The Palace of the Rubber King (Tales at the speed of life Book 3)

Front Porch Books is a monthly tally of books--mainly advance review copies aka "uncorrected proofs" and "galleys" --I've received from publishers, but also sprinkled with packages from Book Mooch , Amazon and other sources. Because my dear friends, Mr. Cover art and opening lines may change before the book is finally released.

Baghdad, December 18, Posted by David Abrams at December 13, Anonymous December 13, at 3: David Abrams December 13, at 5: Newer Post Older Post Home. The Quivering Pen's motto can be summed up in two words: It is fueled by early-morning cups of coffee, the occasional bowl of Cheez-Its, and a lifelong love of good books.

Brave Deeds now on sale. Featured Post Front Porch Books: Follow Quivering Pen by Email. Follow me on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter. The power is pink. Look at the stone tablets-symbols on the 3 columns. Talk to the queen about the symbols. The symbols represents the 3 forms of water: Talk to the king sleeping on the ground leaning on the trunk of the tree.

Ivo being pregnant not by natural means - must be magic. Collect the waters for the magic mirror: Look at the moon well right of the queen. Exit through exit icon at bottom right corner of screen. Go back to Ivo's bedroom. Take the jug from the table. Go back to the throne room. Talk to the queen again after checking the moon water well. Ivo needs it for a potion - a beauty potion. Go down to the magic mirror. Pour the moonwell water into the bowl. One of the symbols is glowing.

Collect water that falls from the sky: Use the jug on the waterfall. Go to the magic mirror. Pour the waterfall water into the bowl. Two of the symbols are now glowing. Collect water that springs from the earth: Talk to Arbor about a certain kind of water. He gives water that came from him. Pour the ground water into the bowl. All symbols are now glowing. Get password from the magic mirror: Ivo talks to the magic mirror.

The magic mirror doesn't like stagnation; it gives someone a shove to move them in the right direction. Ivo will be involved in the fight against the epidemic in Seastone. The mirror does not want to talk about sex. Ivo guessed the password. They will see each other again in a flying town. Get info about transport: Look at the pond. Ivo says there are many things accumulated there. Maybe there is something useful. Get a Master Angler fishing hat. You can remove it in inventory. Go to the library and talk to Cheep-cheep. The bird shows a flight magazine to Ivo.

The article is about hippogriffs at Blue Mountain. The hippogriffs price is a pot of gold. Get a pot of gold: Take the carpentry book at top left shelf of the bookcase. Read and then take the Working with Wood book. It shows how to build furniture. Show the carpentry book to Arbor at the garden. It's a horror story for the Ent. Look at the happy willow. Part of it is covering the waterfall already. Use the carpentry book on the willow. Ivo reads a tree horror story. The willow is not happy anymore. Its branches droop down and the waterfall is exposed to the sun producing a rainbow.

Look at the rainbow. Look at the end of the rainbow on the ground by the Metus bush. Use the Arbor's shovel to dig at the end of the rainbow. Get a pot of gold. Talk to Arbor about the spade and hole. If Ivo is wearing the hat, learn that Arbor has been trying to get one for years. Get Cheep-cheep able to carry the pot of gold: Give strength to Cheep-cheep: Talk to Cheep-cheep about the pot of gold. The bird cannot carry the heavy pot.

Ivo says they have to make Cheep-cheep stronger. Go to the throne room. If you don't have sunflower seeds, get some from the plant at the balcony. Talk to father and show him the sunflower seeds. He sends a white ball into the seeds. Go back to Cheep-cheep at the library. Give the bird the magic sunflower seeds. Cheep-cheep flies around and takes the pot of gold. He flies out to the Hippogriff at Blue Mountain.

Exit to the garden. See Cheep-cheep fly back with a box. The bird drops it on the balcony. Look at the box. The stud has the hippogriff already in the box when the bid got there. Open the box and see a small pink hippogriff. Look at the demolished box. Ivo picks up a newspaper littering the floor of the box. She reads that the Arch Mage was murdered by Wilbur Weathervane.

Someone is responsible for the epidemic and is trying to hurt our friends. Ivo flies to Seastone. The young boy is rude to Wilbur. The young girl in pink dress likes Wilbur but her mother does not. Wilbur is asked questions that he cannot answer; like the name of the famous gnome magician. Wilbur automatically goes to the bedroom and have a panic attack.

