I didn’t enjoy this as much as the other two Larson books I’ve read (Dead Wake and The Splendid and the Vile) but I can’t fault the writing. It just wasn’t really my thing.

This is really two books in one. Half of the story is about the build of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. I wasn’t super into the architecture and engineering stuff, or the details on how hard it was to manage timelines and complete it on time. I did like reading about what it looked like when it all came together. For a short time, it seemed like it was the center of the world.

The other half of the story is about the serial murderer H.H. Holmes, who was also operating in Chicago at the same time. I was more interested in this part. Actually I found it quite thrilling. I’m ambivalent about it though, just because I don’t think it’s great to obsess over serial killers.

Some readers may be a bit frustrated that the two stories did not converge in a dramatic way. They just happened at the same time and place. It didn't bother me though - having both stories in the same book gives a richer picture of what life was like in Chicago in the 1890’s.

Page Turning phenomenal!

I took notes on my iphone to remind myself of 'gems' to 'share/write' about -- but there are 'at least' 2,000 'already' wonderful reviews --WELL DESERVING-- about this amazing TRUE STORY --I've not much more to add.

The building of the Worlds Fair was fascinating ---(all the details -and the challenges were incredible, engaging-interesting, and exquisite!

'Holmes' --(the killer), was just CREEPY!!!

FASTASTIC STORYTELLING!!!!

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is a true crime-cum-history book. It revolves around the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. It also deals with the life and crimes of Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, who was active during that time and is considered to be the first serial killer of America.

I really liked the way the story of a successful world fair is contrasted with a serial killer on the loose with his heinous crimes and witty ways avoiding the authorities. Needless to say, I was more interested in the killer and the killings given my liking to the genre. The part about how the fair came into existence, the planning that went into its construction, the hurdles faced and ultimately overcome, is also informative.

A friend suggested this book and I thought perhaps it would be similar to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil which I thoroughly enjoyed---historical with a story woven into it. However, I was unfortunately unable to finish it. I think Goodreads needs a new category...."got bored, so I gave up". This book weaves together the true story of 2 men, an architect and a serial killer---with the Chicago World's Fair as the background. I think it was the voluminous details given about the difficulty building the "White City" that finally did me in. I found myself eagerly skipping forward to the gory details of the evil Henry H. Holmes who seductively lures young women into his creepy lair. If there were cliff notes, I'd love to read how this all played out but alas, I haven't got time to wade through the all the construction problems, weather problems, ego problems, etc. to hang in there....gosh, I made it through half the book hoping that the author would finally get the two stories connected somehow!

Fascinating! I grew up in Chicago and each year we had a brief unit in school on the city's history: Carl Sandburg, The Jungle, railroads, Native Americans. But we never once touched on the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition (aka the World Fair) and I knew nothing at all about this amazing feat or the people involved until I read Larson's book.

I can't believe such an important time -- both for the city and the nation -- which introduced so much to American society has been so forgotten. Larson did an excellent job depicting the Herculean challenges and battles that surrounded the fair as well as the triumph that accompanied its successes.

The accompanying story of H.H. Holmes, the serial killer who preyed on young women visiting Chicago to see the fair, was a chilling counterpoint to the lofty ambitions and ideals of the exposition's creators. It was fascinating to see how the era's endless technological innovations, so integral in creating the fair, could also be co-opted for much darker purposes.

A great, well-written book.

I have been meaning to read this book since it was published and I finally got around to it 15 years later.

The Devil in the White City combines two of my favorite subjects Serial Killers & Victorian America. I've read a lot of other reviews for this book and people seem to really hate the fact that this book isn't just about H.H.Holmes. A lot of the reviewers apparently never read the back of the book or they would have known that its a split biography. The Devil in the White City is obviously about H. H.Holmes but its also about the 1893 Worlds Fair which was held in Chicago.

For me The Worlds Fair was the most fascinating part. Maybe that's because I went in knowing about Dr. Holmes but the fair was completely new to me. I had to fight the urge to Google people and places while I read because I really wanted more information.

Here are a few things the 1893 Worlds Fair introduced:The Ferris Wheel, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, Aunt Jemima boxed pancakes, and juicy fruit gum.

For me this book lived up to the hype. Erik Larson paints a vivid and engrossing picture of the rise of Chicago and the first known American Serial Killer. If you enjoy books about True Crime or if you just enjoy a good History book then I highly recommend this book.

