History and Mystery Reads

Rating: 5/10

• Accuracy: Loosely anchored in the first-century Christian world; mostly invention, inspired by a real artefact, the Antioch Chalice.
• Readability: Easy but slow; long speeches and pious scenes dilute the adventure.
• Plot: A young silversmith’s commission to encase the cup of the Last Supper leads him through Jerusalem, Rome and many dangers.

Basil, a gifted young silversmith in Antioch, is cheated of his inheritance and sold into slavery. Rescued by followers of Jesus, he is commissioned to make a silver chalice to hold the plain cup used at the Last Supper, decorated with the faces of the apostles. To do it he must travel, find them, and model their likenesses before persecution scatters them.

It is an appealing premise, and Costain, a Canadian journalist turned popular historian, knew how to structure adventure. There are chases and disguises, a villainous magician in Simon Magus, a dangerous beauty in Helena, and a devoted heroine in Deborra. The inspiration was the Antioch Chalice, an ornate silver cup now at the Metropolitan Museum, once promoted as a holy relic and now generally dated much later.

The problems are tone and pace. Much of the book consists of characters explaining their faith to one another in formal, elevated speech. The apostles are sympathetic but static. Basil’s inner life is thin, and the romance runs along predictable rails. The religious message, sincere as it is, leaves little room for doubt.

The novel topped American bestseller lists in 1953, riding the same postwar appetite for biblical epics that made The Robe a phenomenon. The 1954 film gave Paul Newman his first screen role; years later he bought a newspaper advertisement apologising for it.

The 5 is fair. The book is competent and occasionally exciting, but it reads as a product of its moment, and the moment has passed.