Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, Complete and Unabridged

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Wallace died at home in Crawfordsville, on February 15, 1905, [33] of atrophic gastritis. [148] He was seventy-seven years old. [1] Wallace is buried in Crawfordsville Oak Hill Cemetery. [149] Legacy and honors [ edit ] Wallace's statue in the U.S. Capitol The Christian world would not tolerate a novel with Jesus Christ its hero, and I knew it ... He should not be present as an actor in any scene of my creation. The giving a cup of water to Ben-Hur at the well near Nazareth is the only violation of this rule ... I would be religiously careful that every word He uttered should be a literal quotation from one of His sainted biographers. [1] [34] Harpers apparently retaliated at Susan Wallace's objections over the binding. In the next two binding states (all first editions), the text was bound in drab, brown mesh cloth (seen occasionally today as a faded gray) over beveled boards [Binding State 2] and brown pebbled cloth over beveled boards [Binding State 3]. The most vivid scenes in the book are also the spectacular ones from the movie—the Roman fleet’s battle at sea, the chariot race between Ben-Hur and his enemy Messala, and the crucifixion. But Wallace’s favorite scene wasn’t one of thrilling action, or even one where Christ appeared. It is a quiet scene where Ben-Hur tells his friends about the miracles he’s seen Christ perform—from turning water into wine to raising a man from the dead—and asks them what they make of it. Balthasar, one of the original three wise men, replies, “God only is so great.”

In 1832 the family moved to Covington, Indiana, where Lew's mother died from tuberculosis on July 14, 1834. [6] In December 1836, David married nineteen-year-old Zerelda Gray Sanders Wallace, who later became a prominent suffragist and temperance advocate. In 1837, after David's election as governor of Indiana, the family moved to Indianapolis. [7] [8] Quintus Arrius is a Roman warship commander; Judah saves him from drowning; Arrius adopts Judah as his son, making him a freedman, a Roman citizen, and Arrius's heir. [23]

Lawsuit

Grant, Ulysses S. (1885–1886). Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant. Vol.I & II. New York: Charles L. Webster and Co. ISBN 0-914427-67-9. In 1900, Ben-Hur became the best-selling American novel of the 19th century, surpassing Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. [133] [134] Amy Lifson, an editor for Humanities, identified it as the most influential Christian book of the 19th century. [1] Others named it one of the best-selling novels of all time. [132] At the time of Ben-Hur's one hundredth anniversary in 1980, it had "never been out of print" [135] and had been adapted for the stage and several motion pictures. [1] [136] One historian, Victor Davis Hanson, has argued that Ben-Hur drew from Wallace's life, particularly his experiences at Shiloh, and the damage it did to his reputation. The book's main character, Judah Ben-Hur, accidentally causes injury to a high-ranking Roman commander, for which he and his family suffer tribulations and calumny. [137] Pontius Pilate replaces Valerius Gratus as procurator (prefect), [27] and releases Judah's mother and sister from imprisonment in a Roman prison. [28] By 1846, at the start of the Mexican–American War, the nineteen-year-old Wallace was studying law at his father's law office, but left that pursuit to establish a recruiting office for the Marion Volunteers in Indianapolis. He was appointed a second lieutenant, and on June 19, 1846, mustered into military service with the Marion Volunteers (also known as Company H, 1st Indiana Volunteer Infantry). [17] Wallace rose to the position of regimental adjutant and the rank of first lieutenant while serving in the army of Zachary Taylor, but Wallace personally did not participate in combat. [18] Wallace was mustered out of the volunteer service on June 15, 1847, [19] and returned to Indiana, where he intended to practice law. [20] After the war, Wallace and William B. Greer operated a Free Soil newspaper, The Free Soil Banner, in Indianapolis. [21] Marriage and family [ edit ]

Wallace wrote subsequent novels and biographies, but Ben-Hur remained his most important work. Wallace considered The Prince of India; or, Why Constantinople Fell (1893) as his best novel. [138] He also wrote a biography of President Benjamin Harrison, a fellow Hoosier and Civil War general, and The Wooing of Malkatoon (1898), a narrative poem. Wallace was writing his autobiography when he died in 1905. His wife Susan completed it with the assistance of Mary Hannah Krout, another author from Crawfordsville. It was published posthumously in 1906. [139] Later years [ edit ] Lew Wallace in 1903

Lasting Impact

Ben-Hur is a story of a fictional hero named Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish nobleman who was falsely accused and convicted of an attempted assassination of the Roman governor of Judaea and consequently enslaved by the Romans. He becomes a successful charioteer. [4] [5] The story's revenge plot becomes a story of compassion and forgiveness. [6]

A day before the race, Ilderim prepares his horses. Judah appoints Malluch to organize his support campaign for him. Meanwhile, Messala organizes his own huge campaign, revealing Judah Ben-Hur's former identity to the community as an outcast and convict. Malluch challenges Messala and his cronies to a large wager, which, if the Roman loses, would bankrupt him. Hart, James D. (1976). The Popular Book: A History of America's Literary Taste. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-8371-8694-3. Let the reader try to fancy it; let him first look down on the arena, and see it glistening in its frame of dull-gray granite walls; let him then, in this perfect field, see the chariots, light of wheel, very graceful, and ornate as paint and burnishing can make them ... let the reader see the accompanying shadows fly; and, with such distinctness as the picture comes, he may share the satisfaction and deeper pleasure of those to whom it was a thrilling fact, not a feeble fancy. [1] [55] Wallace's religious beliefs [ edit ] Wallace, An Autobiography, p. 930. Wallace's article "How I Came to Write Ben-Hur" appeared in the February 2, 1893, issue of The Youths Companion and was included as part of his autobiography. On April 5, 1898, at the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, Wallace, at age seventy-one, offered to raise and lead a force of soldiers, but the war office refused. Undeterred, he went to a local recruiting office and attempted to enlist as a private, but was rejected again, presumably because of his age. [145]Messala sends a letter to Valerius Gratus about his discovery of Judah, but Sheik Ilderim intercepts the letter and shares it with Judah. He discovers that his mother and sister were imprisoned in a cell at the Antonia Fortress, and Messala has been spying on him. Meanwhile, Ilderim is deeply impressed with Judah's skills with his racing horses and accepts him as his charioteer. Victor Davis Hanson (2003). Ripples of Battle: How Wars of the Past Still Determine How We Fight, How We Live, and How We Think. New York: Doubleday. pp. 136–39. ISBN 0-385-50400-4. Commodus: An Historical Play (Crawfordsville, IN: privately published by the author, 1876.) Revised and reissued in the same year. [161] Warner, Ezra J. (1964). Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders. Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 0-8071-0822-7.