The Devil in the White City

Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America

By: Erik Larson

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

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. 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.

©2003 Erik Larson (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

National Book Awards, Short-listed

Edgar Allan Poe Award Winner, Fact Crime, 2004

"Engrossing . . . exceedingly well documented . . . utterly fascinating.” —Chicago Tribune

“A dynamic, enveloping book. . . . 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

“A wonderfully unexpected book. . . Larson is a historian . . . with a novelist’s soul.” —Chicago Sun-Times

two excellent stores read by a superb narrator

My daughter was assigned this book as part of her summer reading for her Honor's English class. I got to it first and spent two nights awake until dawn listening in wonder. I expected a murder mystery set in the World's Fair. It was so much more. Really there were two stories running concurrently. We did follow HH Holme and know what he was up to while living in Chicago. There was nothing gruesome -- Mr Larson writes about Holmes' machinations in a straightforward way. For me this mad it feel less sensational and I was glad for the writing style.

The other story interested me further. Following the preparation for, the buildup towards, and the financial consequences of the Fair was fascinating. It allows the reader to understand the culture of our home country at a time more than 100 years in our past. We meet world leaders, owners of the largest businesses, the father of a son who later be known as WALT DISNEY. But we also meet people that some might not recognize. FREDERICK LAW OLMSTEAD played a large role throughout the book. It was fascination t flesh out his life as I knew him only as the designer of Central Park in New York. Interspersed throughout the entire story are came performances. I particularly liked the the short moment shared between Pulham and Helen Keller.

i loved everything about the book -- with one caveat. Really more advice. Don't let your mind wander. You won't want to miss any of the hidden gems.

ZONED OUT

Every writer deserves a fighting chance. This one almost lost the fight with me. If not for the reader, I would have not finished the book. I feel like I was at a party trying to get away from a long winded boring guest. WAY too much detail about the building of the fair and just when I was about to ZONE OUT, the writer saved the moment with some of what the killer was up to keeping me interested until the next 3 hours of the fair building again and so it went....
Interesting but I think could have been shorter. The effort that went into writing the book and the research alone is mind boggling. For that alone my hat off to writer.

Narrator detracts from great story

The book is great, and well worth the time. The story and the writing really take you to the time and place-- more credit to Mr. Larson for his style and scholarship. Fascinating book.

To me, the audiobook was a mixed bag, though. The narrator over-emotes every sentence, and until the drama really heated up, I considered dropping the book-- I kept getting distracted by Mr. Brick's inappropriate, superior, and generally irritating tone. That being said, he seems to be some people's cup of tea, and if you like (or just dont mind) him as a reader, the book will not disappoint.

Highly Compelling

Magnificent book, beautifully read. Great story, chock full of fascinating characters. Sheds light on the zeitgeist of turn-of-the-century America in ways I hadn't expected. One of my top three favorite Audible listens.

slow

The part about the fair was not very interesting. The part about HH Homles was much better. Overall not bad. If you enjoy non- fiction history, then you like the book. It just did not do it for me.

Left me with curiosity...

I enjoyed the book immensely but am still wondering why Larson dwelled so often on arcana (i.e., reciting the full menus of so many architect dinners) while shortchanging the reader on descriptions of the fair exhibits (I mean besides the 'danse de vente' -- didn't he seem a little fixated on that?). For example, that manufacturers' building -- after he told us about it falling down 5 or 6 times, you'd think he'd reward us by telling us what they actually managed to exhibit in there. Or did I miss that -- sometimes my Otis garbles or skips a passage.

I'm still thinking about it.

I finished it 1 week ago. And I still think about it. Now I want to go back to Chicago to see this part of history. Recommended by Leo Laporte

Murder, Thriller, Detective Story - And It's Real

My Dad recommended this book to me years ago and I've finally gotten around to it. This is a "stranger than fiction" account of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair which was known as the Colombian Exposition. It is also the story of all the culture and horror swirling around the fair in that era. The book covers everything from a serial killer who may be the archetypal psychopath, the assassination of the mayor of Chicago, the great architects of the age, to where Cracker Jack came from. The 1st Columbus Day was celebrated during the fair, the first Ferris Wheel created for the fair, and labor laws in America changed as a result of the fair. For range of coverage, this book is amazing. For level of intrigue and depth of detail, equally amazing. Well documented, well written and as always, I am amazed I didn't know this stuff. I would imagine that not being familiar with the fair would be as unimaginable to a person of that day as meeting someone who didn't know about the Moon landing would be in our age. This was big.

In college I took a course on American Architecture and how it reflects culture and the ideologies and world views of the people of the various times. Reading Larson's book, I recognized dozens of names and new building mentioned as well as events around the fair and the period, but the book was full of revelations and connections for me.

I would like to mention that stylistically, while parts of the book were amazing, I was put off by one device. Larson seemed to make glancing reference to multiple events which he seemed to assume the reader would know. I thought it was presumptuous and I felt silly for not knowing what he was talking about. However, in the last part of the book, he fills in all blanks and rather than being annoying, it became obvious that he was beginning with the end and had left off explicate detail so he could refer back at the end of the book. As the book closed, all was forgiven and what seemed awkward in the beginning became an elegant even clever closing.

Excellent book. I've read some really well written narrative history this year, so Larson had some hard acts to follow. Never the less, Larson held his own. I would highly recommend this book. A murder/thriller/detective story, an adventure in creation and the realization of an architectural dream, a chronicle of an event that changed the world and a portrait of America as she approached the 20th Century. I particularly liked the very last reflection on writing this book--Larson's comments on his sources and the joy of historical research. I was taken back to days in the Yale University Sterling Library Archives sorting through 18th century sermons and letter while doing my own thesis. Larson is a first class historian and story teller.

Learned so much!

This story of how the Chicago World's Fair came to be was full of exciting history and atmosphere. I learned that much of what we have today is traceable back to that fair. The juxtaposed story of the serial killer is also increadibly interesting. The whole book is full of facts; names, dates and places, so I couldn't imagine wading through all this by actually reading it. Listening to it was a pleasure.

Very Good

This is one of the rare audio books that kept my interest from beginning to end. I usually limit my listening to my long car trips, but with this one I even had to listen at home.
It was interesting historically while remaining a good and entertaining story.
I recommend this title.