The Fair God or, the Last of the 'Tzins (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

The man who would go on to write Ben-Hur, the best-selling novel of the 19th century, began his literary career with The Fair God, an adventurous and romantic chronicle of the invasion of the Aztec empire by the Spaniards. Inspired in part by his service in the Mexican War and later by his government service in Mexico, Wallace developed and refined the novel over the course of a quarter century.