
Elements of the story include leprosy, naval battles among galleys, the Roman hippodrome, Roman adoption, Magus Balthasar, the Arab sheikh Ilderim. The novel grew in such popularity during Wallaces lifetime that it was.

Ben-Hur is a heroic story of a fictional hero. It depicts the oppressive Roman occupation of ancient Palestine and the origins of Christianity. Buy a copy of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880),by Lew Wallace (Original Version) book by Lew Wallace. As adults Judah and Messala become rivals, each hating the other, which leads to Judah's downfall and eventual triumph. Ben-Hur, historical novel by Lewis Wallace, published in 1880 and widely translated. Judah grows up in Jerusalem, during the turbulent years around the birth of Christ. The central character is Judah, prince of the Hebrew house of Hur. The novel was a phenomenal best-seller it soon surpassed Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) as the best-selling American novel and retained this distinction until the 1936 publication of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. Wallace's work is part of an important sub-genre of historical fiction set among the characters of the New Testament. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ is a novel by Lew Wallace published on Novemby Harper & Brothers.
