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Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ Paperback – October 26, 2007

by Lew Wallace (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 795 ratings
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Lewis "Lew" Wallace (1827-1905) was a lawyer, governor, Union general in the American Civil War, American statesman, and author, best remembered for his historical novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. He was born in Brookville, Indiana, to David and Esther French Test Wallace. His father served as lieutenant governor and Indiana Governor. In 1836, at the age of nine, he joined his brother in Crawfordsville, Indiana where he briefly attended Wabash Preparatory School. Afterwards he joined his father in Indianapolis. Wallace served in the Mexican War in 1846 as a first lieutenant with the 1st Indiana Infantry regiment. He was admitted to the bar in 1849. In 1851 he was elected prosecuting attorney of the First Congressional District. At the start of the Civil War, He was appointed state adjutant general and helped raise troops in Indiana. On April 25, 1861, he was appointed Colonel of the 11th Indiana Infantry. After brief service in western Virginia, he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on September 3 and given the command of a brigade. His other works include: Commodus (1877), The Boyhood of Christ (1888), and The Prince of India (1893).
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    600 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Dodo Pr
  4. Publication date
    October 26, 2007
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1.33 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1406559946
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1406559941
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dodo Pr (October 26, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 600 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1406559946
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1406559941
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.91 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.33 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 795 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
795 global ratings
Three columns per page with small print
1 Star
Three columns per page with small print
The story is wonderful. The print of this book is very small!! Why are there 6 columns? I have never seen a book printed like this. It makes it difficult to read.
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Top reviews from the United States

Ricky Herring
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Christian novel
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2024
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Great book but for some reason had the wrong author's name on the top of every other page and the cover looks more like something from the Trojan war. Still, great book with great story. You just have to get used to 19th century prose.
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J.W.
5.0 out of 5 stars AUDIO BOOK Review - Ben Hur read by Lloyd James
Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2015
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I love Ben Hur. It is one of my favorite books of all time. I got into it after I fell in love with the 1959 movie, which is my favorite film. I also enjoy audio books quite a bit. I got this one for Christmas last year and finally managed to find the time to get through the whole thing. I wanted to post a review of the audio book because it is difficult to find one that actually reviews the audio book rather than just the book, which is of course excellent. I felt it was warranted because those who enjoy audio books often wonder about the quality of those they are looking to purchase, which can vary wildly depending on how well the reader(s) invests him or herself into the characters. Thus, this is for you, fellow audio book lovers.

Voice

Lloyd James reads the book, and his voice is quite good for the reading. He does do a few different voices depending on the character. These become fairly recognizable, though he doesn't have quite the range of Jim Dale (see his phenomenal readings of the Harry Potter books). However, Ben Hur, Simonides, and other major characters are distinct in how they speak. James sounds about the right age for Ben Hur himself, which lends some credibility to the reading.

Recording Quality

The recording is generally excellent as well, with no shifting volume between tracks. (That is, there are no portions I could tell where it was louder or quieter than the rest of the book, such that I had to mess with the volume.) It is steadily recorded, with track breaks at around 3 minutes on the dot every time. It runs about 24 hours and spans 19 discs.

I do have two problems with the recording, which are minor enough for me to still give it 5 stars on here, though my overall score I would say is 4.5 because of this. First, about an average of once per disc, there is a skip in a track. It's seemingly random and it really just splits one word in half. I noticed this both on the CD and in the same place on my iPod, which suggests that the skip is in the recording. I never felt it meant I didn't understand what happened, but there was at least one of them that seemed to leave out a word. The other problem is that there are a very few (I can only remember about twice where it happened) times where James' voice sounds quite tinny, as though he was too far away from the mic. This only happened for about 2-3 seconds each time I heard it.

Miscellaneous

The discs are in three separate booklets, which are of average quality. The discs slip out if you hold the booklets upside down, so if you take them in the car you'll want to make sure to store them safely.