Look at the old shoe by the "home" rug by door twice. Take the loose pages that was inside the shoe. Look at the ear trumpet on top of the door. Look around at the junk. Look at and take the package of pet food. Look at and open the magic set. Look at the magic contract under the window twice. Look at the family photo above the bed several times and the aviator glasses on right wall. Examine the teddy bear and the bed. Examine the magic stove. Look at and take the magic wand beside the magic ball.

Look at and use the magic ball to talk to Master Markus. Wilbur calls the wrong number. Get Fridolin off the notebook: Look at Fridolin the rabbitsheep 3 times. He's eating the notebook that has Master Markus number. Try to take the notebook. Give Fridolin some pet food. He still would not get off the notebook. Use the pet food on the bed. Wilbur spreads some pet food to lure Fridolin to get the pet food.

The smart rabbitsheep jumps to get the food to fly to him. Wilbur reads the empty box and realizes the food should have been soaked before feeding. Get empty dry food package. Take the bowl of water and give Fridolin a drink. Roll Fridolin to the side to take the nibbled notepad. Read the notebook in emergency. It has Master Markus' emergency number. Use the magic ball.

Master Markus gives motivational talk to Wilbur. Arch Mage Alistair is up for reelection. Asks about the gnome magician that held off the dragon Gremar. The gnome's name is unknown. Markus sold the magic school and is going on vacation to enjoy role playing games. Exit the room to go the classroom. As advised by Master Markus, Wilbur does magic. Wilbur takes the fairy spell from the podium, made magic and releases 5 "fairies". He dismisses the class. The mother of the young girl in pink outfit shoots one of the "fairies".

She is running against Arch Mage Alistair at the election. She is the Merchant Council leader. Headmaster Horatius Bloch will expose Wilbur's incompetency. She pushes campaign brochure on Wilbur. Learn that the "fairies" he produced are flying kobolds. Cybil Van Buren takes her daughter out of the school. Look at the campaign brochure left by Cybil on the left desk. Check the desks to learn about Chantal and Timmy.

Look and open the desk flap. Look at and then try to take Chantal's fairy tale book. See an automation spell etched inside the desk flap. Wilbur copies the spell. Look at the fish skeleton inside the dry tank. Take a sharp pointed fishbone from the fish skeleton. Look and then open the treasure chest. Get old coins from the chest.

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Look at the diagram on the board right of the exit. Look at the plant around the post and water pipe several times. It grabs a flying kobold. It also tries to take Wilbur. Try to approach the plant. It releases a gas cloud. Look at the oven twice and get loose book pages.

It seems that 5 more pages are missing. Look at the chemistry area by the oven and the cages suspended on the ceiling. Look at the flying kobold. Look at the book on the podium.

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Look at and read the roll book. Take the magic wand from the podium. Look at the magic apparatus right of the blackboard. It is the apparatus that corrupted Allerdyce. Look at the roll book again for reference about Allerdyce. Learn that Allerdyce made the fire maker apparatus and he was committed to an asylum because of that. Check the roll book again and learn that earlier they confiscated his papers and sent him the dungeon. His papers should be around yet. Exit the classroom through the door at left. The Arch Mage has sensed something evil-dark magic at the school, at lower town and upper town.

They will meet at inn afterwards. Check the floor and suit of armor. Look at the tapestry behind the armor several times. Get old magic thread. Look at the 2 levers left of the tapestry and armor. Use the lever s and see that they open and close the windows above the stairs. Look at the sheet of paper at left corner to get another loose page. Look at the 2 kobolds at top of the stairs. Take the loose dry boards from the stairs. Enter the classroom again and check the desk. See a package on the podium. It is a magic slate.

Wilbur thinks that the A on the card means the Arch Mage sent the package. Go right to the staff room and meet Headmaster Bloch. He doesn't think Wilbur has the proper credentials. After finding Wilbur's faults, he explains his tasks. Tomorrow Arch Mage Alistair will inaugurate the school.

