Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ underground church. It will survive through the ages and comes to be known as the Catacomb of Callixtus. "Ben-Hur" is the romantic story of a fictional nobleman named Judah Ben-Hur, who tries to save his family from misfortune and restore honor to the family name, while earning the love of a modest female Jew named Esther. It is also a tale of vengeance and spiritual forgiveness that includes themes of Christian redemption and God's benevolence through the compassion of strangers. A popular theme with readers during Gilded Age America, when the novel was first published, was the idea of achieving
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ Wallace objected to the floral decorative cloth. She wrote to Harper on January 3, 1885, in answer to a question about the true first edition: "I incline to the belief that the volume seen was one of the first issue of "Ben-Hur", which would explain the gay binding." (Original letter is in the Eagle Crest Library.) Further, the Harpers Literary Gossip printed an article, "How the First 'Ben-Hur' Was Bound": "Inquiries have reached the Harpers concerning the binding of the first edition of Ben-Hur, which appeared in 1880. The first edition was issued in a series which the Harpers were