The Passion Characters

French villager Henri joins Napoleon Bonaparte’s army as a short, skinny teenager, where he is assigned to strangle chickens for Napoleon’s dinner. One day, an officer informs Henri that Napoleon is coming to inspect… read analysis of Henri

Villanelle, the daughter of a Venetian boatman who disappeared before she was born, has red hair and webbed toes, an inheritance from her father (all Venetian boatmen are rumored to have webbed toes). At 18… read analysis of Villanelle

In 1804, the cook is working for Napoleon’s army when young recruit Henri arrives in the army camp of Boulogne. The cook insists on taking the new recruits to a brothel, where the cook… read analysis of The Cook/The Large Man

Napoleon Bonaparte, husband to Joséphine, is the Corsican-born military and political leader of France who inspires first passionate devotion and then disillusioned, obsessive hatred in French villager and army recruit Henri, who gets… read analysis of Napoleon Bonaparte

Patrick is an Irish former priest with one almost supernaturally keen eye. He is defrocked for using his extraordinary eyesight to ogle women and girls sexually. In 1799, one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s generals is… read analysis of Patrick

A former circus performer with dwarfism, Domino is recruited as Napoleon Bonaparte’s groom on the recommendation of Napoleon’s wife Joséphine, whom Domino once saved from being trampled by a runaway horse. He retains… read analysis of Domino

Joséphine is Napoleon Bonaparte’s first wife and sometime empress—until he annuls their marriage for her failure to produce children. Formerly Joséphine de Beauharnais, she was married once before Napoleon, but her aristocrat husband was… read analysis of Joséphine

Henri’s passionately religious mother resolves to become a nun at age 12, but her proper, conventional family wants her to pursue a more traditional path and get married. After her family points out the… read analysis of Henri’s Mother

Formerly a rich Venetian woman, the woman with slimed-green hair finds all her possessions appropriated by Napoleon Bonaparte after the French army conquers Venice in 1797. The woman goes into internal exile in the secret… read analysis of The Woman with Slimed-Green Hair