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Wilbur is to help the caretaker hired by Van Buren to make the school presentable. Wilbur is to clean the floors and remove cobwebs; also get rid of the flying kobolds. Then he is to locate the missing library. See a file cabinet in front of Bloch's desk. Click on the alphabets to read the files on the students and employees in the school. Click on A and check Allerdyce file. Get a yellowed design drawing from his file. Look at the drawing in inventory. It says that you fill the fire maker with flammable gas and then ignite it using complicated technology. If you want read all the files.

Talk to Headmaster Bloch about the notes with small holes. Wilbur says that he has a binder for his spells. Bloch gives Wilbur an open spell to archive. Read the new spell in inventory to learn that it is for opening tabs, loops and the like. Look at the locked display case. The pride of place is for a Broom Ball tournament. Broom Ball is played with broomstick. Look at the clock with 10 hands above the fireplace. Look at the diagram right of the fireplace to learn about the Fireplace Travel Network, It shows which fireplaces are connected. One can travel from one fire to another fire. It shows that the staff room fireplace is connected to the library fireplace.

Wilbur needs fire and fireplace travel powder to use the network. Take the bellows below the diagram. There is firewood left of the fireplace that he is not allowed to use because they are school property. Look at and take the paper swan beside the door to get another book page. Get rid of the kobolds: Look at and then talk to the troll. The troll is a difficult creature. He found a penny on the door. He didn't like that because it wouldn't open. Kobolds at entrance hall: There are 3 kobolds left. Out of the 5 released, one was fried by Van Buren and the other was eaten by the plant in the classroom.

Talk to the troll again about the kobolds. The kobold sitting on the banister lands on the back of the troll. The troll hits his back smashing the kobold. The other kobold is located high above the entrance hall. Use the levers on the wall to open the window. The left lever opens the top window and the right lever opens the bottom window. Open the bottom window using the right lever. The kobold will fly and land on the top closed window.

Pull the left lever to open it and the kobold will be flipped to the open bottom window. Kobold 3 in the classroom: Go to the classroom. See that the kobold is kissing the picture of the princesses in Chantal's fairy tale book. Wilbur takes the fairy tale book. Use the fairy tale book on Chantal's desk to lure the kobold into a trap. Wilbur calls the kobold and places the book in the desk flap. The kobold is inside the trap.

Talk to the captive kobold. Wilbur opens the lid and was bitten. He inadvertently stuns the kobold. Wilbur places the kobold in the pencil case. Go back to entrance hall. Look at the front door at left. The door is made up of 3 doors: Unlock the display cabinet to get a broom: Use the old coin on the door to jam a coin on the door. Talk to the troll.

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The troll looks at the door. While he is checking the door, use the opening loops spell paper on the key ring on his belt. Wilbur casts the spell and the key ring drops on the floor. Pick up the key ring. Go to the display case in the staff room at right. Use the heavy key ring to unlock the display case. Go back to the entrance hall. Use the broom to sweep the floor. Wilbur realizes the problem inherent in manually sweeping the floor. He drops the broom on the floor. Use the automation spell with the broom to enchant the broom.

Look at the broom. Get the fireplace travel powder: Remember that the staff room fireplace is next to the library fireplace. Wilbur needs fire and fireplace travel powder to use the Fireplace Travel Network. Go to staff room and talk to Bloch about the caretaker and then the tasks. The floor are swept and the kobolds removed. Ask about the fireplace map concerning the Fireplace Travel Network. Bloch shows his fireplace travel powder but would not give it to Wilbur.

Use the bad tempered kobold in the pencil case on Bloch. Bloch swats the kobold. Wilbur takes a pile of fireplace travel powder. Make a fire at the fireplace. Try to use the firewood in the fireplace and Bloch stops Wilbur from using the school's property. Use the dry boards taken from entrance hall stairs in the fireplace. They're just a few old boards. Better to burn them than throw them away.

Put empty dry food package into the fireplace. All it needs is fire now. Go to entrance hall and try to stop-disenchant the broom. Right click and try to disenchant the broom. Review Alledyce's yellowed design drawing. Approach the carnivorous plant on the column. It releases the green stinky gas. Use the bellow from the staff room on the green gas. Activate the fire machine: Use the gas-filled bellows on the fire machine. Use the nibbled notepad on the apparatus. Wilbur cuts the notepad into pieces.

