The Prince of India Volume 01 edition by Lewis Wallace Literature Fiction eBooks
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The Prince of India Volume 01 edition by Lewis Wallace Literature Fiction eBooks
Lew Wallace was an American Civil War general, governor of New Mexico territory (where he wrote Ben Hur), then ambassador to the Ottoman Empire based in Istanbul (where he researched this book). More than as a lawyer, general, or diplomat, Wallace is remembered as a novelist because Ben-Hur was the runaway best-seller of the 19th century, yet hardly anyone remembers *this* book which Wallace considered his best novel. Sorry--Ben-Hur is a better novel, but you should still give this one a try.It won't be easy. The two volumes run over 1000 pages, and the first hundred pages were a slow start despite the suspense that Wallace tries to build. The cast of characters is manageable to follow, not at all like a Russian novel with a hundred characters, but Wallace doesn't keep a consistent point of view so the action shifts between four of the main characters. I enjoyed the historical references, but it will keep you on your toes shifting from the days of Solomon and King Hiram of Tyre to Jesus Christ to the last days of the Byzantine Empire/early days of the Ottoman Empire (that's 2500 years!). Wallace also breaks the fourth wall by giving contemporary narrative asides (ca. 1880's) to explain things. This isn't done too often, but the references are for readers in another time.
And there's the small issue of geography, which isn't bad if you are sharp on the Ancient Near East (or Middle East as we call it today), but you need to bone up on your geography of Istanbul/Constantinople to follow much of the action. Dig out that historical atlas! Very little plot occurs in India which the titular prince claims as home (it's not--he's a wandering Jew under an immortality curse). We follow him on the Hajj across Arabia early one, and we discover he has traveled to the far East and certainly lived in Cipango (Japan).
The Prince doesn't turn out to be the hero of the story (I will let you find out for yourself who is), and a theological ecumenism pervades the novel, which is pretty refreshing in this age of neo-fundamentalism (whether Islamic, Jewish, Christian, Hindu or other). To appreciate this, it helps to know something about Christian church history, the East-West schism, Latin Roman Catholicism vs Greek Eastern Orthodoxy, but you can still grasp Wallace's main sympathies even if these areas are fuzzy.
This a historical heroic romance of another time period that I personally enjoyed over a couple of months. It would not likely get published today, and probably only the success of Ben-Hur allowed this to see the light of day. Wallace could have used a stronger editor, but go ahead, you might just enjoy this in spite of the flaws! 3 1/2 stars if I could have given that rating
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The Prince of India Volume 01 edition by Lewis Wallace Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
Boring
Very good story of a largely unknown time in history. Intigue was lately introduced to anticipate reading Volume 2. It would be nice if Constantinople did not fall.
and will probably has some material in it which is offensive to some readers but never the less should be recognized as one of the true classics. It is unfortunate that many younger readers will not likely understand many of the references with historical and classical allusions it contains.
Perhaps the biggest fault would be that some of the descriptions of settings and occurrences seem to stretch out interminably and are hard to grasp as a whole.
Lew Wallace was an American Civil War general, governor of New Mexico territory (where he wrote Ben Hur), then ambassador to the Ottoman Empire based in Istanbul (where he researched this book). More than as a lawyer, general, or diplomat, Wallace is remembered as a novelist because Ben-Hur was the runaway best-seller of the 19th century, yet hardly anyone remembers *this* book which Wallace considered his best novel. Sorry--Ben-Hur is a better novel, but you should still give this one a try.
It won't be easy. The two volumes run over 1000 pages, and the first hundred pages were a slow start despite the suspense that Wallace tries to build. The cast of characters is manageable to follow, not at all like a Russian novel with a hundred characters, but Wallace doesn't keep a consistent point of view so the action shifts between four of the main characters. I enjoyed the historical references, but it will keep you on your toes shifting from the days of Solomon and King Hiram of Tyre to Jesus Christ to the last days of the Byzantine Empire/early days of the Ottoman Empire (that's 2500 years!). Wallace also breaks the fourth wall by giving contemporary narrative asides (ca. 1880's) to explain things. This isn't done too often, but the references are for readers in another time.
And there's the small issue of geography, which isn't bad if you are sharp on the Ancient Near East (or Middle East as we call it today), but you need to bone up on your geography of Istanbul/Constantinople to follow much of the action. Dig out that historical atlas! Very little plot occurs in India which the titular prince claims as home (it's not--he's a wandering Jew under an immortality curse). We follow him on the Hajj across Arabia early one, and we discover he has traveled to the far East and certainly lived in Cipango (Japan).
The Prince doesn't turn out to be the hero of the story (I will let you find out for yourself who is), and a theological ecumenism pervades the novel, which is pretty refreshing in this age of neo-fundamentalism (whether Islamic, Jewish, Christian, Hindu or other). To appreciate this, it helps to know something about Christian church history, the East-West schism, Latin Roman Catholicism vs Greek Eastern Orthodoxy, but you can still grasp Wallace's main sympathies even if these areas are fuzzy.
This a historical heroic romance of another time period that I personally enjoyed over a couple of months. It would not likely get published today, and probably only the success of Ben-Hur allowed this to see the light of day. Wallace could have used a stronger editor, but go ahead, you might just enjoy this in spite of the flaws! 3 1/2 stars if I could have given that rating
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