The Passion

British author Jeannette Winterson reimagines events from Napoleon Bonaparte’s reign in her 1987 novel The Passion. The novel is a work of historical metafiction that follows Henri, a young French soldier, and Villanelle, a vivacious Venetian, as they navigate war and love in early 19th-century Europe.

The Passion begins in Henri’s voice; he’s a young, bright-eyed soldier in Napoleon’s army who dreamed of being a drummer but is assigned to cook instead. After coming to the rescue when the head cook is too drunk to perform his duties, Napoleon commends Henri’s skill and demands that Henri wait on him personally. Henri becomes responsible for quelling Napoleon’s great appetite for chicken. Enthralled by Napoleon’s charisma, Henri ignores Napoleon’s despotic behavior. Looking back, Henri notes the rising support of Napoleon and how he symbolized France’s ambition for itself.

While camped at Boulogne, Henri befriends a horse keeper, Domino, and Patrick, a defrocked priest removed from the church for spying on naked women. In 1804, after 2,000 men are killed in an avoidable accident, Henri begins to doubt Napoleon’s motives. Now 20 years old, Henri rings in the New Year of 1805 riddled with guilt over the mass deaths and questioning his faith.

Meanwhile in Venice, androgynous beauty Villanelle falls in love with a mysterious woman she meets at a casino. The daughter a boatman born with webbed feet, Villanelle cross-dresses for a living at the casino. The two women become lovers, meeting while the woman’s husband is away. Despite her mistrust of matters of the heart, Villanelle falls in love with the woman, who she affectionately calls the Queen of Spades, referring to her luck at the card table. However, on New Year’s Eve 1804, Villanelle happens upon the Queen of Spades and her husband sharing an intimate moment. She realizes the couple shares a love that she and the Queen of Spades will never have.

Henri and Villanelle meet in Russia, where Henri is camped with Napoleon’s fading army and where Villanelle works as a prostitute. The pair plus Patrick agree to escape Russia for Italy. As Henri travels through Europe, he notes that the people he has been trained to see as monsters are actually regular people. His disdain for Napoleon rises. On the way to Italy, Villanelle reveals the rest of her story: She continued her affair with the Queen of Spades for nine nights before realizing it was hopeless, married a fat, mean gambler in order to leave Venice, and traveled with him for two years before stealing his money and running. Villanelle successfully hid from her husband for three years until she returned to Venice. Her husband found her and sold her into prostitution.

After Patrick’s sudden death, Henri and Villanelle continue traveling until they reach Italy. Villanelle agrees to hide Henri in Venice if he will take back Villanelle’s heart from inside the Queen of Spades’s house. The repossession is successful, and Villanelle’s heart is safely returned to her chest. However, during the course of their journey Henri fell in love with Villanelle. Upon receiving her heart, Henri asks Villanelle to marry him. She says that she cannot give him her heart. He replies that he is not asking for it. Villanelle says she cannot be with someone to whom she cannot give her heart.

While visiting the casino one night, Henri and Villanelle run into Villanelle’s husband. Henri discovers that her husband is also the disgruntled, drunk cook from early in his military career. When her husband moves to grasp Villanelle, Villanelle throws Henri her knife. Henri stabs her husband to death. Villanelle walks on water to discard the bloodstained boats, revealing her webbed feet to Henri for the first time.

Henri confesses to the cook’s murder and is sentenced to lifetime imprisonment at a mental institution. Villanelle is pregnant with Henri’s child but does not wish to marry Henri. She buys a home opposite the Queen of Spades. Though the Queen’s husband is now gone, Villanelle chooses not to renew the affair. She boards up her house, moves, and opts for a more stable life. However, she admits that she will most likely gamble her heart again.

Villanelle vows to help Henri return to France, but when the day comes for Henri to leave, he refuses. He claims to hear the voices of the dead. Villanelle believes he has gone mad, but Henri clarifies that he does not want to leave the mental health ward because he does not want to be alone. He prefers to stay where he is safe and where he can watch Villanelle from a distance, though he no longer answers her letters or visits due to his broken heart.