One of the strips is lit. Double click the exit of the classroom. Double click the exit to staff room. Light a paper when the paper seems to be burned out. Walk a few steps towards the room. Light another paper and so on until the fireplace. Take the lit strip in inventory and use it to light the prepared wood-paper in the fireplace. A fire is made. Explore the missing library: Travel through the network: Use the fireplace travel powder on the fire. The fire turns green and is cool. Enter the fireplace and be in the library.

Wilbur hears something in the library. He's held down by talking books. Talk to the books on top of him. The books are acting confused and scared. Wilbur stands and the books are flung away. Wilbur wants to find out what is wrong. Look at and take the fire spell note from the mouth of the bear rug on the floor. Take the doily from the box right of the bear rug. Check the drawer of the desk to see that it is empty. Look at the books on the shelves and then speak to the books by the desk.

Look up to check the other books at upper floor. Look at the wall that looks like a door. Fix the loose book pages: Look twice at the desk to get a close up of the desk. Look at the jellyglowfish that is the source of light at top left.

Take a loose book page at bottom right. Look at the broken book and get another loose page. Wilbur decides to fix the book to prove to the other books that he means no harm. Check the loose pages in inventory to see how many pages are still missing. There is one page still missing. The magic slate gives information. The pages can be sewn together to form quires. Then they are glued together using paste, glue or troll snot. Make a new fire to exit the library: Take the empty drawer and place it inside the fireplace.

Add nibbled notepad to the fireplace. Use the fire spell on the fireplace to light the wood. Add the travel powder. That was the last of the powder. Get paste or snot: Go to entrance hall. Use the doily on troll. Wilbur used reverse psychology to get sticky troll snot. Get the last loose page: Go back to staff room.

Talk to Bloch about tasks and the library. Bloch wants the library to be accessible through a door. Bloch has a loose page to return to the library. Continue to talk to get a loose page. During this time, Malluch has bought the old Hur house and renovated it. He invites Simonides and Balthasar, with their daughters, to live in the house with him.

Judah Ben-Hur seldom visits, but the day before Jesus plans to enter Jerusalem and proclaim himself, Judah returns. He tells all who are in the house of what he has learned while following Jesus. Amrah realizes that Judah's mother and sister could be healed, and brings them from a cave where they are living. The next day, the three await Jesus by the side of a road and seek his healing.

Amid the celebration of his Triumphal Entry , Jesus heals the women. When they are cured, they reunite with Judah. Several days later, Iras talks with Judah, saying he has trusted in a false hope, for Jesus had not started the expected revolution. She says that it is all over between them, saying she loves Messala. Ben-Hur remembers the "invitation of Iras" that led to the incident with Thord, and accuses Iras of betraying him.

That night, he resolves to go to Esther. While lost in thought, he notices a parade in the street and falls in with it. He notices that Judas Iscariot , one of Jesus' disciples, is leading the parade, and many of the temple priests and Roman soldiers are marching together. They go to the olive grove of Gethsemane , and he sees Jesus walking out to meet the crowd. Understanding the betrayal, Ben-Hur is spotted by a priest who tries to take him into custody; he breaks away and flees.

Although originally acquitted, Jesus has been sentenced to crucifixion at the crowd's demand. Ben-Hur is shocked at how his supporters have deserted Christ in his time of need. They head to Calvary , and Ben-Hur resigns himself to watch the crucifixion of Jesus. Ben-Hur offers Jesus wine vinegar to return Jesus' favor to him, and soon after that Jesus utters his last cry. Judah and his friends commit their lives to Jesus, realizing He was not an earthly king, but a heavenly King and a Savior of mankind. Five years after the crucifixion, Ben-Hur and Esther have married and had children.

The family lives in Misenum. Iras visits Esther and tells her she has killed Messala, discovering that the Romans were brutes. She also implies that she will attempt suicide. After Esther tells Ben-Hur of the visit, he tries unsuccessfully to find Iras. A Samaritan uprising in Judaea is harshly suppressed by Pontius Pilate, and he is ordered back to Rome a decade after authorizing the crucifixion of Jesus. In the 10th year of Emperor Nero 's reign, Ben-Hur is staying with Simonides, whose business has been extremely successful.

