The Passion
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4.2 • 25 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The New York Times–bestselling author interweaves the destinies of Napoleon’s cook and an enigmatic Venetian woman in this “arresting, elegant novel” (Publishers Weekly).
A faithful soldier of the Grande Armée, Henri is given the honor of serving meals to Napoleon himself. After all, Henri is short—and no one over five-foot-two ever serves the emperor. But when following his revered leader brings him to near-starvation in Russia’s frozen winter, Henri is disillusioned and desperate for escape.
The web-footed daughter of a Venetian boatman, Villanelle has long been acquainted with the advantages of dishonesty. Trust hasn’t been her strong suit since her heart was stolen—literally—by a noblewoman she once loved.
Soon these two will meet their shared destiny in the chaotic carnival that is early 19th century Venice. In The Passion, Whitbread Award-winning author Jeanette Winterson delivers a “historical novel quite different from any other” (Vanity Fair).
“Recalls García Márquez . . . Magical touches dance like highlights over the brilliance of this fairy tale about passion, gambling, madness, and androgynous ecstasy.” —Edmund White
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This arresting, elegant novel by the author of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit uses Napoleon's Europe as the setting for a tantalizing surrealistic romance between an observer of history and a creature of fantasy. Henri is a naive French soldier who works in Bonaparte's kitchen and worships the conqueror until his starving and diseased army begins to crumble. Disillusioned and longing to escape a desolate posting in the Russian winter, the young man meets and falls in love with Villanelle, a mysterious Venetian hoping to retrieve her own heart, which has literally been stolen and imprisoned by a noblewoman she once loved. Passiondescribed by the manipulative Villanelle as "somewhere between fear and sex''leads Henri on a desperate quest away from his beliefs and into an emotional labyrinth from which he may be unable to return. The slender story is sometimes lost in the strange brew of myth, fact and modernism, but British author Winterson's assured proseparticularly her stunning evocations of a glacial Russia and a decadent nighttime Venicedoes much to unify her unsettling tale.
Customer Reviews
A Delight that You Probably Don’t Want to Miss
This is one of my all time favorite books. I return to it again and again as the years have passed since I first read it as a college student. It struck every chord in my wild heart. Each character felt instantly familiar. Their wisdoms and follies were the life I dreamed of having, in some way, in my own way, which I had yet to live. Now, in my mid 50’s, the beauty of this book is different to me, yet no less inspiring; the characters old friends that know me as well as I know them. Trust me. I’m telling you stories.