The Passion

“The Queen of Spades,” the second part of The Passion, begins by retelling the 1797 fall of the Republic of Venice, wherein Napoleon conquered Venice. The section is narrated by a young Venetian woman called Villanelle. Villanelle tells the reader that all the fishermen in Venice have webbed feet. Her father, having shown his feet to a tourist for money, consequently loses his webbed feet and is taken to a mental institution. At the time, her mother is pregnant with her, unbeknownst to her father. Her mother quickly marries a sensible baker, who becomes Villanelle’s stepfather. Her mother makes the ritual journey to an island at full moon, wherein mothers-to-be leave an offering on a gravesite for their sons to have webbed feet and for their daughters to have clean hearts. However, Villanelle’s mother does not complete the ritual, and Villanelle is born the only girl in the history of boatmen with webbed feet.

When Villanelle grows up, she cross-dresses and deals cards in the Venetian casinos that cater to tourists. One night she is smitten with a woman with gray-green eyes and dark red hair who draws the queen of spades, the symbol of Venice. The woman disappears, leaving behind nothing but a bottle of expensive champagne and a Roman earring made of yellow gold.