Overview

First published in 1880, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ became a best-seller. The popular novel spawned an 1899 stage adaptation, reaching audiences of over 10 million, and two highly successful film adaptations. For over a century, it has become a ubiquitous pop cultural presence, representing a deeply powerful story and monumental experience for some and a defining work of bad taste and false piety for others. The first and only collection of essays on this pivotal cultural icon, Bigger Than """"Ben-Hur"""" addresses Lew Wallace’s beloved classic to explore its polarizing effect and to expand the contexts within which it can be studied. In the essays gathered here, scholars approach Ben-Hur from multiple directions—religious and secular, literary, theatrical, and cinematic—to understand not just one story in varied formats but also what they term the """"Ben-Hur tradition."""" Drawing from a wide range of disciplines, contributions include the rise of the Protestant novel in the United States; relationships between and among religion, spectacle, and consumerism; the """"New Woman"""" in early Hollywood; and a """"wish list"""" for future adaptations, among others. Together, these essays explore how this remarkably fluid story of faith, love, and revenge has remained relevant to audiences across the globe for over 130 years.

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9780815634171

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Reviews

A wonderful contribution to the study ofAmerican popular culture, and especiallyvaluable to scholars interested in receptionacross genres. Taken together, theseessays beautifully illustrate the multipledimensions literary, religious, historical of Wallace s text, illuminating larger issuesof appropriation in the process.--Joan Shelley Rubin, Dexter Perkins Professor in History, University of Rochester

A useful, engaging contribution to scholarship in several fields, such as American literature, cultural studies, reception studies, and religious history.--Heather Neilson, University of New South Wales Australasian Journal of American History This book has something for everyone, from the pop culture enthusiast to the academic scholar, and it will be an especially welcome addition to film and religion studies, to the study of American popular culture, and to scholars interested in the various genres of media.--Martin J. Manning Northeast Popular/American Culture Association Over more than a century, in multiple media, and for vast audiences, an American fiction about Judaea in the time of Christ preached compelling lessons on how to live in the modern world. Ryan and Shamir are to be congratulated for having here assembled, for the first time, a detailed, interdisciplinary and engaging study of Ben-Hur - both the novel written by a former general in the Union Army and the vibrant tradition it propelled into motion. Through the course of these stimulating essays, we gain insight into modern permutations of politics (American and Zionist), piety (Christian and Jewish), gender, race, consumer society and, of course, the erotic male body.--Maria Wyke, Co-Director, UCL Centre for Research on the Dynamics of Civilisation (CREDOC) The editors have generated a fascinating volume that includes biblical studies and inspired bestsellers (e.g., Charles M. Sheldon's In His Steps); higher biblical critics' quests for authors and origins; and nineteenth-century church history, race, gender, consumer, and familial issues, not to mention cinematic preaching. Yet they keep to the text and its generativity, providing a clear, engaging story of the author, his book, his times, and the rippling effects of the narrative today, even on MTV and in shopping malls. The work not only celebrates the iconic status of Ben-Hur, but it also tells us everything we wanted to know about Ben-Hur, and more.--Terry Lindvall Journal of the American Academy of Religion Barbara Ryan and Milette Shamir's collection of essays demonstrates the rich complexity gained in studying a network of adaptations not in terms of their fidelity to an original, but instead as products of and mirrors to cultural trends....It delivers on its promise to fuse an examination of adaptation with rich considerations of audience.--Matthew James Vechinski, Virginia Commonwealth University Reception: Texts, Readers, Audiences, History Journal A wonderful contribution to the study of American popular culture, and especially valuable to scholars interested in reception across genres. Taken together, these essays beautifully illustrate the multiple dimensions--literary, religious, historical --of Wallace's text, illuminating larger issues of appropriation in the process. --Joan Shelley Rubin, Dexter Perkins Professor in History, University of Rochester Bigger Than 'Ben-Hur' is nothing short of amazing. It will become a standard work on the text. By offering incisive essays on everything from the novel's narrative structure to its religious, political, and gendered resonances to its constantly evolving representations on the stage, screen, and in commodity culture, Ryan and Shamir shed much-needed light on a book that absolutely dominated late nineteenth-century print culture but that has been almost totally forgotten today. --Paul Gutjahr, professor of English, American studies, and religious studies, University of Indiana The fascinating essays in this book, written by specialists in a broad range of disciplines, show that the Ben-Hur tradition is not only bigger than Ben-Hur but still very much with us today, as we await the release of yet another cinematic interpretation of this iconic story. --Adele Reinhartz, professor of classics and religious studies, University of Ottawa Bigger Than Ben-Hur is nothing short of amazing. It will become a standard work on the text. By offering incisive essays on everything from the novel s narrative structure to its religious, political, and gendered resonances to its constantly evolving representations on the stage, screen, and in commodity culture, Ryan and Shamir shed much-needed light on a book that absolutely dominated late nineteenth-century print culture but that has been almost totally forgotten today. --Paul Gutjahr, professor of English, American studies, and religious studies, University of Indiana A wonderful contribution to the study of American popular culture, and especially valuable to scholars interested in reception across genres. Taken together, these essays beautifully illustrate the multiple dimensions literary, religious, historical of Wallace s text, illuminating larger issues of appropriation in the process.--Joan Shelley Rubin, Dexter Perkins Professor in History, University of Rochester The fascinating essays in this book, written by specialists in a broad range of disciplines, show that the Ben-Hur tradition is not only bigger than Ben-Hur but still very much with us today, as we await the release of yet another cinematic interpretation of this iconic story.--Adele Reinhartz, professor of classics and religious studies, University of Ottawa Bigger Than Ben-Hur is nothing short of amazing. It will become a standard work on the text. By offering incisive essays on everything from the novel s narrative structure to its religious, political, and gendered resonances to its constantly evolving representations on the stage, screen, and in commodity culture, Ryan and Shamir shed much-needed light on a book that absolutely dominated late nineteenth-century print culture but that has been almost totally forgotten today.--Paul Gutjahr, professor of English, American studies, and religious studies, University of Indiana A wonderful contribution to the study of American popular culture, and especially valuable to scholars interested in reception across genres. Taken together, these essays beautifully illustrate the multiple dimensions literary, religious, historical of Wallace s text, illuminating larger issues of appropriation in the process.--Joan Shelley Rubin, Dexter Perkins Professor in History, University of Rochester The fascinating essays in this book, written by specialists in a broad range of disciplines, show that the Ben-Hur tradition is not only bigger than Ben-Hur but still very much with us today, as we await the release of yet another cinematic interpretation of this iconic story.--Adele Reinhartz, professor of classics and religious studies, University of Ottawa

