“In that house, you will find my heart. You must break in, Henri, and get it back for me.' Was she mad? We had been talking figuratively. Her heart was in her body like mine. I tried to explain this to her, but she took my hand and put it against her chest. Feel for yourself.” The Passion is the story of Henri, a young Frenchman sent to fight in the Napoleonic wars. It is also the story of Villanelle, a red-haired Venetian woman, daughter of a boatman, born with webbed feet. Their paths cross...

Forgive me for this: there are few books I find myself loving with a passion these days, and this may just be one of them. To think it sat on my shelf for years before I picked it up. The Passion is Angela Carter meets Beryl Bainbridge, but it lacks the bawdy humor present in these ladies' books. It doesn't lack humor, but it treats its subject--love--with great seriousness. Is love worthy of such seriousness? I guess I tend to take a plenty of fish in the sea view, but makes for a nice story, a...

"Gambling is not a vice, it is an expression of our humanness. We gamble. Some do it at the gaming table, some do not. You play, you win, you play, you lose. You play." Jeanette Winterson is one of those authors I am constantly surprised at. "The Passion" is my favourite so far (update: before reading Sexing the Cherry, which is even more fascinating). There is something magical in her way of weaving the stories of her characters, and showing different angles of the central theme: passion. I do ...

Dans le Noir“A blind pedlar… never spilt his stew or missed his mouth the way I did. ‘I can see,’ he said, ‘but I don’t use my eyes.’”I recently ate unknown food, served in total darkness, by blind waiters. It was an intense and disorienting experience. Boundaries break down: you touch the stranger who guides you to your seat, talk to invisible people sitting beside you (how un-English!), can’t judge or be judged by looks or clothing, and are tempted to eat with your fingers, despite the cutlery...

‘You play, you win, you play, you lose. You play.’For over a decade I’ve referred to this novel as a favorite and upon a reread I have reaffirmed this statement while also finding a new depth and enjoyment beyond my already heartfelt appreciation for Winterson’s work. ‘The Passion’ is an incredible epic in miniature, weaving together the fates of Henri, a soldier in Napoleon’s army, with that of Villanelle, a Venetian gambler who is the daughter of a boatman all in under 200 pages of prose that ...

There is little I can say about this book that does not border on gushing, but I'll try. The Passion is perhaps one of the most amazing stories I have ever read. It is not so much a novel as a journey through the mind and soul of Henri and Villanelle, through the real and ephemeral Venice, through history and imagination. While containing a solid narrative, it delves into the psyche and spirit of the writer and her characters. Read it once and you are trapped. Read it twice and you gladly relinq...

In this tale of passion, Jeanette Winterson contrasts two characters bringing into view the shaded nuances of differing sides of passion. Henri is a boy from the French countryside; his people are slow to love, lukewarm. He lacks confidence and represents innocence. It takes the fire of Napoleon’s war to stir his passion but when stirred it will adhere him to Napoleon’s side for eight long years and lead to the fateful winter of 1812. Nearly a million soldiers and civilians are left dead within ...

4.5 stars“Somewhere between fear and sex passion is. Passion is not so much an emotion as a destiny.”Reading Jeanette Winterson’s prose is like soaking in the most luxurious bath. It’s warm and sensuous and leaves me feeling a bit light-headed once I’ve finished. It’s difficult to describe her writing. The one word that comes to mind immediately is magical. Of the four pieces I’ve read so far, the plot seems secondary to the prose, until I’ve finished. Then all of a sudden I’m able to see the be...

"Lovers are not at their best when it matters. Mouths dry up, palms sweat, conversation flags, and all the time the heart is threatening to fly from the body once and for all. Lovers have been known to have heart attacks. Lovers drink too much from nervousness and cannot perform. They eat too little and faint during their fervently wished consummation. They do not stroke the favored cat and their face-paint comes loose. This is not all. Whatever you have set store by, your dress, your dinner, yo...

Jeanette Winterson pops up from time to time on BBC political debate programmes and she is like a laser beam of sensibleness, from a decidedly rad-lesbian perspective she cuts through the waffle and she's a joy to hear, Germaine Greer's punkier young sister maybe. But in her books she goes off on one, to coin a British phrase :to go off on one (Brit; colloq.)to suddenly become very angry and start shouting or behaving violently, as inHe went off on one because he thought I was threatening his do...