Winterson, Jeanette (9 October 2009). "The story of my Spitalfields home". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on 13 January 2019 . Retrieved 12 January 2019– via www.thetimes.co.uk.

Jaggi, Maya (28 May 2004). "Redemption songs". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 15 January 2013 . Retrieved 23 November 2019. Winterson is a master of her material, a writer in whom great talent deeply abides." — Vanity Fair First published to great acclaim in 1987, this arresting, elegant novel from Jeanette Winterson uses Napolean’s Europe as the setting for a tantalizing surrealistic romance between an observer of history and a creature of fantasy. Jeanette Winterson’s novels have established her as one of the most important young writers in world literature. The Passion is perhaps her most highly acclaimed work, a modern classic that confirms her special claim on the novel. 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. The Passion is quite an emotional read and although I was not a fan of Henri’s POV, I could understand his obsession with romantic love and its transforming powers. I think we see that in Winterson’s other books, it was just weird to read it from a male perspective. Villanelle is the enchanting daughter of a Venetian boatman, working the casinos of this otherworldly city. She dresses as a boy to please the patrons of the gambling floor while assisting the dealers and lifting the wallets of the unsuspecting on the side. A dangerous love affair eventually catches up to her and Villanelle is the one that finds something precious has been stolen from her. Villanelle, the gambler who loses her heart to the Queen of Spades, might be described as bisexual, although her fluidity and her cross-dressing subvert gender identities and boundaries not in the sense of hiding one’s sex, but in the way of challenging the male/female, truth/disguise, inner/outer binaries. I can see where the narrative voice of Written on the Body came about. It makes me want to reread it!

Retailers:

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 in Moscow and together, they flee from the grande armee and make their way to Venice. If the love was passion, the hate will be obsession. A need to see the once-loved weak and cowed and beneath pity. Disgust is close and dignity is far away. The hate is not only for the once-loved, it’s for yourself too; how could you have ever loved this?’ Don't Protect Me - Respect Me". Richard Dimbleby Lecture. Episode 42. 6 June 2018. BBC One. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018 . Retrieved 8 June 2018.

Henri writes ‘ If we had the courage to love we would not so value these acts of war.’ In his youth he wished to have passion for religion and a belief in god. ‘ Surely a god can meet passion with passion?’ he asks, but when he finds that intensity unmet in religion he unconsciously seeks out a new target for his passion and finds one in Napoleon Bonapart. As did many other young men who were willing to die for their leader. This is contrasted with Villanelle for whom the object of passion is a woman she cannot openly love and the inability to be consumed by her passion redirects her life to the ill wishes of abusive men and warmakers. This is a novel full of passion that becomes frustrated in the face of unrequited or impossible loves, and a search for purpose and meaning that extends beyond oneself. Television in 1991". awards.bafta.org. Archived from the original on 26 August 2019 . Retrieved 12 January 2019. Simpkins, Laura Grace. "12 Bytes review: Jeanette Winterson on AI and making life less binary". New Scientist. Archived from the original on 22 September 2021 . Retrieved 19 September 2021.

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Winterson, Jeanette (21 September 2023). "Jeanette Winterson: I didn't believe in ghosts… until I started living with them". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 22 September 2023. The overwhelming impression of her work is one of remarkable self-confidence, and she evidently thrives on risk. . . . As good as Poe: it dares you to laugh and stares you down.”— The New York Review of Books In between freezing and melting. In between love and despair. In between fear and sex, passion is.’