Kindle Jewish Books
Legends never die: Ben Hur
Amazon just announced the release of Lew Wallace’s book “Ben Hur” in Kindle Edition (e-book). Most of the people today, do not relate with the novel but with the motion picture of Ben Hur by William Wyler (1959 film), starting Charlton Heston in the title role, that turned out to be a smashing hit winning a record of 11 Academy Awards, and earned more than 90$ million totally to Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Stay tuned to Naro.gr (http://www.naro.gr/ειδησεις/ψυχαγωγία.html ) for all the latest news about Music, cinema, arts, theatre, travel, books and many more.
The plot takes place in 26 AD in Jerusalem. Prince Judah Ben Hur, is a noble & wealthy merchant. His childhood friend Messala returns to Jerusalem as the new commanding officer of the Roman garrison. The later, is portrayed as over-ambitious and eager to earn himself higher ranks in the Roman army, by suppressing a potential Jewish revolt. The two friends meet, but they discover that they do not share so much in common as they did during their childhood. Messala asks Ben Hur for names of Jews who oppose openly or secretly the Roman government, but Hur refuses to name names. Shortly after, an accident takes place when a tile falls from the roof of Ben Hur’s house and causes an accident to the new Roman governor. Messala ceases the opportunity and condemns Ben Hur to the galleys and imprisons his family ( his mother Miriam & sister Tirzah). Ben Hur spends a number of years as a galley slave and during a battle he manages to save the commander of the Roman fleet (Consul Quintus Arrius). The later, adopts him as a son. Within a short time, Hur becomes a champion charioteer in Rome. With regained freedom (as a roman citizen now) and wealth, Ben Hur returns to Jerusalem to revenge Messala and find his family. On the way home, he meets Balthazar and his host Arab seik Iderim, who owns 4 magnificent Arabian horses. Hur, offers to drive the horses in the upcoming race in Jerusalem against Messala (also a champion charioteer). During the race, Messala tries to kill Ben Hur-Messala is injured in the process-, however the later prevails and wins the race, to Messala’s dismay. Ben Hur reunites with his lost family and love (Ester). The book epilogue takes place 5 years after the race: Ben Hur and Ester have married and had children, now living in Misenum. The Christians in Rome are now suffering persecution under the hands of the Emperor Nero, and Ben Hur undertakes a trip to Rome determined to help the Christians by building an underground church-surviving through the ages and Roman attacks and becoming known as the Catacomb of San Calixto in Rome.
There are a lot of fascinating stuff about the book, which most of the people do not know, such as: Wallace was deeply inspired (when writing Ben Hur) by “The Count of Monte Christo” by Alexander Dumas, thus there are some resemblances between the 2 stories. For example, in both cases the hero is victim of unjust persecution under a corrupt authority. In both cases, the hero suffers but manages to sustain and prevail at the end. Also, the book has never been out of print-it was a phenomenal best seller. Since 1880, it has been printed in more than 50 editions worldwide. It actually outsold the every book-except the Bible-for decades. Another interesting fact, is the similarity of Ben Hur with the author in some instances: More specifically, the author was the youngest division commander during the American Civil War. He was considered to be one of the brightest Military minds of his era. However, his participation at the Battle of Shiloh which caused heavy casualties to the North along with Wallace’s actions during the battle, caused intense criticism to the North, and drew accusations of incompetence, which permanently damaged his military reputation and ended whichever aspirations Wallace may have for earning higher ranks in the American Army. Wallace pleaded to his superior (and close friend), General Grant to support him against those false accusations, however the later denied any help to Wallace’s dismay. This part is similar to the part of the book, where Ben Hur is pleading Messala (his close friend) –who knows the accusations against Ben Hur are false-to help him, and the Roman also denies any help
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