The Devil in the White City The Devil in the White City is a historical non-fiction book written by Erik Larson that reads like a novel. The book follows two, real main characters, during the building and existence of the Chicago World’s fair. The first is an American architect named Daniel Burnham. The book follows his struggle and work to put this huge fair together, and also make it a huge profiting attraction. He faces many obstacles and internal conflict while doing so. The second is H

Throughout “The Devil in the White City,” author Erik Larson uses contrasting descriptions to portray the sharp differences between the magnificence of the fair and the harsh and cruel reality of Chicago. The awe-ing descriptions of the fair and the dark interpretation of the streets of Chicago comments on the beautiful facade that the Gilded age produced. The temporary and shallow grandeur of the fair masked the poverty stricken city and gave a false sense of elegance to a city deep in despair.

Larson’s novel The Devil in the White City takes place during the Gilded Age. During this period of time everything appears good and golden on the outside when in reality everything was full of corruption. In the novel, the author takes the reader to the city of Chicago, where the city is “swelled “in population causing the city to expand in all “available directions” (Larson 44). As Chicago became the “second most populous [city] in the nation after New York” there was an urge that city show off to the

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is a compelling book about the abundance of man power that the country abruptly constructed with the Chicago World Fair of 1893. The Chicago World Fair portrayed human ingenuity with electricity, and steel with the beginning works of the Ferris wheel that would create amusement parks that are known today. The Devil in the White City creates the vision that anything was possible in this time. Doctor Holmes plays a role as a villain in The Devil in the White

The authors purpose of writing The Devil in the White City was to show the darkness that lurked around the World’s Columbian Exposition. In the novel H. H. Holmes is a charming, handsome man that uses his charm to murder women. H. H. Holmes used the fair to seduce women and bring them to his World Fair hotel. But, the author is also criticizing how gullible and naive these women were that Holmes was able to seduce and kill. “He sensed vulnerability, sensed it the way another man might capture the

The Devil in the White City was written by Erik Larson. The brief summary of the book which has fifty-six chapters is that it tells the story of the architects of the World’s Fair in Chicago and also the current events during that time period. It also shows us the true of a dark and eerie part of the World’s Fair. A killer using the fair as his hunting grounds looking for his prey. We will go deeper into the book late on but first let’s get to know the author and all his accomplishments. Erik Larson

where he graduated. He also got his masters in journalism from Columbia University. He has worked or wrote for Bucks County Courier Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, The Atlantic, Harper’s and The New Yorker. The events of The Devil in The White City take place during 1893 at the Worlds Colombian Exposition in Chicago. I feel this is a good book and I will probably go back and re read it just to get a better feel for it, I just wish I didn’t wait till the last minute to start reading.

was meant to be a shining beacon of the modern world to show the advancements of humankind would be tainted by the horrors brought by a depraved man considered to be America's first serial killer, H.H. Holmes. In Erik Larson’s novel “The Devil in the White City’ Larson details the ingenious architecture, science, politics, and gruesome murders of Chicago during the Gilded Age of The United States. Larson paints his picture with vivid and engaging language with incredible use of colors depicting the