Easter classics
Do not fail. For as long as we can remember they have been programmed on television at Easter. We have seen them many times, but we will continue to see them. In all its versions. The classics, the most contemporary… Tradition is tradition, no matter how clever the smartest in the class are.
Judas Ben-Hur and Messala, the tribune Marco Vinicio and the emperor Nero, and the immortal slave Spartacus defying the patrician and relentless Marco Licinius Crassus. We will see them again, sure, but ...we have read the novels What based the images we have of them? ¿We know its authors? Well let's take a look and remember.
Ben-Hur, a story of Christ - Lewis Wallace
The military Lew wallace (1827-1905) was a general under Ulysses Grant in the American Civil War, but also a writer and diplomat. Public this novel for the first time in 1880. It takes countless editions and has been translated into many languages, and remains a classic of the most successful and popular historical novel.
El argument is well known and takes place around the life of Judah Ben-Hur, a rich Jew, contemporary of Jesus of Nazareth. Despite his childhood friendship with the Roman tribune messala, the delicate political situation of the time and an unfortunate accident cause his fall from grace and that of his family.
Is done galley but, after a battle against the pirates and saving the Roman nobleman Fifth Arius, Ben-Hur becomes his adopted son. He will return to Judea and with the help of the old man Simonides and Arab Sheikh Ilderim, will face Messala and get his revenge in a chariot race.
Quo vadis? - Henrik Sienkiewicz
Many have wanted to see in this novel a political metaphor full Poland in which its author lived, Henrik Sienkiewicz (1846-1916). Under the yoke of russian imperialism, the Poles of that time, who had risen up against them, were equated with the early persecuted Christians around Rome. The novel begins in the year 63 AD, and we attend the return of the tribune Marco Vinicio to a Rome under the psychotic shadow of the famous emperor Nero.
La film version most famously signed it Mervyn Leroy in 1952. It had a spectacular cast headed by Robert Taylor, Peter Ustinov, Leo Genn, and Deborah Kerr. That fire of Rome glossed over and sung by the delirious Nero of the great Peter Ustinov remains intact in our retinas.
Spartacus - Howard Fast
Howard melvin fast (1914-2003) was a very successful author and of police works, science fiction and fundamentally historical, in which he delves into social and political issues. Your affiliation with Communist party led him to prison and included him in the blacklist of artists during the "Witch hunt" Senator McCarthy, so he had to write under various pseudonyms.
The figure of Spartacus helped Fast to compose a emblematic work in the genre of the historical novel. He published it out of his own pocket in 1951, after the rejection of up to seven editorials. It is a great reflexión the power relations and the legitimacy of violence. It is also a perfect reproduction and psychological portrait of an era.
So ...
Yes, we will see them again. At Easter or whenever. But How about now we read them too?