Henri is still a cook but is no longer enamoured of Napoleon. Our two heroes meet in Venice and again in Russia. When she reveals her true sex, the queen says that she knew all along. But is there passion? Passion, I spit on it, she says. Villanelle, as a young man, starts an affair with the Queen of Spades who is married but whose husband is away. At the same time she meets a man who supplies meat and horses to the French army and is clearly the cook of the first part. Villanelle is bisexual, a lover of the night and likes to dress as a man and it is as a man that she meets the Queen of Spades, with whom she falls in love. The midwife tries to cut off the webs but cannot so she keeps them. Villanelle’s father was a boatman and she has inherited webbed feet and the ability to walk on water, something that had never happened to a girl before. The second part introduces us to Villanelle who lives in Venice, a city, Winterson tells us, of mazes and of dark intrigue. Unfortunately, the cook, for whom he works, is a nasty, aggressive and large man.

Henri is a sensitive, delicate and religious man. Indeed, he has worked directly for Napoleon. This section is narrated by Henri, a chef who is kept busy cooking chicken for the great man but has a passion of his own, a passion for Napoleon. The story is set during the Napoleonic period and we are introduced to passion in the very first sentence – Napoleon’s passion for chicken. It uses magic realism, a deft interweaving of different stories which some may describe as fairy stories and a witty but well told exposition of the concept of passion. This was the novel that finally brought Winterson fame, after the poorly received Boating for Beginners and a fascinating work it is. Home » England » Jeanette Winterson » The Passion Jeanette Winterson: The Passion

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson