In the second part “ The Queen of Spades” we are taken to Venice “the city of disguises”, “ This is the city of mazes. Henri is not a soldier but in the catering division preparing the chicken dishes that Napoleon relishes. This is a novel in four unequal parts, the first is “ The Emperor”, where we meet Henri in Boulogne, a part of Napoleon’s forces amassing with a plan to invade England. Whatever you have set store by, your dress, your dinner, your poetry, will go wrong”. They do not stroke the favoured cat and their face-paint comes loose. They eat too little and faint during their fervently wished consummation. Lovers drink too much from nervousness and cannot perform. Lovers have been known to have heart attacks. Mouths dry up, palms sweat, conversation flags, and all the time the heart is threatening to fly from the body once and for all. “Lovers are not at their best when it matters. Having just read Sharpe’s Devil it was a surprise to encounter Napoleon again so soon. This is a short book but what it lacks in girth, the book makes up for in substance being rich in language and visual imagery.
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