The Coat Without Seam

by Maurice Baring

The story of a miraculous relic, believed to be a piece of the seamless coat won by a soldier on Mount Golgotha after Jesus of Nazareth’s crucifixion, captivates young Christopher Trevenen after his sister dies tragically and motivates the very core of his existence from then on, culminating in a profound and tragic realisation.

Genres: Catholic, Classics

309 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Maurice Baring OBE (27 April 1874 – 14 December 1945) was an English man of letters, known as a dramatist, poet, novelist, translator and essayist, and also as a travel writer and war correspondent, with particular knowledge of Russia. During World War I, Baring served in the Intelligence Corps and Royal Air Force.

Reviews

[Steve Vetsch · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book by a sadly overlooked author. A friend of Belloc and Chesterton, and the author of over 50 books! Tells the tale of a man who spends his life running from God. Baring focuses mostly on creating characters that are very memorable. I recommend it.

[Josephine (Jo) · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is so difficult reviewing a book that has so far had such glowing reviews when you do not entirely agree, I feel a little guilty that I did not find it so great a read as others, however, I shall do my best to be honest and maybe someone out there will agree with me. There is no doubt that the book is very well written.
I think my initial disappointment was that the story was not as described on the book cover as the story of the coat without seam worn by Our Lord on the day He was crucified. Although the story of the coat is mentioned several times in the book the story is actually a life story of a man called Christopher Trevenen.
At the age of ten, Christopher's sister is tragically killed and from then on he becomes a different person, he carries a massive chip on his shoulder and believes that everyone is looking down upon him. Although Christopher has been brought up as a Catholic he turns away from the faith and readily proclaims at regular intervals that he does not believe. He falls in love easily and the ladies are always really nice kind people but Christopher always finds a way to spoil things by imagining some slight or something that he perceives as unkind being said by his girlfriend, it is as if he has to destroy his own chances at happiness by accusing people who are completely innocent. In some cases, he is dreadfully unkind to the girls writing vitriolic letters telling them how much they have wronged him and he even goes so far as to insult and accuse their families.
During his life, Christopher travels extensively continually searching for the elusive love and faith that he has lost.
Because of the abrasive and self-pitying nature of the central character, I found the book hard going and I would still prefer to have read about the coat without seam as the main story.

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found Christopher (the main character) unsympathetic. He is one of those persons who think they are mistreated by everybody, who make mistakes and always put the blame in others. He ruins his own life and that of other characters. Practically to the end, he is unable to forgive, even when he is asked forgiveness at the point of death. Of the other characters, I specially liked Esther.

I was surprised that Christopher was so seductive for women that whenever he tried to establish a liaison, his love was returned. In fact, sometimes the woman speaks first :-) I think in real life this is usually not the case, especially when there are so many women (five) because all of the love stories have a sad end, as in this novel.

I wonder whether the author assigned intentionally the names of several secondary characters, such as "Altamura" (High walls in Italian), "Wildenspruch" (Wild sentence, or wild jugement in German), "Turçin" (a Servo-Croatian word for Turk), "Sackbut" (a wind instrument), "Suckling" or "Lawless." In fact, some of them seem appropriate to their behavior. Altamura, for instance, is like a high wall enclosing Mrs. D'Alberg.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was completely enthralled by this book, finishing it in 2 days. While the main character (Christopher) trashes his life at every opportunity, I felt a great sympathy for him and thought that Baring had crafted an interesting character. In fact, most of the characters were interesting and multi-dimensional. I enjoyed the interweaving of the story of Jesus’ seamless coat and how it figured in the ending, which felt a bit abrupt- but perhaps apropos. A great read by a somewhat forgotten author.