A Jewish prince is betrayed by a childhood friend, sent to the galleys, and comes back to Jerusalem to settle it in a chariot race. Wallace wrote much of it while governor of New Mexico Territory, finishing it by lamplight in the old Palace of the Governors at Santa Fe; it outsold every American book of its century except Uncle Tom's Cabin. Forty-six paintings spanning 1488 to 1927, from David Roberts to Vincenzo Camuccini, trace the imperial world of Rome and Jerusalem that Ben-Hur moves through.
