Tuesday, August 30, 2011

"The Devil in the While City" by Erik Larson

I recently finished one of the few nonfiction books I have ever read lol. This book was written about the architectural construction of The World's Fair in Chicago in the 1800s in parallel with the story of the serial murderer who used the fair to facilitate his murders.


Dun dun dun!

Favorite Quotes:

"Only Poe could have dreamed the rest" - Introduction

"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood."--Burnham (one of the main architects)

"'I was born with the devil in me,'" he wrote. "I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing."

"The White City had drawn men and protected them; the Black City now welcomed them back, on the eve of winter, with filth, starvation, and violence." - The white city referencing the fair (all the buildings were painted white) and the black city representing the industrialized and crime riddled Chicago.

This was a very interesting piece of history and Im glad I picked it up, although I was surprised at the dryness of the chapters detailing the murderer... Still interesting! These events occured just a fwe years after London was shocked with Jack the Ripper.

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