For anyone who might question why I might give this a four-star rating rather than the six-star rating that its research deserves, it's because it's mostly a ton of facts, interesting or otherwise, and not quite the kind of coherent narrative a person might expect as a regular novel.

That being said, it's really a fun and easy read that explores so much of what made the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 a real eye opener and imagination-sparker for pretty much all of America.

As a side-note, or perhaps a parallel-note, it focuses rather heavily on H. H. Holmes, serial murderer extreme who was the American equivalent of Jack the Ripper and contemporary of the same.

We have two sides of the extreme going on here. Love and ambition and art and beauty running through the muck of the extremely dirty and bloated Chicago of the day, focusing on the nasty murderer for the shock value and the dark side of the mirror. I can't complain. It's both full of facts and a truly faithful description of the times, the players that made the Fair fantastic, as well as the failings, the madness, and the horror of its underside.

Awe and Horror, folks.

It's the same coin with two sides.

For that and the fact that this novel is overflowing with awesome history, I loved it. What is fiction is relatively minor compared to the fact that it's mostly real history! And frankly, I was kinda amazed at how many cool bits I did learn!

Spectacle and Terror, folks! :) Gotta love it.

What a compulsively readable nonfiction book on a topic that I would have never read without the hype.

Readability: ★★★★
Pacing: ★★★
Boring?: at times, but surprisingly not for most of it
Enjoyment: ★★★★

The Devil in the White City is a book that is—exclusively and extensively—focused on one topic: The 1893 Chicago World's Fair. In particular, on two white men of relative means who represented two very different faces to Chicago. One face, wealthy architect Daniel H. Burnham, who was the driving force behind the fair's creation. The other face, blue-eyed middle class conman H.H. Holmes, one of America's most memorable and horrifying serial killers.

Gripping concept? YES.

One the one hand, we're following Chicago's brash attempt to beat all the global odds stacked against them and host an international World's Fair to rival the previous one in Paris...where they unveiled the architectural feat, The Eiffel Tower.

On the other hand, we're following the disturbing rise of H.H. Holmes and his aptly-described "demonic" concept for a murder hotel essentially across the street from the future site of the World's Fair. Holmes was a murdering soul at the start, but his luck at the fair led him to new heights of horror in a stunning twist of fate.

I found the detailed account of these two men and their stories to be extremely gripping. Considering this was nonfiction down to the dialogue used, I was amazed at how quickly I flew through this story. It's well researched and well told.

However... I wish this story had been more all-encompassing in its quest to tell the tale of the World's Fair. This is essentially the lens of one white man telling the two intersecting stories of two other white men...and in an uncomfortable way, it feels like it. I wanted to know more about the minority groups that were involved in the fair—especially the outdated and racist practices of the Midway, which was essentially a "zoo" of international races and cultures—and their struggles. I also wanted to know more about the women involved as opposed to the borderline footnotes that existed in the story—one woman was chosen to design one of the buildings at the fair! And yet she is barely discussed...even though her plot line is clearly an interesting story of the glass ceiling at work. And, taking out both the minority groups and the women, we did not fully dive into the class inequalities at play either. The labor unions were discussed at length (mainly as irritants to Burnham) but the stories of the poor themselves were not handled as fully as I was expecting.

So, overall, a good book. I just wish there had been more of a balanced lens, even though I understand the argument that there is only so much room in a book and it's impossible to cover it all.

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My summer assignment for my AP US History class was to read and annotate The Devil in the White City. If I hadn't had to take extensive notes on the historical aspects of this novel I might've liked it more, but, oh well.

Not to say that the history was trivial or erroneous. Rather, it was how Erik Larson conveyed the historical facts that bored me. The book is literally split into two stories: a group of architects building Chicago's World Fair, and a serial killer that goes by the name of Holmes who murders women and children as they come to see the fair. The chapters alternate between following Daniel Burnham, the man in charge of the fair's construction, and Holmes. The separated structure didn't sell the story well as I trudged through the parts pertaining to the fair while looking forward to reading more about Holmes. This book would have benefited from intertwining the two plots - which it did toward the end, briefly.

I liked The Devil in the White City, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't like learning about history.

*cross-posted from my blog, the quiet voice.

My expectations were high for this book of popular history, but I wasn't disappointed.

