The Passion is a 1987 novel by British novelist Jeannette Winterson. The novel depicts a young French soldier in the Napoleonic army during 1805 as he takes charge of Napoleon's personal larder.[1] The novel won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.[2] Publication and subsequent sales of the novel allowed Winterson to stop working other jobs, and support herself as a full-time writer.[3] Though nominally a historical novel, Winterson takes considerable liberties with the depiction of the historical setting and various strategies for interpreting the historical—making the novel historiographic metafiction.[4] The novel also explores themes like passion, constructions of gender and sexuality, and broader themes common to 1980s and 90s British fiction.[4] Parts of the novel are set in Venice—Winterson had yet to visit the city when she wrote about it, instead the depiction was entirely fictional.[3] Mark Knopfler wrote a song inspired by the novel, called "Done with Bonaparte."