The Devil in the White City

Erik Larson, author of the international bestseller Isaac's Storm, was nominated for a National Book Award for The Devil in the White City, which also won an Edgar Award for fact-crime writing. His latest book, In the Garden of Beasts: Love Terror and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin, has been acquired for publication in 20 countries and optioned by Tom Hanks for a feature film. Erik is a former features writer for The Wall Street Journal and Time. His magazine stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's and other publications.Larson has taught non-fiction writing at San Francisco State, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, and the University of Oregon, and has spoken to audiences from coast to coast. He lives in Seattle with his wife, who is the director of neonatology at the University of Washington Medical Center and at Children's Hospital of Seattle, and the author of the nonfiction memoir, Almost Home, which, as Erik puts it, "could make a stone cry." They have three daughters in far-flung locations.

出版者:Vintage

作者:Erik Larson

页数:447

出版时间:10 February, 2004

价格:$14.95

装帧:Paperback

isbn号码:9780375725609

图书标签:芝加哥历史英文原版ErikLarsonhistory镀金时代nonfiction小说

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.

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. In this book the smoke, romance, and mystery of the Gilded Age come alive as never before.

读后感

本周有一条新鲜热辣的娱乐新闻，说迪卡普里奥要拍新片，饰演“美国史料记录的第一个系列杀人犯亨利•霍华德•贺姆斯医生”。这部电影是根据畅销书《The Devil in the White City》改编的，除了贺姆斯医生之外，另一个主角是著名的建筑师丹尼尔•哈德森•伯汉。一个是兴...  

《黑客帝国》里，墨菲斯展开双手分别放着两颗药丸，红色和蓝色，他对尼奥说，红色知道真相但会很痛苦，蓝色会睡个好觉，第二天上班、下班，生活依旧。无疑，吞下红色会进入真实的世界，那么蓝色则是虚幻的世界，我常常无法理解什么样的生活才是真实的生活，就像《阿凡达》的主...  

宏大叙事背景下的光明与黑暗 ——读美国作家埃里克·拉森《白城恶魔》 《白城恶魔》是美国作家埃里克·拉森所著的非虚构纪实小说。全书有着历史学的质感，也有小说的魅力，叙事背景宏大，言说内容事关社会进步、城市发展、人性善恶，在阅读过程中，读者会有独特的阅读体验。 《...  

《黑客帝国》里，墨菲斯展开双手分别放着两颗药丸，红色和蓝色，他对尼奥说，红色知道真相但会很痛苦，蓝色会睡个好觉，第二天上班、下班，生活依旧。无疑，吞下红色会进入真实的世界，那么蓝色则是虚幻的世界，我常常无法理解什么样的生活才是真实的生活，就像《阿凡达》的主...  

用户评价

像小说一样流畅的历史加真实犯罪的书，怪不得会成为学校必读书目之一。我既喜欢又恨作者像织网那样把两个故事 - 一个宏伟，一个惊傈 - 穿插在一起。 -- 2009-6-1

engaging story of the time

应该是很好的一本historical non-fiction，但是我就是不能connect。所以等着看电影了。

能打六颗星吗？文笔太出色了！

应该是很好的一本historical non-fiction，但是我就是不能connect。所以等着看电影了。