Book review: The Passion by Jeanette Winterson

The only book I read in June was The Passion by Jeanette Winterson. I picked it up because it sounded interesting. It's set during the Napoleonic wars, aka Regency times, and part of the book takes place in Venice, which I love and have been to. It also sounded kind of mysterious and magical. Here is the summary, from both the back of this book and Amazon:

Set during the tumultuous years of the Napoleonic Wars, The Passion intertwines the destinies of two remarkable people: Henri, a simple French soldier, who follows Napoleon from glory to Russian ruin; and Villanelle, the red-haired, web-footed daughter of a Venetian boatman, whose husband has gambled away her heart. In Venice’s compound of carnival, chance, and darkness, the pair meet their singular destiny.

Right off the bat, I can tell you that I don't like this summary. Whoever wrote it did not read the book that thoroughly. The most glaring example is that the summary says that Villanelle's husband gambled away her heart. This is not true: he gambled away her body. Because he lost at cards, the husband had to give Villanelle to his opponent to work as a "comfort woman" to Napoleon's troops. That is how she and Henri meet. Also, I don't think it's right to give away that Villanelle has webbed feet in the summary, when the book itself is very secretive about it. It gives away the surprise reveal in the last part of the book. The summary makes it sound like Henri and Villanelle meet by chance in Venice. They actually meet in Russia when both decide to run away from the doomed military enterprise (Russia in winter? Does no one ever think?), and Villanelle takes Henri to Venice to hide from Napoleon's men.

As you will have guessed, this book does not shy away from the ugliness of life or war. There was a lot of horrible stuff mentioned, and while I will not list it all, I would apply trigger warnings for explicit sexual scenarios (including non-consensual), forced prostitution, a mention of gang rape, murder, blood, gore, violence, mentions of abandoned feral children, starvation, animal death, and that's all I can think of right now. 

While I liked Henri and Villanelle individually, I don't think I really liked them together as a couple. Villanelle can do so much better than Henri, and she doesn't even feel that way towards him. I am tired of reading/seeing couple pairings that happen just because the guy is in love with the girl. I was also displeased at the ending. After all that suffering and misery, there is no happy ending for the two of them. Villanelle refuses to marry Henri (despite having a child with him) and he goes mad in an insane asylum. Like what? Why? 

However, this was really good and rather beautifully written. If you can stomach all of the ugliness listed above and like the historical setting and topics, I would recommend this book. I liked the Venice setting and events and magical fantasy stuff, such as Villanelle literally losing her heart to a married woman and Henri having to find it before Villanelle is held in thrall. The summary writer probably got this part of the book confused with Villanelle's husband's gambling problem. I also love Villanelle's name; it is a poetic form I learned about in college. (Parents, do not get any ideas.)

The above cover is the one my copy has, and it's ok. Obviously the cards are due to Villanelle's job before she's gambled away, and the mask is because it takes place in Venice. I don't think I've ever seen a book with the author's picture on the front (apart from important literary people like C.S. Lewis). I didn't realize this when I bought the book, but Jeanette Winterson is an important lesbian/LGBT+  writer. I'm not a huge fan of the cover art, but all the other covers were just as bad if not worse. A lot of them featured chickens since Henri works plucking and preparing chickens for Napoleon and apparently the artists only read up to that point in the book.


Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: early June
From: the thrift store
Format: paperback
Status: idk I might give it away at some point