The Devil In The White City
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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
--Ce texte fait référence à l'édition
Relié
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From Publishers Weekly
Not long after Jack the Ripper haunted the ill-lit streets of 1888 London, H.H. Holmes (born Herman Webster Mudgett) dispatched somewhere between 27 and 200 people, mostly single young women, in the churning new metropolis of Chicago; many of the murders occurred during (and exploited) the city's finest moment, the World's Fair of 1893. Larson's breathtaking new history is a novelistic yet wholly factual account of the fair and the mass murderer who lurked within it. Bestselling author Larson (Isaac's Storm) strikes a fine balance between the planning and execution of the vast fair and Holmes's relentless, ghastly activities. The passages about Holmes are compelling and aptly claustrophobic; readers will be glad for the frequent escapes to the relative sanity of Holmes's co-star, architect and fair overseer Daniel Hudson Burnham, who managed the thousands of workers and engineers who pulled the sprawling fair together 0n an astonishingly tight two-year schedule. A natural charlatan, Holmes exploited the inability of authorities to coordinate, creating a small commercial empire entirely on unpaid debts and constructing a personal cadaver-disposal system. This is, in effect, the nonfiction Alienist, or a sort of companion, which might be called Homicide, to Emile Durkheim's Suicide. However, rather than anomie, Larson is most interested in industriousness and the new opportunities for mayhem afforded by the advent of widespread public anonymity. This book is everything popular history should be, meticulously recreating a rich, pre-automobile America on the cusp of modernity, in which the sale of "articulated" corpses was a semi-respectable trade and serial killers could go well-nigh unnoticed. 6 b&w photos, 1 map.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
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› Consultez la page Erik Larson d'Amazon
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5 internautes sur 5 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile
5.0 étoiles sur 5
meurtres en série sur fond d'Exposition Universelle,
Ce commentaire fait référence à cette édition : The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (Relié)
Erik Larson nous décrit le monde fascinant et magique d'avant, pendant et après le Chicago World's Fair - le Colombian Exposition qui fêtait les 400 ans de l'arrivée de Christophe Colombe en Amérique. Que de difficultés pour construire des bâtiments extraordinaires dans un temps limité, sur un sol qui supportait mal le poids sans sombrer dans le sable et l'eau du lac Michigan.En même temps avec l'essor de l'expo, de plus en plus de monde arrivait à Chicago soit pour trouver du travail soit pour voir un spectacle grandiose qu'ils ne reverraient jamais. Beaucoup de jeunes femmes venaient chercher du travail dans cette ville, connue pour ses vices, mais beaucoup disparaissaient sans laisser de trace. L'alternance entre la construction de l'Expo, avec toutes les inventions, notammament, la Grande Roue de M. Ferris qui apparaît pour la première fois; et la décadence, et la dépravité du Dr. Holmes qui font froid dans le dos; on imagine bien l'ambiance de l'époque. Déchirée entre la grandeur de Chicago, la volonté de réussir à tout prix et l'angoisse grandissante de savoir comment vivre l'après Expo... On peut se demander si les nouvelles de Jack l'Eventreur peu de temps avant avaient une influence sur le Dr. Holmes (Sherlock a fait, lui aussi, son appartition à cette époque), il y avait également les meurtres abominables des parents de Lizzie Borden. Une nouvelle ère se présentait à l'horizon, qui risquait de nous traîner vers le bas. Rempli d'anecdotes, et de noms connus qui font surface justement pendant l'expo qu'on ne soupçonnait guère ne fait que renforcer le lien historique. Excellent. Aidez d'autres clients à trouver les commentaires les plus utiles
2 internautes sur 2 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile
5.0 étoiles sur 5
Courtesy of Teens Read Too,
Par TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - Voir tous mes commentaires (TOP 1000 COMMENTATEURS)
Ce commentaire fait référence à cette édition : The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (Broché)
In 1893, Chicago was gearing up for its shining moment on the international stage. The city had been selected to host the World's Fair, beating out New York and a number of other American contenders. A prominent local architect, Daniel Burnham, had taken the reins to organize and construct the massive project. He assembled a dream team of architects, landscapers, engineers, and other professionals to help pull the fair together. Certainly Chicago could outdo the Paris Fair, which had been a worldwide success years earlier.Unfortunately for Burnham and his team, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Due to a lack of organization and bickering among the committees responsible for the fair, construction began far later than it should have. Partially completed buildings blew over and burned down. Union workers threatened strikes. One sideshow act showed up a year early, while another (which was believed to be made up of cannibals) killed the man sent to retrieve them and never showed up at all. And there was a monster on the loose. A man who used the chaos of Chicago at this time in history to conceal the murders of dozens of people - many of them young, single women. A man who constructed a building with stolen money, then used the building as a slaughterhouse to lure, kill, and dispose of his victims. THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY is a terrific book. It is nonfiction, but it reads like a novel. The real-life details of this story seem almost too bizarre to be true, yet this is one example of the old saying that "truth is stranger than fiction." The author, Erik Larson, even includes a lengthy section at the back where he documents his facts and explains his suppositions. The book's chapters alternate between the World's Fair and the exploits of serial killer, Dr. H.H. Holmes. I found myself enjoying both stories, as they ran parallel throughout the book. The Herculean task of putting together the fair in record time was fascinating, and the sociopathic actions of Dr. Holmes were chilling. It made for a brilliant contrast - just when the frustrations of the Fair seemed overwhelming, the book switched to Dr. Holmes as he lured yet another young woman into his web. And just when Dr. Holmes' evil seemed too much to bear, the chapter would end and the reader would be back at the World's Fair dealing with political back stabbing, instead of Holmes' more literal variety. I rarely read nonfiction, but this book came highly recommended to me, so I gave it a try. I'm so glad I did, too. It offers a wonderful historical perspective on Chicago and the world near the close of the 19th century. For a Chicago-area native like me, its frequent mentions of famous local names, like Burnham and Adler and Marshall Field, that still grace street signs and the sides of buildings, were an added treat. Just a brief word of warning, though: it does contain some of the dreaded "adult themes." Some of Dr. Holmes' crimes are described - although not too graphically - and they might be upsetting for "younger or more sensitive" readers. I strongly recommend THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY to anyone who enjoys an engrossing, well-written story, whether they normally read fiction or nonfiction. In particular, if readers have a book report in school, this book should be considered. It makes history come alive. Reviewed by: K. Osborn Sullivan Aidez d'autres clients à trouver les commentaires les plus utiles
1 internaute sur 1 a trouvé ce commentaire utile :
5.0 étoiles sur 5
très bien,
Achat authentifié par Amazon(De quoi s'agit-il ?)
Ce commentaire fait référence à cette édition : The Devil In The White City (Format Kindle)
livre de docu /fiction très intéressant. Le stress lié à la création de l'expo universelle de Chicago est palpable, les noms cités sont ceux des participants à cette formidable épopée. Chicago chauffée au charbon, éclairée au gaz, et construisant ses premiers gratte-ciel... impressionnant! Pour ceux qui veulent lire en anglais, pas de difficultés majeures dans le choix du vocabulaire ou la tournure des phrases. Bref, un régal
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