Score

Overall, I'd give it a 4.5/5, the only downside being the occasional skips in the reading. The book is phenomenal, of course, and the recording does it justice. James did a great job reading the book, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it.
11 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2023
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Hard to read, but worth it. The abridged ones were it down too much and loose the real theme.
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Andrea Minson
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2023
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Great book and in very good condition. Edition weird as cover art is Achilles and author inside on top of page is wrong. Misprint?
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Grumps
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing
Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2024
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You must read Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. "Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”- C.S. Lewis.
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Cassandra
3.0 out of 5 stars You’ll eventually be grabbed by the story despite the telling of it
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2017
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After reading The Robe this past spring I was inspired to read more classic Christian literature and Ben Hur topped my list, but it was a slow start. The language is old-fashioned and ponderous and took me a while to get used to. The description and imagery is minute in detail and while interesting, can be tedious to wade through. That said, the story was beautiful. I am always fascinated by juxtaposition of people’s lives in relation to history, especially the history surrounding the life and ministry of Jesus. The Hur’s are a pious Jewish family under the heavy-handed reign of Rome and Wallace gives us a honest and factual look into the heart and expectation the Jewish people had for their Messiah- wrapped in an action-packed, romantic, philosophical novel. Keep reading; you’ll eventually be grabbed by the story despite the telling of it.
38 people found this helpful
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Edwin R Gaston
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent imagining of what life was like for those living at the time of Jesus
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2018
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This is one of the best books I have read in quite a while. The language is a bit King James-esque (lots of “thous” and “thines”), which I found to be challenging rather than distracting. The story is so much more than the Hollywood versions would have you think (the famous chariot race is little more than halfway through the novel, leaving plenty of intrigue and action to come). I found this to be a wonderful tale of how those around Christ would have lived, thought about, reacted to, and been changed by His coming. It also has the most serious description I’ve ever read of what it would be like for those experiencing a miracle. I highly recommend this book.

Soft spoiler alert!
I found it odd that the narrative skipped from the Crucifixion to several years later, jumping over the Resurrection, coming of the Holy Spirit, etc., but I think that maybe Wallace didn’t want Ben-Hur’s reaction to or role in those events to overshadow his coming to faith story.
3 people found this helpful
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Robert Seastrom
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read.
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2023
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Now I know it's a little bit more than Charleston Heston in a chariot race. Captivating and well written.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Beverly H.
3.0 out of 5 stars GREAT STORY.
Reviewed in Canada on November 3, 2022
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TYPE TOO SMALL TO READ.
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BudgetingMyTrip
5.0 out of 5 stars Nice book
Reviewed in Germany on March 10, 2021
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Reading the book and I already love it
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Mrs Cookie Baker
5.0 out of 5 stars Content great, font minute
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 16, 2018
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I was so looking forward to reading this great work, but very disappointed, and puzzled, at the unreadable font size, even with reading glasses. It’s not just me: this print is infinitesimaly tiny. I didn’t think it possible to print anything this unseeable size. Will buy another edition.
There is a Great Review of this book on Goodreads By Mary, which should be the Preface to this book. Worth checking out.
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Mrs Joy Bingham
5.0 out of 5 stars Possibly the best book that I have ever read excluding the Bible
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 11, 2015
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Possibly the best book that I have ever read excluding the Bible. The story was exciting and captivating, and because it was built on truth I found that I could hardly leave it down until finished. However I was surprised that the resurrection was omitted, it would have made a fitting climax !
I would recommend it to anyone with a Christian faith, and indeed a sceptic !!! On another note, the writer made great use of our excellent English language,it was a pleasure to read. Thank you.
2 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars excellent book, although sometimes too descriptive
Reviewed in Canada on January 21, 2017
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excellent book, although sometimes too descriptive. It is a pleasure to read the whole story compared with the movie. The movie seems fairly true to the book.
One person found this helpful
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