Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

Lew Wallace's classic novel. This edition includes an active table of contents. The novel was a phenomenal best-seller; it surpassed Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin as the best-selling American novel and retained this distinction until the 1936 publication of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. In 1912, Sears Roebuck published one million copies to sell for 39 cents apiece: the largest single-year print edition in American history. The book was also the first work of fiction to be blessed by a Pope. The novel has been adapted for film several times; most notably by director William Wyler (starring Charlton Heston), which received the Academy Award.