BEN HUR BY LEW WALLACE

I finally finished this 1st book for the Baby Steps Challenge (over at the Nattie Challange) onWednesday evening. I am so glad that I stuck with it! It was very good. I really enjoyed the story. There were a few places that I got kind of bogged down in, but I think that was mostly in the beginning. Maybe to me it was a slow start. I also had a few things ‘going against me’. My book was 432 pages of very small print. So it seemed like my progress was slower than molasses going uphill on a cold day. I had 4 or 5 different times where family members were hospitalized. We just generally had super busy times, so that there were even a few weeks in a row that I wasn’t able to read even a chapter. Even though one evening I picked up my copy of Christy & got started on it, I never did give up on Ben Hur. I am so thankful I put Christy down & kept at this one going. I really did enjoy it. I rolled my eyes at the King James English being spoken by 1st century Jews & Romans…..but I got over it. lol I even cried a few times. The first time I cried was when the story finds Judah Ben-Hur’s beloved mother & sister. And I WEPT when Amrah, the family servant, saw them for the first time. It brings chills to my arms now to even think on it! And I was so angry at Judah’s love interest….I wanted to reach thru the pages & give him a V-8 smack on the forhead! I cried when two lepers called out for Jesus as He passed them on the road leading into Jerusalem. They called out to Him, "O Master, Master! Thou seest our need: thou canst make us clean. Have mercy upon us-mercy!"
"Believest thou I am able to do this?" He asked.
"Thou art He of whom the prophets spake- thou art the Messiah!" she replied.
"Woman," He said, "great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt."
I mean I WEPT!
And I cried as Jesus was nailed to the cross.
And I even cried when Belthasar, one of the wise men from the beginning of the story, knelt at the foot of the cross.
There was one more thing about this book that I’ll remember: the author actually speaks to you, he calls you Reader. Lol For example: "O Reader, you may remember from the previous chapter that…." The first time or two it did get on my nerves a bit. But it didn’t take long to endear me to it. By late in the book, I would smile when he’d do that.
I will probably go back and read this again in a few years.
I gave it 4 stars over at goodreads.com, only because there were a few slow parts for me. But, this is a classic, & I’ve given lesser literature 5 stars, so I think I may be going over and changing that.
It’s a great bookthat took me weeks & weeks to read it. But it sure was worth it!
If I ever do get over to the Lew Wallace Study Museum, I’ll be sure to take some pictures.