The Prince of India; or, Why Constantinople Fell (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1893.) Two volumes. [159]

Wallace died at home in Crawfordsville, on February 15, 1905, [33] of atrophic gastritis. [148] He was seventy-seven years old. [1] Wallace is buried in Crawfordsville Oak Hill Cemetery. [149] Legacy and honors [ edit ] Wallace's statue in the U.S. Capitol Hanson, Victor Davis (2003). Ripples of Battle: How Wars of the Past Still Determine How We Fight, How We Live, and How We Think. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-50400-4.Wallace was a man of many interests and a lifelong adventure seeker, who remained a persistent, self-confident man of action. He was also impatient and highly sensitive to personal criticisms, especially those related to his command decisions at Shiloh. [150] Despite Wallace's career in law and politics, combined with years of military and diplomatic service, he achieved his greatest fame as a novelist, most notably for his best-selling biblical tale, Ben-Hur.

At a meeting in Bethany, Ben-Hur and his Galilean followers organize a resistance force to revolt against Rome. Gaining help from Simonides and Ilderim, he sets up a training base in Ilderim's territory in the desert. After some time, Malluch writes announcing the appearance of a prophet believed to be a herald for the Christ. Judah journeys to the Jordan to see the prophet, meeting Balthasar and Iras traveling for the same purpose. They reach Bethabara, where a group has gathered to hear John the Baptist preach. A man walks up to John, and asks to be baptized. Judah recognizes him as the man who gave him water at the well in Nazareth many years before. Balthasar worships him as the Christ. The Sheik Ilderim announces that he is looking for a chariot driver to race his team in the coming tournament. Judah, wanting revenge, offers to drive the sheik's chariot, as he intends to defeat Messala and humiliate him before the Roman Empire. Balthasar and his daughter Iras are sitting at a fountain in the stadium. Messala's chariot nearly hits them, but Judah intervenes. Balthasar thanks Ben-Hur and presents him with a gift. Judah heads to Sheik Ilderim's tent. The servant Malluch accompanies him, and they talk about the Christ; Malluch relates Balthasar's story of the magi. They realize that Judah saved the man who saw the Christ soon after his birth. Learn about prominent roles played in the American Civil War by Lew Wallace and other Indianans. (more) See all videos for this article Messala is a Roman nobleman and the son of a Roman tax collector; [18] he is Judah's boyhood friend and rival. [19]Coming home, he found himself dissatisfied with his early careers as a soldier, politician, and lawyer (the last he described as “that most detestable of occupations”) and began writing in earnest again. He had his first novel, The Fair God, published in 1873. A tale about the conquest of the Aztec Empire by the Spanish, its inspiration came from Wallace’s reading of William Prescott’s Conquest of Mexico and from his own experiences there. Lifson, Amy (2009). "Ben-Hur". Humanities. Washington, D.C.: National Endowment for the Humanities. 30 (6). Archived from the original on 2015-10-15 . Retrieved 2010-04-20. Wallace's adventure story is told from the perspective of Judah Ben-Hur. [4] On occasion, the author speaks directly to his readers. [6] Wallace understood that Christians would be skeptical of a fictional story on Christ's life, so he was careful not to offend them in his writing. Ben-Hur "maintains a respect for the underlying principles of Judaism and Christianity". [1] In his memoirs, Wallace wrote: In 2016, Wallace's great-great-granddaughter, Carol Wallace, published a version of Ben-Hur which was released to coincide with the new film version, using prose for 21st-century readers. [105] In popular culture [ edit ] A Ben-Hur chocolate label from 1906 Following Wallace's death, the State of Indiana commissioned the sculptor Andrew O'Connor to create a marble statue of Wallace dressed in a military uniform for the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol. The statue was unveiled during a ceremony held on January 11, 1910. [151] Wallace is the only novelist honored in the hall. [1] A bronze copy of the statue is installed on the grounds of Wallace's study in Crawfordsville. [151] [152]

Commodus: An Historical Play (Crawfordsville, IN: privately published by the author, 1876.) Revised and reissued in the same year. [161] Popular novels of Christ's life, such as Reverend J. H. Ingraham's The Prince of the House of David (1855), preceded Wallace's novel, while others such as Charles M. Shedon's "In His Steps": What Would Jesus Do? (1897) followed it, but Ben-Hur was among the first to make Jesus a major character in a novel. [6] Members of the clergy and others praised Wallace's detailed description of the Middle East during Jesus's lifetime and encouraged their congregations to read the book at home and during Sunday School. [81] One Roman Catholic priest wrote to Wallace: "The messiah appears before us as I always wished him depicted". [6]Romans make plans to use funds from the corban treasury, of the Temple in Jerusalem, to build a new aqueduct. The Jewish people petition Pilate to veto the plan. Pilate sends his soldiers in disguise to mingle with the crowd, who at an appointed time, begin to massacre the protesters. Judah kills a Roman guard in a duel, and becomes a hero in the eyes of a group of Galilean protesters. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac John Swansburg (2013-03-26). "The Passion of Lew Wallace". Slate . Retrieved March 30, 2013. Ben-Hur was also inspired in part by Wallace's love of romantic novels, including those written by Sir Walter Scott and Jane Porter, [6] and The Count of Monte Cristo (1846) by Alexandre Dumas, père. The Dumas novel was based on the memoirs of an early 19th-century French shoemaker who was unjustly imprisoned and spent the rest of his life seeking revenge. [47] Wallace could relate to the character's isolation of imprisonment. He explained in his autobiography that, while he was writing Ben-Hur, "the Count of Monte Cristo in his dungeon of stone was not more lost to the world." [48]