With Ben-Hur, the two men have given most of the fortunes to the church of Antioch. Now, as an old man, Simonides has sold all his ships but one, and that one has returned for probably its final voyage. Learning that the Christians in Rome are suffering at the hands of Emperor Nero, Ben-Hur and his friends decide to help. Ben-Hur, Esther, and Malluch sail to Rome, where they decided to build an underground church.

It will survive through the ages and comes to be known as the Catacomb of Callixtus. Ben-Hur is the romantic story of a fictional nobleman named Judah Ben-Hur, who tries to save his family from misfortune and restore honor to the family name, while earning the love of a modest female Jew named Esther.

It is also a tale of vengeance and spiritual forgiveness that includes themes of Christian redemption and God's benevolence through the compassion of strangers. A popular theme with readers during Gilded Age America, when the novel was first published, was the idea of achieving prosperity through piety. In Ben-Hur , this is portrayed through Judah's rise from poverty to great wealth, the challenges he faces to his virtuous nature, and the rich rewards he receives, both materially and spiritually, for his efforts.

Wallace's adventure story is told from the perspective of Judah Ben-Hur. Ben-Hur "maintains a respect for the underlying principles of Judaism and Christianity". The Christian world would not tolerate a novel with Jesus Christ its hero, and I knew it He should not be present as an actor in any scene of my creation. The giving a cup of water to Ben-Hur at the well near Nazareth is the only violation of this rule I would be religiously careful that every word He uttered should be a literal quotation from one of His sainted biographers.

Wallace only used dialogue from the King James Bible for Jesus's words. He also created realistic scenes involving Jesus and the main fictional character of Judah, and included a detailed physical description of the Christ, which was not typical of 19th-century biblical fiction. The historical novel is filled with romantic and heroic action, including meticulously detailed and realistic descriptions of its landscapes and characters.

Wallace strove for accuracy in his descriptions, including several memorable action scenes, the most famous of which was the chariot race at Antioch. An Historical Play that was never produced. He went on to publish several more novels and biographies, including The Prince of India; or, Why Constantinople Fell , a biography of President Benjamin Harrison in , and The Wooing of Malkatoon , but Ben-Hur remained his most significant work and best-known novel.

Wallace cited one inspiration for Ben-Hur , recounting his life-changing journey and talk with Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll , a well-known agnostic and public speaker, whom he met on a train when the two were bound for Indianapolis on September 19, Ingersoll invited Wallace to join him in his railroad compartment during the trip. The two men debated religious ideology, and Wallace left the discussion realizing how little he knew about Christianity.

He became determined to do his own research to write about the history of Christ. He developed the novel from his own exploration of the subject. The Dumas novel was based on the memoirs of an early 19th-century French shoemaker who was unjustly imprisoned and spent the rest of his life seeking revenge. He explained in his autobiography that, while he was writing Ben-Hur , "the Count of Monte Cristo in his dungeon of stone was not more lost to the world. Other writers have viewed Ben-Hur within the context of Wallace's own life. Hanson compares Wallace's real-life experience in battle, battle tactics, combat leadership, and jealousies among American Civil War military commanders to those of Wallace's fictional character of Judah, whose unintentional injury to a high-ranking military commander leads to further tragedy and suffering for the Ben-Hur family.

Wallace made some controversial command decisions , and he delayed in arriving on the battlefield during the first day of the battle of Shiloh , when Grant's Union army sustained heavy casualties. This created a furor in the North, damaged Wallace's military reputation, and drew accusations of incompetence. John Swansburg, deputy editor of Slate , suggests that the chariot race between the characters of Judah and Messala may have been based on a horse race which Wallace reportedly ran and won against Grant some time after the battle of Shiloh.

The event may have been a Wallace family legend, but the novel which includes the action-packed chariot race made Wallace a wealthy man and established his reputation as a famous author and sought-after speaker. Wallace was determined to make the novel historically accurate and did extensive research on the Middle East that related to the time period covered in his novel. However, he did not travel to Rome or the Holy Land until after its publication. To establish an authentic background for his story, Wallace gathered references on Roman history, as well as the geography, culture, language, customs, architecture, and daily life in the ancient world from libraries across the United States.

He also studied the Bible. Wallace intended to identify the plants, birds, names, architectural practices, and other details. I wrote with a chart always before my eyes—a German publication showing the towns and villages, all sacred places, the heights, the depressions, the passes, trails, and distances.

