The beginning of The Passion is entitled “The Emperor.” It introduces the reader to Henri, a young soldier in Napoleon Bonaparte’s army in the early 1800s. Though he had wished to be a drummer, Henri ends up a cook instead. He does not mind since he gets to personally prepare Napoleon’s chicken. In this early sequence we are introduced to Henri’s current situation as well as his background. He comes from a small, quiet village. “We’re a lukewarm people,” Henri informs the reader, “Not much touches us, but we long to be touched” (11). He describes the annual bonfire the village holds. We learn of Henri’s parents: his mother Georgette’s unfulfilled desire to become a nun, and his father Claude’s unrequited love for Georgette. When Georgette’s father threatened to marry her off, Georgette begged Claude for shelter, reluctantly married him, and bore his child.

Henri maintains that he cannot be a priest because while he has faith, like his mother, he does not have religious passion: “I have shouted at God and the Virgin, but they have not shouted back and I’m not interested in the still small

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