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Eiffels Tower (2000)

by Jill Jonnes(Favorite Author)

3.71 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1440716145 (ISBN13: 9781440716140)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

review 1: The Eiffel Tower was the symbol of the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle. This book gives the background of the building of the tower. It continues with the personalities of the many famous people who exhibited, attended and participated in those times in Paris. It details information on Gustave Eiffel, Thomas Edison, "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Annie Oakley, William Reed Bennett (publisher of the New York Herald, and numerous artists--Whistler, Gaugin, and Van Gogh.
review 2: Step back in time and experience all the joys and the many trials, headaches, and antics involved in the years and days leading up to the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, the six months of the fair, and then the days after the fair's close. Along the way you will meet several of the major personal... moreities involved in the various aspects of the fair, from engineers/scientists Gustave Eiffel and Thomas Edison to Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, newspaper men, ambassadors, and numerous artists. This may sound like a rather ambitious scope for a book, and it is. This book had amazing potential to be extremely scatterbrained and lacking coherence, but Jonnes pulls it off swimmingly. She does an incredible job of helping the modern reader step back in time and experience the fair in all its varied aspects. She also does the admirable job of expounding this history in a story form that is gripping and highly readable. It doesn't feel like reading a history book, it feels like reading a story. That's something that not many non-fiction books for adults are good at doing. Usually I have to mix up my reading of adult non-fiction with some fiction so I won't fall prey to the soporific ink the printers of these works tend to use, but the momentum of this story was compelling enough it kept me reading and intrigued for long stretches without danger of nodding off. I'm pretty good on my history knowledge but Jonnes plunged to such intricate depths I learned a lot of things I had never known before. Highly recommended for those who like history, are interested in Paris, and/or event planners. (You think the last wedding you organized was crazy, try managing all the major personalities involved in a World's Fair! This'll make the last bridezilla look like a piece of cake.)Notes on content: Just a couple minor swear words. Being Paris, Jonnes did recount some of the other "attractions" visitors would check out while in town for the fair, such as restaurants where they could order a server up to a room. Also, in describing the personalities of some of the people, artists especially, she mentioned their sexual activities such as who had mistresses or visited prostitutes regularly. There isn't much violence, most animosity is verbal/political, but Vincent Van Gogh is one of the people followed throughout the book and his attempted suicide and actual suicide are described. less

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