Devil In The White City: A Nonfiction Novel

I was told to write a book review based on a list of novels that Professor Vistain has passed around. I looked around and tried to pick a book and I was not interested in any of them but The Devil in the White City looked interesting as it is mostly based on history of Chicago, and how well written this nonfiction novel is. The Devil in the White City is a nonfiction novel is also divided into four parts, whereas the first three part of the novel is based on Chicago between the years of 1890-1895; meanwhile, the last part of the novel is based on Philadelphia around the year of 1895. The ways this novel is written is interesting as it given two plot lines for each main characters which are Daniel Burnham (protagonist) and Henry H. Holmes (antagonist) and the development of two extraordinary, but different from one to another, men. Daniel Burnham is an architect, who had failed to get into Harvard or Yale, finally settle into the architecture business back in Chicago where he met his future business partner, John Root. As for Henry H. Holmes, he’s a charming …show more content…
I did some background information on Erik Larson, who also had written for the Harper’s, The New Yorker, and the Atlantic Monthly, had also contribute to Time magazine, and the Wall Street Journal as well. I believe that Erik Larson is trying to arguing in The Devil in the White City that the city (Chicago) is hiding it ugly side by covering it up with the World’s Fair which is also known as the World’s Columbian Exposition. The World Fair intended purpose was to bring the wonderful things about the city of Chicago but the construction of the World’s Fair was done cheaply and was only meant to be temporary which Holmes had taken advantage to hide his crimes. I believe an interesting analysis of the Devil in the White City, would be the idea of appearance versus