Ben Hur

Ben Hur is a novel by the American writer and soldier Lew Wallace, published by Harper and Brothers in 1880 under the longer title Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. It was one of the most widely read novels of the nineteenth century.

The book follows Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince of Jerusalem living under Roman rule, whose friendship with a Roman named Messala ends in his arrest and condemnation. He is sent to the galleys, survives a sea battle, and returns home looking for his mother and sister and for the restoration of what his family lost. Around that private story Wallace builds the crowded world of Roman Judaea, a chariot race, and the ministry and crucifixion that the book's subtitle points to.

Wallace researched the period at length and wrote the story as a Christian epic in which an adventure plot carries the religious material. The novel's subtitle, A Tale of the Christ, names the strand of the story that runs alongside Judah's own. It was adapted for the stage and then several times for film.