The Devil In The White City is an entertaining and informative look at Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair, which despite many obstacles – lack of time and money, natural disasters, a bad economy, pressure to top Paris’s fair, which introduced the iconic Eiffel Tower – got completed and proceeded to make international headlines and change the country.

Larson tells the stories of two self-made obsessives: Daniel Burnham, the fair’s chief architect who went on to design NYC’s Flatiron building, and Dr. H.H. Holmes, a handsome pharmacist/entrepreneur who lured impressionable young women (newly arrived for the fair and often on their own for the first time in their lives) to their grisly ends.

At first Holmes’s serial killer narrative is more gripping than Burnham’s bureaucratic and administrative woes; the details are just too macabre. He built a place near the fair called The World’s Fair Hotel that had a unique design: it included a heavily sealed-off, soundproof room that could be piped with gas; another room where he could perform "surgeries"; and a huge oven where he could incinerate bodies. Always on the lookout for more cash (Larson details the man’s many swindles), he figured out a way to sell his victims’ skeletons to a nearby teaching facility. Gruesome.

But as I read on, I got caught up in the sturm und drang around the fair. Despite knowing in advance that the event happened, there's lots of suspense. Would sickly landscape architect Frederick Olmsted, best known for designing Central Park, be well enough to finish his designs and see his vision realized? Could some engineer come up with an idea that would top Paris’s Eiffel Tower? (Some of the proposals to this last question are truly hilarious, including a tower so tall it included chutes for people to ride back to New York.)

Larson, a former staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, has done impressive amounts of research. His “Notes and Sources” chapter is fascinating, especially when he explains how he pieced together scenes that no one witnessed. At times the detail is almost too much, as in the three complete dinner menus for fancy galas before and during the fair.

The Holmes narrative is structured like a thriller. With each “Oh no he didn’t!” revelation, you keep wondering: “Will he be caught? Surely this can’t go on!” Larson doesn’t disappoint in telling his story, which even includes a period of time – very important in gathering evidence, as it turns out – that Holmes spent in my home town of Toronto!

There are also many anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book involving famous people (Buffalo Bill Cody, Nikola Tesla, Annie Oakley, Theodore Dreiser) and products (Shredded Wheat, Aunt Jemima, Juicy Fruit, Pabst’s Blue Ribbon). Did you know the term “Windy City” has nothing to do with Chicago’s weather?

At times the narrative is a little choppy, since Larson switches between Burnham and Holmes's tales. He also interweaves a less gripping story about a man named Patrick Prendergast, which unspools like a B or C plot until its conclusion.

Speaking of plots, an inevitable film is in the works, starring Leonardo Di Caprio as Holmes. He’ll be great. But I’m glad I didn’t have his image in mind as I was reading the book. (A chilling archival picture of Holmes is included. On that subject, a few more photographs of other people and places would have been helpful.)

I suggest reading it before more casting is announced. Better to let Larson’s story play out in your imagination before you see it reduced forever on the silver screen.

This is a book that kept popping up on recommended lists, and I finally picked it up and read it. I am very glad that I did, and Erik Larson has a new fan.
Narrative nonfiction is a genre that is hard for a writer to do well, and deadly dull if not done ably, but Mr. Larson is not only a grade A historian, but also a top notch writer. "The Devil in the White City" is really a lesson about the United States at the turn of the century, funneled through the perspective of the 1893 World's Fair and the story of a serial killer. It seems a ridiculous idea, and maybe it is...but it works splendidly. The text is organized as alternating chapters following either the story of H.H. Holmes (serial killer) or Daniel Burnham (leader/architect of the World's Fair). The structure and pacing of the book is really well done, and the research (as evidenced by the thorough Notes section) is complete and accurate.
Although I am a history buff, I am not interested in architecture, or reading about killers, but this book hooked me almost instantly, and I was never dulled or irritated by it. Some reviewers have said if you don't have an affinity for one of those two topics this text is not for you, but I wholeheartedly disagree.
I not only learned about people and events that I knew nothing of, but I also saw how pivotal a moment in American history were the events happening in Chicago in the early 1890s. Their relevance to me in 2011 was made explicitly clear, and Larson is to be congratulated on making the forgotten relevant and interesting.
I enjoyed this text, I will recommend it to others, and I have already ordered more of Mr. Larson's works. I guess that says it all.

