Magical touches dance like highlights over the brilliance of this fairy tale about passion, gambling, madness, and androgynous ecstasy. In The Passion, Whitbread Award-winning author Jeanette Winterson delivers a 'historical novel quite different from any other' ( Vanity Fair ). Soon these two will meet their shared destiny in the chaotic carnival that is early 19th century Venice. Henri falls in love with her, though Villanelles heart is with another.

Together, they flee from the grande armee. Trust hasn't been her strong suit since her heart was stolen-literally-by a noblewoman she once loved. Jeanette Wintersons The Passion is an overtly metafictional novel that rewrites the story of the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte from the point of view of. In The Passion, the young Frenchman Henri, sent to fight in the Napoleonic wars, meets a Venetian woman with webbed feet, Villanelle, in Russia. The web-footed daughter of a Venetian boatman, Villanelle has long been acquainted with the advantages of dishonesty. 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. But when following his revered leader brings him to near-starvation in Russia's frozen winter, Henri is disillusioned and desperate for escape. This was the novel that finally brought Winterson fame, after the poorly received Boating for Beginners and a fascinating work it is.

After all, Henri is short-and no one over five-foot-two ever serves the emperor. A faithful soldier of the Grande Armée, Henri is given the honor of serving meals to Napoleon himself.

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 ).

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson