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Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

by: Lew Wallace

Publication date: 2009-06-26

Usage: Public Domain

Topics: librivox, audiobook, fiction, historical fiction, benhur, ben-hur, chariots

Language: English

LibriVox recording of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. Read by Mark F. Smith.

Ben-Hur is a story of two very different heroes. Judah Ben-Hur, a prince of Jerusalem, is involved in an accident to the Roman procurator which is taken to be intentional. He is seized and sent to the fleet as a galley-slave, while his family is imprisoned and the family goods confiscated. When Ben-Hur saves the fleet captain from drowning after his ship is sunk in a fight with pirates, that officer adopts him as son and heir. With Roman training, Ben-Hur distinguishes himself in the arena and the palistrae and appears to be on the way to high military command.

With the help of a faithful family retainer and a generous Arab sheik, Ben-Hur is enabled to take part in a widely touted chariot race, where one of the other charioteers is the boyhood friend who connived to punish him for the accident and split his estate. That rival is crippled, financially and bodily, in a no-holds-barred race (memorable from the 1959 movie with Charlton Heston).

Ben-Hur turns his attention to the prophesied King of the Jews, when through the sheik he meets Balthasar, one of the Three Wise Men, and hears of the child born years ago. Will Ben-Hur be the general who brings victories to the King, and finally liberates Israel from the oppressive Roman yoke? In his quest for the answer, Ben-Hur seeks out the Nazarene, now rumored to be The Messiah.

THAT hero needs no introduction.

Curious about the lack of kingly trappings and ambitions about this man, Ben-Hur begins to suspect that his kingdom is not of this world. And with him, we receive a gut-wrenching eye-witness view of Jesus’ arrest, humiliation, and crucifixion.

For further information, including links to online text, reader information, RSS feeds, CD cover or other formats (if available), please go to the LibriVox catalog page for this recording.

Download M4B part 1 (85MB)
Download M4B part 2 (81MB)

Addeddate: 2009-06-25 21:30:00

Boxid: OL100020308

Call number: 3081

External-identifier: urn:storj:bucket:jvrrslrv7u4ubxymktudgzt3hnpq:benhur_0906_librivox

External_metadata_update: 2019-03-12T01:54:00Z

Identifier: benhur_0906_librivox

Ocr: tesseract 5.0.0-rc2-1-gf788

Ocr_autonomous: true

Ocr_detected_lang: en

Ocr_detected_lang_conf: 1.0000

Ocr_detected_script: Latin
Cyrillic

Ocr_detected_script_conf: 0.3431
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Reviews

Reviewer: Runcible - - January 14, 2017
Subject: Marvelous reading of Ben-Hur

I'm currently half way through this audiobook and I must compliment the reader Mark Smith. His reading is excellent. His steady pacing with the right amount of emphasis and expression is superb. This is a long book but Mark's reading draws me into the story and doesn't let go. Thanks for your terrific work, Mark.

Reviewer: TwinkieToes - - November 10, 2015
Subject: Epic!

I barely remember the movie. I certainly remember the chariot race scene. But I can say with confidence that the book is better than the movie. There are several subplots and facets to the book that could never be given their due attention in a movie. Ambition vs. Duty. Eros vs. Mars. Forgiveness vs. Revenge. Submission vs. Rebellion. Spiritual vs. Political freedom. And of course, one woman vs. another. ;)

While the title calls it "A Tale of the Christ," the protagonist is definitely Judah Ben-Hur. Jesus is a side character (albeit an important one).

Excellently read by Mark F. Smith. Technical aspects of the recording are great, too.

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