Ben-Hur: The Original Blockbuster (Screening Antiquity) - Softcover

Solomon, Jon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1474407951 ISBN 13: 9781474407953

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2016

Synopsis

Ben-Hur was the first literary blockbuster to generate multiple and hugely profitable adaptations, highlighted by the 1959 film that won a record-setting 11 Oscars. General Lew Wallace’s book was spun off into dozens of popular publications and media productions, becoming a veritable commercial brand name that earned tens of millions of dollars.
Ben-Hur: The Original Blockbuster surveys the Ben-Hur phenomenon’s unprecedented range and extraordinary endurance: various editions, spin-off publications, stage productions, movies, comic books, radio plays, and retail products were successfully marketed and sold from the 1880s and throughout the twentieth century. Today Ben-Hur Live is touring Europe and Asia, with a third MGM film in production in Italy.
Jon Solomon’s new book offers an exciting and detailed study of the Ben-Hur brand, tracking its spectacular journey from Wallace’s original novel through to twenty-first century adaptations, and encompassing a wealth of previously unexplored material along the way

About this title

About the Author

Jon Solomon is Robert D. Novak Professor of Western Civilization and Culture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of Giovanni Boccaccio: The Genealogy of the Pagan Gods (Harvard University Press, 2011), The Ancient World in the Cinema: Revised and Expanded Edition (Yale University Press, 2001), Ptolemy’s Harmonics: Translation and Commentary (Brill, 1999), The Ancient World in the Cinema (A. S. Barnes & Co, 1978), Ancient Roman Feasts and Recipes (E. A. Seemann, 1977), The Complete Three Stooges (C3 Entertainment, 2001). He is editor of Accessing Antiquity: The Computerization of Classics Studies (University of Arizona Press, 1993), Apollo: Origins and Influences (University of Arizona Press, 1994) and Ancient Worlds in Film and Television: Gender and Politics (Brill, 2013).

From the Back Cover

‘Jon Solomon here sets a new standard for scholarship on the reception of antiquity in the media age. His book is an epic in its own right: a thorough treatment of an astonishing literary phenomenon that still pervades our popular arts and commercial culture, even legal history.’Martin Winkler, George Mason UniversityThe complete history of the Ben-Hur phenomenonMore than a century before The Hunger Games and Harry Potter, and decades before Gone with the Wind and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, General Lew Wallace’s Ben-Hur was spun off into multiple popular publications and theatrical productions that earned tens of millions of dollars and became a veritable commercial brand name that earned millions more.Ben-Hur: The Original Blockbuster surveys the Ben-Hur phenomenon’s unprecedented range and extraordinary endurance: numerous editions, adaptations, stage productions, movies, comic books, radio plays, and Ben-Hur companies and products were successfully marketed and sold from the 1880s and throughout the twentieth century. Today Ben-Hur musical adaptations still tour in Europe and Asia, with a third MGM film in production in Italy.Jon Solomon’s new book offers an exciting and detailed study of the Ben-Hur phenomenon, tracking its spectacular journey from the writing of Wallace’s novel to twenty-first-century adaptations by unearthing and copiously documenting a wealth of previously unexplored source material.Jon Solomon is the Robert D. Novak Professor of Western Civilization and Culture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.Cover image: Ben-Hur, 1959, William Wyler © MGM/The Kobal CollectionCover design:[EUP logo]edinburghuniversitypress.comISBN [PPC] 978-1-4744-0794-6 [Pb] 978-1-4744-0795-3Barcode

Edition details

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1474407951
• ISBN 13: 9781474407953
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 928