Ben-Hur; a tale of the Christ - by Lewis Wallace

Ben-Hur; a tale of the Christ by Lewis Wallace or as I was taught growing up in Indiana, Ben Hur by Lew Wallace, a famous American Civil War general.  This 1880 novel was the best selling American novel until displaced by a book about the Civil War - Gone with the Wind published in 1936.  (US Edition) (UK Edition)

Lew Wallace was one of many celebrated Indiana authors, a state that at one time seemed to produce more authors than any other.  (Can you tell I am a proud Hoosier?)

"I am a Bethlehemite," said Joseph, in his most deliberate way. "Is there not room for--" 

"There is not." 

"You may have heard of me--Joseph of Nazareth. This is the house of my fathers. I am of the line of David." These words held the Nazarene's hope. If they failed him, further appeal was idle, even that of the offer of many shekels. To be a son of Judah was one thing--in the tribal opinion a great thing; to be of the house of David was yet another; on the tongue of a Hebrew there could be no higher boast.

I hope I am not giving away the story to say that he finds somewhere to spend the night.

Later on (this is a long book,) we come to young Ben

"Well, Messala always had his share of the disagreeable quality. When he was a child, I have seen him mock strangers whom even Herod condescended to receive with honors; yet he always spared Judea. For the first time, in conversation with me to-day, he trifled with our customs and God. As you would have had me do, I parted with him finally. And now, O my dear mother, I would know with more certainty if there be just ground for the Roman's contempt. In what am I his inferior? Is ours a lower order of people? Why should I, even in Caesar's presence; feel the shrinking of a slave? Tell me especially why, if I have the soul, and so choose, I may not hunt the honors of the world in all its fields? Why may not I take sword and indulge the passion of war? As a poet, why may not I sing of all themes? I can be a worker in metals, a keeper of flocks, a merchant, why not an artist like the Greek? Tell me, O my mother--and this is the sum of my trouble--why may not a son of Israel do all a Roman may?"

The book is known as a popular success and not a critical success.  Does that make it a bad book?  You decide . . .

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