An example of Wallace's attention to detail is his description of the fictional chariot race and its setting at the arena in Antioch. Using a literary style that addressed his audience directly, Wallace wrote:. Let the reader try to fancy it; let him first look down on the arena, and see it glistening in its frame of dull-gray granite walls; let him then, in this perfect field, see the chariots, light of wheel, very graceful, and ornate as paint and burnishing can make them It is ironic that an acclaimed biblical novel, [56] one that would rival the Bible in popularity during the Gilded Age , was inspired by a discussion with a noted agnostic and written by an author who was never a member of any church.

Wallace claimed that when he began writing Ben-Hur , he was not "in the least influenced by religious sentiment" and "had no convictions about God or Christ", [41] [56] but he was fascinated by the biblical story of the three magi's journey to find Jesus, king of the Jews. After extensive studies of the Bible and the Holy Land, and well before he had completed the novel, Wallace became a believer in God and Christ. In the very beginning, before distractions overtake me, I wish to say that I believe absolutely in the Christian conception of God.

As far as it goes, this confession is broad and unqualified, and it ought and would be sufficient were it not that books of mine— Ben-Hur and The Prince of India —have led many persons to speculate concerning my creed I am not a member of any church or denomination, nor have I ever been.

Not that churches are objectionable to me, but simply because my freedom is enjoyable, and I do not think myself good enough to be a communicant. Most of the book was written during Wallace's spare time in the evening, while traveling, and at home in Crawfordsville, Indiana , where he often wrote outdoors during the summer, sitting under a favorite beech tree near his home.

The tree has since that time been called the Ben-Hur Beech. In March , Wallace copied the final manuscript of Ben-Hur in purple ink as a tribute to the Christian season of Lent. He took a leave of absence from his post as New Mexico's territorial governor and traveled to New York City to deliver it to his publisher. On April 20, Wallace personally presented the manuscript to Joseph Henry Harper of Harper and Brothers, who accepted it for publication. At the time of Ben-Hur' s publication, the idea of presenting Christ and the Crucifixion in a fictional novel was a sensitive issue.

Wallace's depiction of Christ could have been considered by some as blasphemy , but the quality of his manuscript and his assurances that he had not intended to offend Christians with his writing overcame the publisher's reservations. A bold experiment to make Christ a hero that has been often tried and always failed. When Lew Wallace's Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ first appeared in , it was bound in a cadet blue-gray cloth with floral decorations on the front cover, spine, and back cover. It was copyrighted October 12, , and published November 12th as noted in a letter to Wallace from Harper dated November 13, The earliest autographed copy noted bears Wallace's inscription dated November 17, , in the collection of the Indiana Historical Society Library.

The first printed review appeared in The New York Times , November 14, , and noted that it is "printed and in the hands of book dealers. According to Russo and Sullivan, Mrs. Wallace objected to the floral decorative cloth. She wrote to Harper on January 3, , in answer to a question about the true first edition: The first edition was issued in a series which the Harpers were then publishing.

It was 16mo form, bound in cadet-blue cloth, and decorated with clusters of flowers in red, blue, and green on the front cover and a vase of flowers in the same colors on the back cover. The lettering on the cover is black. Harpers apparently retaliated at Susan Wallace's objections over the binding. In the next two binding states all first editions , the text was bound in drab, brown mesh cloth seen occasionally today as a faded gray over beveled boards [Binding State 2] and brown pebbled cloth over beveled boards [Binding State 3].

The book is dedicated "To the Wife of My Youth". This dedication appears in the first printing run of about 5, copies, all either in the first edition, first state binding, or in two alternate bindings. I laughed at first, but the condolences multiplied until finally I told the good woman that having got me into the trouble she must now get me out, which she did by adding the words--'Who still abides with me.

Initial sales of Ben-Hur were slow, only 2, copies were sold in the first seven months, but within two years, the book had become popular among readers. Hart explained that by the turn of the century, "If every American did not read the novel, almost everyone was aware of it. Within 20 years of its publication, Ben-Hur was "second only to the Bible as the best-selling book in America", and remained in second position until Margaret Mitchell 's Gone With the Wind surpassed it.