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Cargando... Thunderstruck (edición 2006)por Erik Larson
Información de la obraThunderstruck por Erik Larson
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. I have reached such a level of trust with Eric Larson that when I see one of his books at a sale, it goes in the cart. I don't read the flap, I don't consult reviews, just take my money. I consume a paltry number of non-fiction titles a year but Larson is always a good bet. He gives so much. I learn innumerable things from him and yet it's immensely entertaining. I'm stuck on the edge of my seat, knowing his magician's stagecraft is second to none. So, I started reading and realized this selection was about Marconi. Ah, yes, telegraphs and ocean liner radio rooms and all that, right? Well, yes. This book is allllll that. It's a lot. And it makes you appreciate what it took to make wireless work. And I couldn't help but correlate that to cellular and wi-fi and all the magical technology we enjoy in our modern lives. But wait! There's more. Then we are treated to a sordid tale of a missing wife, a mistress and parts of a body found in a London cellar. You see, wireless gave us the first real-time fugitive hunt and it captivated the entire world all at once. One could say after watching CourtTV and Law & Crime that the world has never gotten over the experience. How it forever changed our world, in so many ways. A fascinating tale. To readers around the world, this report was magic. They knew what books the fugitives were reading. They knew about their contemplative moments, and how much they enjoyed the ship's concert. They saw Crippen laughing at the captain's jokes and Le Neve deploying her feminine manners to pluck fruit from a tray. The London Times said “There was something intensely thrilling , almost wierd, in the thought of these two passengers traveling across the Atlantic in the belief that their identity and their whereabouts were unknown while both were being flashed with certainty to all quarters of the civilized world.” From the moment of their departure, the paper said, the two “have been encased in waves of wireless telegraphy as securely as if they had been within the four walls of a prison.” One newspaper invited W.W. Bradfield, one of Marconi's principal engineers, to write about the unfolding saga. Bradfield described the ship's Marconi room as resembling a “magician's cave” and said wireless had forever altered the prospects of criminals. “The suspect fugitive flying to another continent no longer finds immunity in mid-ocean. The very air around him may be quivering with accusatory messages which have apparently come up out of the void. The mystery of ‘wireless’, the impossibility of escaping it, the certainty that it will come out to meet a fugitive as well as follow him in his pursuit, will from henceforth weigh heavily on the person trying to escape from justice.” I think the connection between these two stories was a bit flimsy. The story of Marconi was drawn out to the point of boring. The story of Crippen was engaging enough. I really enjoyed "Devil in the White City" and so gave this book a try. I'm glad I finished the book, but it was tough slogging at times to get through. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
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A true story of love, murder, and the end of the world's "great hush." In Thunderstruck, Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men--Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication--whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time. Set in Edwardian London and on the stormy coasts of Cornwall, Cape Cod, and Nova Scotia, Thunderstruck evokes the dynamism of those years when great shipping companies competed to build the biggest, fastest ocean liners; scientific advances dazzled the public with visions of a world transformed; and the rich outdid one another with ostentatious displays of wealth. Against this background, Marconi races against incredible odds and relentless skepticism to perfect his invention: the wireless, a prime catalyst for the emergence of the world we know today. Meanwhile, Crippen, "the kindest of men," nearly commits the perfect murder. With his unparalleled narrative skills, Erik Larson guides us through a relentlessly suspenseful chase over the waters of the North Atlantic. Along the way, he tells of a sad and tragic love affair that was described on the front pages of newspapers around the world, a chief inspector who found himself strangely sympathetic to the killer and his lover, and a driven and compelling inventor who transformed the way we communicate. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)364.152309421Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Criminology Crimes and Offenses Offenses against persons Homicide Murder History, geographic treatment, biography Europe England & Wales LondonClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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Both sets of stories are equally compelling—Larsen knows how to set a pace. Like Bill Bryson’s Short History of Nearly Everything, this book shows how petty and emotional supposedly rational men of science could be about discoveries and inventions. Another similarity is how obvious the neurodivergence is. Nothing would have ever been invented if it weren’t for the single-mindedness and/or leaps of logic of the autistic or ADHD.
I thought I knew something about the Crippen case, but wowwee—he did a number on his wife and they never found her head or hands. She was a piece of work, though. Probably didn’t deserve having every bone removed (somehow), though.
Wireless, like any new technology, was initially met with either scepticism or outright disbelief. Once inventors realised it was possible, there was a great rush to patent as many bits to do with it as possible and make their names/fortunes. The same as it ever was, eh? ( )