[Listopia] Eiffel's Tower: the thrilling story behind Paris's beloved monument and the extraordinary world's fair that introduced it – Jill Jonnes - 3 stars

[Linda C]

I truly enjoyed the story of Eiffel and his tower, its controversy and his dealings with the various elevator companies. The use of Thomas Edison and his phonograph, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and Gauguin and Whistler's interaction with the art exhibitions helped to flesh out the major components of the Fair. Also relevant were Le Figaro and the Paris Herald which did much to publicize the Fair and the Tower. However, other characters seemed to be questionable additions, i.e., the van Gogh brothers who except for their contact with Gauguin had no connection to the Fair but were woven throughout. A major purpose of the Fair was to showcase industry and technology, but little was actually covered other than Edison's work and the things that he found of interest when he did finally show up at the Fair and made a tour of the technology sections. I was disappointed.

[Jason]

How disappointing but still sound interesting. Fun fact, the Eiffel tower being at the Worlds Fair led to the invention of the Ferris Wheel at The next Worlds Fair in Chicago. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson covers that world's fair and is very interesting.

[Linda C]

I read Larson's book about the Chicago world's fair and I thought he did a better job of highlighting the Fair as a whole even while covering the serial killer.

I did like this book and learned a lot about the characters included and France at the time

[Joi]

Dang, this sounds a little disjointed with the characters and different points it was trying to make.