Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ "Ben-Hur" as the most influential Christian book of the 19th century, while others have identified it as one of the best-selling novels of all time. Carl Van Doren wrote that "Ben-Hur" was, along with "Uncle Tom's Cabin", the first fiction many Americans read. Wallace's original plan was to write a story of the biblical magi as a magazine serial, which he began in 1873, but he had changed its focus by 1874. "Ben-Hur" begins with the story of the magi, but the remainder of the novel connects the story of Christ with the adventures of Wallace's fictional character, Judah Ben-Hur.
Production of Ben-Hur (1959 film) although a one-LP version with Carlo Savina conducting the Symphony Orchestra of Rome was also issued. In addition, to provide a more "listenable" album, Rózsa arranged his score into a ""Ben-Hur" Suite", which was released on Lion Records (an MGM subsidiary which issued low-priced records) in 1959. This made the "Ben-Hur" film musical score the first to be released not only in its entirety but also as a separate album. The "Ben-Hur" score has been considered to be the best of Rózsa's career. The musical soundtrack to "Ben-Hur" remained deeply influential into the mid 1970s, when film music composed by