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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 great fair that obsessed them both.
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.… (altro)
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.
L'avevo preso in seguito a un documentario sui serial killer e mi aspettavo di leggere in effetti la storia di H. H. Holmes. Invece, già dalle prime pagine, mi sono accorta che la parte riguardante questo assassino era del tutto marginale, come un ripensamento inserito a posteriori.
Il libro di fatto ripercorre la storia della Grande Esposizione di Chigago del 1893: uomini, idee ed eventi che portarono a qualcosa che rappresentò tutto un periodo storico. Larson sa rendere appassionante la vicenda, ricostruita principalmente dal punto di vista dell'architetto Daniel H. Burnham, riportando il lettore contemporaneo alla Chigago di fine XIX secolo. Ed ecco le strade in terra battuta illuminate da lampioni a gas, i primi grattacieli, nelle cui cantine dinamo azionate a vapore accendevano impianti elettrici a corrente continua, il contrasto tra il progresso della tecnica e le condizioni igieniche arretrate, che vedevano convivere la capacità di invertire il flusso di un fiume e la desolante mancanza di una struttura fognaria; ecco i movimenti sindacali, il declino del mito della grande frontiera, la recessione, gli strilloni nelle strade e i grandi industriali a fumare sigari davanti a tavole imbandite. E mentre la prima grande ruota panoramica si staglia contro il cielo, vero miracolo dell'ingegneria, l'Ottocento finisce e comincia il Novecento.
Che di Holmes alla fine si parli poco, devo dire che non mi è dispiaciuto affatto. Ammetto però di essere un'appassionta di storia, quindi il mio è un giudizio di parte. ( )
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.
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
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
Dedica
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
To Chris, Kristen, Lauren, and Erin,
for making it all worthwhile —and to Molly, whose lust for socks
kept us all on our toes
Incipit
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
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.
Citazioni
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
"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."
Ultime parole
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
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 great fair that obsessed them both.
L'avevo preso in seguito a un documentario sui serial killer e mi aspettavo di leggere in effetti la storia di H. H. Holmes. Invece, già dalle prime pagine, mi sono accorta che la parte riguardante questo assassino era del tutto marginale, come un ripensamento inserito a posteriori.
Il libro di fatto ripercorre la storia della Grande Esposizione di Chigago del 1893: uomini, idee ed eventi che portarono a qualcosa che rappresentò tutto un periodo storico. Larson sa rendere appassionante la vicenda, ricostruita principalmente dal punto di vista dell'architetto Daniel H. Burnham, riportando il lettore contemporaneo alla Chigago di fine XIX secolo. Ed ecco le strade in terra battuta illuminate da lampioni a gas, i primi grattacieli, nelle cui cantine dinamo azionate a vapore accendevano impianti elettrici a corrente continua, il contrasto tra il progresso della tecnica e le condizioni igieniche arretrate, che vedevano convivere la capacità di invertire il flusso di un fiume e la desolante mancanza di una struttura fognaria; ecco i movimenti sindacali, il declino del mito della grande frontiera, la recessione, gli strilloni nelle strade e i grandi industriali a fumare sigari davanti a tavole imbandite. E mentre la prima grande ruota panoramica si staglia contro il cielo, vero miracolo dell'ingegneria, l'Ottocento finisce e comincia il Novecento.
Che di Holmes alla fine si parli poco, devo dire che non mi è dispiaciuto affatto. Ammetto però di essere un'appassionta di storia, quindi il mio è un giudizio di parte. ( )