This book has something for everyone, from the pop culture enthusiast to the academic scholar, and it will be an especially welcome addition to film and religion studies, to the study of American popular culture, and to scholars interested in the various genres of media.--Martin J. Manning Northeast Popular/American Culture Association A useful, engaging contribution to scholarship in several fields, such as American literature, cultural studies, reception studies, and religious history.--Heather Neilson, University of New South Wales Australasian Journal of American History Over more than a century, in multiple media, and for vast audiences, an American fiction about Judaea in the time of Christ preached compelling lessons on how to live in the modern world. Ryan and Shamir are to be congratulated for having here assembled, for the first time, a detailed, interdisciplinary and engaging study of Ben-Hur - both the novel written by a former general in the Union Army and the vibrant tradition it propelled into motion. Through the course of these stimulating essays, we gain insight into modern permutations of politics (American and Zionist), piety (Christian and Jewish), gender, race, consumer society and, of course, the erotic male body.--Maria Wyke, Co-Director, UCL Centre for Research on the Dynamics of Civilisation (CREDOC) Barbara Ryan and Milette Shamir's collection of essays demonstrates the rich complexity gained in studying a network of adaptations not in terms of their fidelity to an original, but instead as products of and mirrors to cultural trends....It delivers on its promise to fuse an examination of adaptation with rich considerations of audience.--Matthew James Vechinski, Virginia Commonwealth University Reception: Texts, Readers, Audiences, History Journal The editors have generated a fascinating volume that includes biblical studies and inspired bestsellers (e.g., Charles M. Sheldon's In His Steps); higher biblical critics' quests for authors and origins; and nineteenth-century church history, race, gender, consumer, and familial issues, not to mention cinematic preaching. Yet they keep to the text and its generativity, providing a clear, engaging story of the author, his book, his times, and the rippling effects of the narrative today, even on MTV and in shopping malls. The work not only celebrates the iconic status of Ben-Hur, but it also tells us everything we wanted to know about Ben-Hur, and more.--Terry Lindvall Journal of the American Academy of Religion Bigger than Ben-Hur will be of interest to scholars of nineteenth- and twentieth-century literary studies (in both US and comparative traditions), religious studies, classics, dramatic literature and theater history, and film and media studies (especially in the area of adaptation studies). What makes the work particularly valuable today, however, is its revisiting, from these multiple perspectives, a profoundly influential American allegory that constitutes a volatile mix of religion, politics, and mass culture.--Robert Jackson, University of Tulsa ALH Online Review A wonderful contribution to the study of American popular culture, and especially valuable to scholars interested in reception across genres. Taken together, these essays beautifully illustrate the multiple dimensions--literary, religious, historical --of Wallace's text, illuminating larger issues of appropriation in the process. --Joan Shelley Rubin, Dexter Perkins Professor in History, University of Rochester Bigger Than 'Ben-Hur' is nothing short of amazing. It will become a standard work on the text. By offering incisive essays on everything from the novel's narrative structure to its religious, political, and gendered resonances to its constantly evolving representations on the stage, screen, and in commodity culture, Ryan and Shamir shed much-needed light on a book that absolutely dominated late nineteenth-century print culture but that has been almost totally forgotten today. --Paul Gutjahr, professor of English, American studies, and religious studies, University of Indiana The fascinating essays in this book, written by specialists in a broad range of disciplines, show that the Ben-Hur tradition is not only bigger than Ben-Hur but still very much with us today, as we await the release of yet another cinematic interpretation of this iconic story. --Adele Reinhartz, professor of classics and religious studies, University of Ottawa

A wonderful contribution to the study of American popular culture, and especially valuable to scholars interested in reception across genres. Taken together, these essays beautifully illustrate the multiple dimensions literary, religious, historical of Wallace s text, illuminating larger issues of appropriation in the process.--Joan Shelley Rubin, Dexter Perkins Professor in History, University of Rochester

Author Information

Barbara Ryan is associate professor in the University Scholars Programme at the National University of Singapore. She is the author of Love, Wages, Slavery and a coeditor of Reading Acts. Milette Shamir is senior lecturer in English and American studies at Tel Aviv University, Israel. She is the author of Inexpressible Privacy: The Interior Life of Antebellum American Literature and coeditor of Boys Don’t Cry? Rethinking Narratives of Masculinity and Emotion in the U.S.

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