Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

First off, remember this is the reading of a book that was written in 1880, not the transcript of the 1959 movie starring Charlton Heston (or the arguably superior 1925 silent film starring Ramon Novarro). The movies took many liberties with the story, if this is the kind of thing that bugs you, you may want to look for a different book. Second, notice the subtitle is “A Tale of the Christ”. This is a much more religious book than either of the movies would lead you to believe, so if that is something that will put you off, I suggest that you find another book.

With those disclaimers, I have to say that I am impressed with how well the story is told. Though there are parts where Wallace gets a little stiff, it didn’t feel overly dated. In fact I was often surprised with how well the work was constructed. The narrator also does a great job with this story, and the time seemed to go by rather quickly.

The length, it tends to drag out sometimes

Life lessons you can learn

He has a very soothing voice

yes

no

I loved the the 1959 film version, staring Charlton Heston, of this book and was very excited to see it here on Audible. So far I have attempted to listen to it 5 times. I really want to like this book. Thinking it might be the narrator I checked out a copy of the book at my local library and the problem is not the narrator. The story is hung together a series of coincidences that I can not believe. The characters from the movie that I love in the book I do not care about. They are hollow and the dialog is tedious.
I can honestly say for the first time that I like the movie version of a book better the the book itself.

It is written in the poetic rythm of a biblical verse. While that is not a bad thing for the bible itself. Read a verse at a time and contimplated. It makes for a very boring listen!

I was also unimpressed with the narrator, though can't decide if it was due to the material or his talents.