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Chargement... The Passion (original 1987; édition 1997)par Jeanette Winterson
Information sur l'oeuvreLa passion par Jeanette Winterson (1987)
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. I know people love this book, but it really fell flat for me. There were some funny moments, particularly satirizing Napoleon and his cult-of-personality, but mostly it felt trite. There were lots of cliche one-liners – like one about how snowflakes are all unique – that were repeated so many times throughout the book (ostensibly to give them weight?), but in the end it just felt like a cheap way of trying to artificially create depth that wasn't there. ( ) A beautiful, lyrical, magical-realistic, heart-breaking love story. A French country boy signs up for Napoleon’s army with dreams of glory and escape and learns what war really is. A Venetian boatman’s daughter who works in a casino loses her heart to a married woman. Each tells their story, and these stories of course ultimately entwine. Winterson’s writing is beautiful, as always. Some of my favorite passages: “Most of these recruits aren’t seventeen and they’re asked to do in a few weeks what vexes the best philosophers for a lifetime; that is, to gather up their passion for life and make sense of it in the face of death. “News of the Coronation was spreading and I saw in the smiles of the people I travelled with how welcome it was. None of us thought that only fifteen years ago we had fought to do away with Kings for ever. That we had sworn never to fight again except in self-defence. Now we wanted a ruler and we wanted him to rule the world. We are not an unusual people.” “The mystics and the churchmen talk about throwing off this body and its desires, being no longer a slave to the flesh. They don’t say that through the flesh we are set free. That our desire for another will lift us out of ourselves more cleanly than anything divine.” 3.5. This is one of those books where some of what I didn't appreciate gets tied into a solidly written ending, but the ending is SUCH a bummer that I still didn't appreciate it that much. And to be fair it's a bummer in a particular way - I can imagine rating it a bit higher in a different mood, and maybe reading so soon after another book of hers also didn't help. In comparison to Oranges, the more mystical fairy tale type stuff is much more significant while the stuff I liked most, the well observed portraits of real humans, is much more minimal. Whereas that was grounded in her own experience, this isn't really grounded in anything at all - it's a hazy view of the Napoleonic wars and a Venice which is treated as basically just magical. That's fine! But I just didn't get on with it as much, mostly the Venice stuff. Again I feel like this is mostly personal, and mostly about my state of mind while reading it. It tries to tackle Big Stuff about human relationships but it feels a little unmoored? And there is interesting stuff there! Like the title says, it's a mediation on the nature of passion and how we experience it. Which is a cool subject. I just didn't feel it as much as I wanted to There is no doubt in my mind that this book deserves at least four stars despite the fact that it was soooooo not my thing. If you like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, read this book. It's actually better done, more interesting, and more engaging, but it shares that fantastical quality that I truly dislike. The story follows Henri, a French young man who enlists in Napoleon's army, and Villanelle, an Italian woman who works in the casino. Both characters narrate the story and their lives end up intertwining in a way that leaves one character decimated (I won't spoil it by indicating which one). Winterson does some very interesting things with her writing. Her imagery and lyrical use of language is very, very original and interesting. She can go very, very dark with a scene or a line, and you feel yourself gasping at the thought. She's intrigued me - - from Henri's job preparing endless chicken for Napoleon to Villanelle's cross dressing to another soldier's extreme long distance vision - - she draws the reader in. The plot doesn't really propel you. The details do. Where I think she falters in this book is voice. Henri's voice and Villanelle's are really quite similar . . .in the end, it just all seems like one narrator even though it clearly is not. And of course, I hated the bits of magical realism. It's used judiciously and to make a point, but that didn't make me like it. It just reads as pretentious to me when it is supposed to be symbolic. All in all, I honestly think this book would be absolutely amazing for an English lit class or an ambitious book club (mine is not) to dissect. There's a lot of layers of meaning and symbolism and motivations to discuss. The prose is unique and beautiful and compelling. I'm not sorry I read it, but for me it was admirable, but not really pleasurable. For me, I felt the writing was trying to be quotable and thus felt a touch try-hard - the writing also made me feel quite removed from the characters and thus I felt detached from the story overall. The first third of the book with Henri was tough to get through - I didnt care for it. Villanelle had great promise for a character - but the way this story was set up and the writing just didn't do her justice. There were so many heavy themes in the book but it just felt glossed over. The "passion" also wasnt there for me. The closest it came was the married woman Villanelle had an affair with - but once againt there wasn't really any set up or substance. and then the ending??? like wtf henri?
We know from her first two novels that Jeanette Winterson is not lacking in a sense of humor and a sense of the absurd, but these qualities are greatly attenuated in The Passion, and one must hope that she does not renounce them altogether in pursuit of romantic high seriousness. In other respects The Passion represents a remarkable advance in boldness and invention, compared to her previous novels, Est en version abrégée dansPrix et récompensesListes notables
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. In her unique and mesmerizing voice, Winterson blends reality with fantasy, dream, and imagination to weave a hypnotic tale with stunning effects. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)823.914Literature English English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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