law Olmsted? The running together of many separate lives only to bring them together is found in fiction. I think true crime should proceed more linearly. The chapters are not listed in the `Contents'. I was happy to read about the otherwise forgotten Daniel H. Burnham and his life, and the Chicago World's Fair of 1892. There should have been more on the other events of that era. The story about crimes should also be included, but not over-emphasized.
I once read that the Ferris Wheel was invented for this World's Fair. Larson fills in the details about this historic event. Larson mentions "strikers at coalfields and steel mills" but few other details. 1890 saw the last of the Indian Wars, the "Closing of the Frontiers", and other significant events in politics (tariffs and income tax). Is there any good popular history about the 1890s, or is that still too controversial? Larson describes H.H. Holmes: "handsome and clean and dressed well and spoke in fine sentences", "far too smooth and self-assured for a man of so few years". Was this too good to be true? Have you ever met anyone like this? Beware of any seemingly rich person who wants to borrow money from you or asks you for an investment. You will learn the meaning of a "Cleckley psychopath" or "moral imbecile", and the investigations of insurance companies.
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Editorial Reviews:
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The Chicago World's Fair of 1893 was one of the most spectacular exhibitions the world has ever seen. This is the story of its realization, and of the two men whose fates it linked - an architect and a serial killer. The architect as Daniel H. Burnham, who created the White City, a magical landscape of white buildings set in a wonderland of canals and gardens. The killer was H.H. Holmes, a handsome young doctor with striking blue eyes, who used the attraction of the great fair - and his own devilish charms - to lure scores of young women to their death. Holmes would stroll through the fair at night, when an electric dynamo transformed it into an incandescent fairyland, with an unsuspecting victim on each arm. While Burnham was overcoming politics, personality clashes and the ferocious Chicago winds to bring about the transformation of swampy Jackson Park into the White City, Holmes had a building project of his own just west of the fairground. He called it the Worlds Fair Hotel; in reality it was a torture palace, complete with a gas chamber and crematorium. This is the story of the men and women whose lives were irrevocably changed by the Chicago World Fair, and of Burnham and Holmes. Spicing the narrative are the stories of a cast of historical characters including Buffalo Bill, Scott Joplin and Theodore Dreiser.
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