Ben - Hur ; a Tale of the Christ. By L. Wallace.
(Sampson IV and Co.)—Tho "historical novel," so to call it, which has the
narrative of the Now Testament for its base, is seldom successful ; but it must be allowed that Mr. Wallace has made a very fair approxi- mation to what such a book should be. The story opens with a scene dramatically conceived and ably executed. Three wise men, representing respectively the theosophies of India, of Egypt, and of Greece, moot in an encampment in the Desert, and prepare for the journey which they are to take together to the birthplace of the Christ. This journey, the scene at Bethlehem, where the Cave of the Nativity is described with much vividness, and many other scenes connected with the sacred narrative, keep up the readers' interest. Mr. Wallace has studied his subject very carefully, and though in the multiplicity of details, in the employment of which he is very pro- fuse, he has not altogether avoided mistakes, the effect of the whole is satisfactory. No physiognomy, we may remark, could have at once resembled that of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies. The writer has repeated a not uncommon mistake, made, it will be remembered, in a statue of considerable merit, which represented Cleopatra with the think lips of the Coptic race. But we have not detected many such errors, and in the more serious matter of taste the writer com- mends his work to our approval.
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