Ben-Hur cover art

Ben-Hur

A Tale of the Christ

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Ben-Hur

By: Lew Wallace
Narrated by: Todd McLaren
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

A classic of faith, fortitude, and inspiration, this faithful New Testament tale combines the events of the life of Jesus with grand historical spectacle in the exciting story of Judah of the House of Hur, a man who finds extraordinary redemption for himself and his family.

Judah Ben-Hur lives as a rich Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem at the beginning of the first century. His old friend, Messala, arrives as commanding officer of the Roman legions. They become bitter enemies. Because of an unfortunate accident, Ben-Hur is sent as a slave in the mines, while his family is sent to leprosy caves. As Messala is dying from being crushed in a chariot race, he reveals where Ben-Hur's family is. On the road to find them, Ben-Hur meets the Christ as he is on the road to Golgotha to be crucified. That day changes Ben-Hur's life forever, for that is the day he becomes a believer.

Public Domain (P)2011 Tantor Classics Historical Middle East

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Robe cover art
Ben Hur cover art
The Count of Monte Cristo (AmazonClassics Edition) cover art
The Greatest Story Ever Told: Easter cover art
The Silmarillion cover art
Babylon Berlin cover art
The Divine Comedy cover art
The Unquiet Bones cover art
The Poisonwood Bible cover art
Quo Vadis cover art
Bob cover art
Spartacus: Rebellion cover art
Maximus cover art
Of One Blood; or The Hidden Self (AmazonClassics Edition) cover art
I, Judas cover art
Gods and Kings cover art
All stars
Most relevant
A masterful classic. The film does no justice to the rich depth of knowledge and understanding of the author to the subject matter. I was genuinely saddened to finish the book and long to find similar.

An excellent book well told

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great story but ending very abrupt, as if ran out of time to tell it!

watch out for the ending!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I liked the historical detail. I disliked the religious propaganda.

This book could have benefitted from having an unscrupulous editor.

Good, not great

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved the Charlton Heston movie and as it is also mentioned in Anne of Green Gables I thought it was high time I actually read it. It is incredibly long and some of the extra bits that were not included in the movie; Iris’ long stories etc don’t really add anything to the story

Very long & windy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The story varies in many areas from the film. The narrator is clear and very good. There are long tedious speeches in places and I nearly stopped listening early on. Thanks for the forward button. Iris is incredibly annoying and I wanted her to disappear and just stop talking. I felt it ended very abruptly and seemed unfinished. So we had all the Iris tedium only to have the final section lacking with no full explanation of the ending events - Judah and Esther, and the resurrection for example. After seeing the film one could not help but imagine Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd in their parts. The book does include far more about the birth in Bethlehem, and last days of Jesus in Jerusalem, which did add to the story, together with a few new characters which I cannot recall being in the film version.

Quite different from the film but mostly enjoyable

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.