Ben-Hur: a Tale of the Christ The Player's Edition

New York, NY: Harper & Brothers. Very Good. 1903. Reprint. Hardcover. B&W Photographs; This book is in Very Go od condition and is lacking a dust jacket. The spine ends of the book covers have some light bumping, rubbing and wear. The book covers and spine are illustrated with gilt, two colors of green and orange. The front cover has a smallish rectangular pictorial pastedown with a photograph of the main actor as Ben-Hur. Unfortunately, the photograph has several bits pulled / removed. The text pages are clean and bright. There is a previous owner's name and date on the front pastedown page, and a previous owner's inked gift notation on the front endpaper. The front pastedown page also includes a previous owner's library label, that mentions "Dinglebrink, Oakland, CA." The rear endpapers have a patch of dark purple over the spine hinge. There are tears to the top and bottom edges of the rear inner spine hinge. This book is illustrated throughout with photographs from the play. "The novel intertwines the life of Jesus with that of a fictional protagonist, the young Jewish prince named Judah Ben-Hur, who suffers betrayal, injustice, and brutality, and longs for a Jewish king to vanquish Rome. It has the appeal of a rollicking historical adventure combined with a sincere Christian message of redemption. Victorians who swore off novels because of their immoral influence eagerly picked up Ben-Hur—were even encouraged to by their pastors. It became required reading in grade schools across the United States. For those who considered theater sinful, the spectacle of the Broadway version lured them in for twenty-one years, not to mention the touring show that required four entire trains to transport all the scenery and livestock. More than twenty million people saw Ben-Hur on stage between 1899 and 1920, " (from Nat. Endowment for the Humanities) . .