Better than the movie. ( )

This was the top selling novel of the 19th Century - and the only one endorsed by the Holy See. The author's life was equally unbelievable. ( )

The best rendition of the Christmas Story since the New Testament. ( )

It was a great movie. How does the book stack up? In some ways, it's better: the stories are richer, there are many secondary stories that the movie could not accommodate. In some ways, it's not as good: the book has a lot of speechifying in it. If you skim those, I'd recommend reading the book after seeing the movie. ( )

Ben Hur is a classic story set in the time of Christ. The story opens with the meeting of the three wise man, Melchior, Balthasar, and Gaspar, as they seek Him who was born to be King of the Jews. Their story is intertwined with the main plot dealing with the life of Ben-Hur.

Ben-Hur is the son of a "prince of Jerusalem," a wealthy Jewish merchant and leader. He has a mother and sister, Tirzah. When the story opens, their father had been dead for some time and Ben-Hur is the man of the family. He is questioning his Jewish heritage, as his Roman friend Messala has returned from Rome and has sniffed disparagingly at the traditions of his former friend. When Ben-Hur accidentally causes a tile to fall on the new Roman procurator, his family's property is seized and he himself is sentenced to the galleys for life. He is unable to learn what happens to his mother and Tirzah. For three years he labors at the oar before he catches the eye of the Roman commander Arrius. When Ben-Hur saves Arrius' life in a sea battle, Arrius adopts him and Ben-Hur spends five years in Rome learning to fight and drive a chariot. This knowledge serves him well when Arrius dies and he returns to Jerusalem to seek out his family's broken fortunes.

The life of Christ runs like a thread through Ben-Hur's story and the culmination of that side story takes center stage at the crucifixion. I do wish that Wallace had not pictured Christ as this effeminate, womanly figure. Is it impossible for the Son of God to be "manly"? Must one be effeminate to be sensitive and loving? Though I suppose Christ is one of the most difficult historical characters to render convincingly on the page.

Wallace is a good writer, though there are some flowery bits that seem to drag the tale out. But I can forgive him anything for paragraphs like this:

Men speak of dreaming as if it were a phenomenon of night and sleep. They should know better. All results achieved by us are self-promised, and all self-promises are made in dreams awake. Dreaming is the relief of labor, the wine that sustains us in act. We learn to love labor, not for itself, but for the opportunity it furnishes for dreaming, which is the great under-monotone of real life, unheard, unnoticed, because of its constancy. Living is dreaming. Only in the grave are there no dreams.

In some ways it reminds me of Victor Hugo's tangents, which I love.

I enjoy historical novels set in this period, but I liked Sienkiewicz's Quo Vadis much better than Ben-Hur. Perhaps it is because Quo Vadis does not attempt to portray Christ in person, but rather leaves Him to the eyewitness account of Peter.

Overall, this is a historical novel that no one should miss. Published in 1880, it still has the power to entertain with its adventurous story and vigorous prose. Recommended! ( )