Heard the one about the architect and the serial killer? It's not a bad joke, but it is a great book. The architect was Daniel Burnham, the driving force behind the Chicago World's Fair of 1893; the killer was H.H. Holmes, a Svengali-type figure who lured young women to his hotel and did the most gruesome things, the least shocking of which was murder. The two men never met, but The Devil in the White City brings their stories together, and although it reads like a novel, everything is thoroughly researched fact.

The book
The Great Columbian Exhibition of 1893 was Chicago's big chance to shake off its old image as a hog-slaughtering, dirty and dangerous town and to take its place as America's second city. Although the fair's theme gave a backward nod to the 400th anniversary of Columbus bumping into the Americas on his way to India, its vision was futuristic: for the first time, electric lighting, clean water, and planned green spaces could be experienced on a massive scale. Innovations - the Ferris Wheel, the hamburger, an elevated railway, Juicy Fruit gum, the zip fastener and shredded wheat among them - enhanced the feeling that the next century would belong to America. The buildings were monumental, the exhibits eclectic (one example: a map of the USA made entirely of pickles) and the visitors were awestruck. They called it the White City, from the colour of main buildings that were imposing by day, dazzling by night.

Much of this was down to Daniel Burnham. His can-do reputation for building skyscrapers made him a natural choice as project manager. But we're frequently reminded that he had to push himself to the limit and step on quite few toes to ensure the Fair's success, a job made all the more difficult by economic recession, bickering architects, striking workers, pompous politicians and Chicago's notorious weather.

As if all this weren't enough to occupy the reader, a parallel story takes us inside the grim world of H.H. Holmes. Capitalising on the advent of the Fair, Holmes built his own hotel to attract single young women who were streaming into the city from across America in search of work, independence and a new life in the big city. One such unfortunate believed she was on the threshold of marriage to this enchanting gentleman; in reality, she was destined for a gas chamber in the hotel basement. She was not to be the last to fall for his charms, but even in death there was no rest. Holmes literally picked over the bones of his victims, selling their remains to medical students eager to examine recently deceased corpses - no questions asked. At first, the benefit for Holmes was financial, but as time passed, the chase, the kill, the post mortem had become ends in themselves. A single-minded detective and a stroke of luck brought Holmes to justice, but even when he realised the game was up, he managed to keep his unsettling cool.


My thoughts
I had a strong feeling that I would take to this book, and from start to finish I was never disappointed. It fairly zings along, both stories proving absorbing, while casting out facts like frisbees.

Although Burnham and Holmes are the book's dominant characters, there are walk-on parts for numerous figures who made their own mark on the White City. Buffalo Bill, Thomas Edison, and Scott Joplin are among the famous names, and the description of George Ferris's efforts to debut his eponymous wheel is a story in itself. But the lesser-known characters are also worthy of note. I pitied poor Frederick Olmsted's attempts to landscape the exhibition in the midst of an enormous, muddy construction site and a fit of depression. But I can see how ahead of his time he really was, insisting on natural greenery instead of a regimented collection of flower beds. Then there was Patrick Prendergast, whose descent into madness was to have a shocking impact on the Fair's final days; it's here that Larson's descriptive powers really come into their own.

As for the serial killer, the author doesn't dwell on the sensationalist aspects of his more grisly activities, but what he leaves to the imagination is far more powerful. Extracts from letters written by a child kidnapped by Holmes are among the most upsetting words I've ever read - a reminder that the worst of human nature may not only
be found in our own times.

But my lasting impression from this book is one of optimism, of Burnham straining every nerve and sinew to achieve the impossible, and the ordinary folk of Chicago bursting with pride at what had been achieved.

The U.S. edition of the book has the subtitle "the fair that changed America" - and that's certainly true, right down to the Pledge of Allegiance which can trace its origins to the exhibition's opening day. Beyond that, the Chicago Fair of 1893 not only showed America how it could be, but how it would be - better living and working conditions, convenience foods, domestic appliances, gadgets and more time for fun. In short, it heralded the prospect of a decent day's pay for a full day's work, a clean, safe environment, and of course the God-given right to eat shredded wheat.

Who would like this book?
I enjoyed it because of an interest in cities and architecture. But it would equally appeal to readers who are into engineering, politics, social history,horticulture, true crimes: does that leave anyone out?