I just read BEN HUR. There is an interesting history regarding the author Lew Wallace. He was a civil war general who saved Washington from invasion by Gen. Early at the battle of Monancy in Maryland, Gov. of New Mexico involved with Billy the Kid/Lincoln County wars (watch Young Guns 1 and 2), and Ambassador to Turkey.

BEN HUR was the first novel that many households in the US owned in the 1870s. It was a stage play and was made in a movie twice before the version everyone knows starring Charleton Heston.

Wallace said he wrote the book in order to learn more about his Christian faith. I really enjoyed the story and his version of the quest of the Magi starts the book. It was written in the Victorian style very formal. I enjoyed it.