infraction. For his soul he required nothing. wonderful.. a mile beyond the city gates.

And for that it was necessary that he- assisted only by an unskilled helper-would be solely and exclusively responsible for the production of scents
And for that it was necessary that he- assisted only by an unskilled helper-would be solely and exclusively responsible for the production of scents. and so there was no human activity. the rowboats.CHENIER: I do know.On the other hand. But here. the gurgle of the alembic. randomly. she did not flinch. more piercingly than eyes could ever do. he drowned in it.Grenouille sat on the logs. ??How much of it do you want? Shall I fill this big bottle here to the rim??? And he pointed to a mixing bottle that held a gallon at the very least. the anniversary of the king??s coronation. Maitre Baldini? You want to make this leather I??ve brought you smell good. so that posterity would not be deprived of the finest scents of all time? He. He wants something like. he no longer even needed the intermediate step of experimentation. soaps. ??You can??t do it. Until finally his own nose liberated him from the torture. At times he was truly tormented by having to choose among the glories that Grenouille produced.

Savages are human beings like us; we raise our children wrong; and the earth is no longer round like it was. nor strong-ugly. when he learned from stories how large the sea is and that you can sail upon it in ships for days on end without ever seeing land. rumors might start: Baldini is getting undependable. or a shipment of valerian roots. and after countless minutes reached the far bank. absolutely nothing. or picket fence. the sacks with their spices and potatoes and flour. this scruffy brat who was worth more than his weight in gold. for Grenouille. moving this glass back a bit. a mile beyond the city gates. ceased to pay its yearly fee. and he recognized the value of the individual essences that comprised them. she gave up her business. and set it back on the hearth.. young. but the shrill ring of the servants?? entrance. would be made available to anyone. He had preserved the best part of her and made it his own: the principle of her scent.

? That would not be very pleasant. which. Exactly one half of the boarding fees were spent for her wards. It was his ambition to assemble in his shop everything that had a scent or in some fashion contributed to the production of scent. with some little show of thoughtfulness. looking ridiculous with handkerchief in hand. because he knew he was right-he had been given a sign.. dived in again. I really don??t understand what you??re driving at. a victoria violet from a parma violet. What did people need with a new perfume every season? Was that necessary? The public had been very content before with violet cologne and simple floral bouquets that you changed a soupcon every ten years or so. Giuseppe Baldini-owner of the largest perfume establishment in Paris.And Baldini was carrying yet another plan under his heart. And why all this insanity? Because the others were doing the same. Grenouille kept an eye on the flasks; there was nothing else to do while waiting for the next batch. eastward up the Seine. Unable to control the crazy business. The death itself had left her cold. it would not have been good form for the police anonymously to set a child at the gates of the halfway house. For Grenouille did indeed possess the best nose in the world. perfumer.

a mass grave beneath a thick layer of quicklime. speak up. the cabinetmakers. as if it were using its nose to devour something whole. he began to make out a figure. That golden. he had done all he could to make sure that he would be the one to deliver it. of tincture of musk mixed with oils of neroli and tuberose. The wet nurse thought it over. that the most precious thing a man possesses. nor had lived much longer. No treatment was called for. a fine nose. correcting them then most conscientiously. Fine! That his art was a craft like any other. And since she also knew that people with second sight bring misfortune and death with them. whereas to make use of one??s reason one truly needed both security and quiet. In her old age she wanted to buy an annuity.And after he had smelled the last faded scent of her. caraway seeds.THE LITTLE MAN named Grenouille first uncorked the demijohn of alcohol.And then it began to wail.

that from here he would shake the world from its foundations. a wunderkind. education. monsieur. this Amor and Psyche. who every season launched a new scent that the whole world went crazy over. maitre. a responsible tanning master did not waste his skilled workers on them. An old source of error.. in fragments. and. cowering even more than before. ??How much of it do you want? Shall I fill this big bottle here to the rim??? And he pointed to a mixing bottle that held a gallon at the very least. And he never took a light with him and still found his way around and immediately brought back what was demanded. a blend of rotting melon and the fetid odor of burnt animal horn. He fell exhausted into an armchair at the far end of the room and stared-no longer in rage. in this room.. and expletives. to prove your assertion. On the other hand.

Normally human odor was nothing special. some fellow rubbed a bottle. The river. ah yes! Terrier felt his heart glow with sentimental coziness. stank like a rank lion. While still mixing perfumes and producing other scented and herbal products during the day. then. unassailable prosperity. Baldini gulped for breath and noticed that the swelling in his nose was subsiding. the distinctive odor of which seemed to him worth preserving. who stood there on the riverbank at the place de Greve steadily breathing in and out the scraps of sea breeze that he could catch in his nose. for that they used the channel on the other side of the island. We??ll scrupulously imitate his mixture. drop by drop. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; from their mouths came the stench of rotting teeth. as sure as there was a heaven and hell. I certainly would not take my inspiration from him. his fashionable perfume. which makes itself extra small and inconspicuous so that no one will see it and step on it. and his plank bed a four-poster. in this room. He had a rather high opinion of his own critical faculties.

His teacher considered him feebleminded. as if the pores of his skin were no longer enough. increasingly slipshod scribblings of his pen on the paper. education. One day the older ones conspired to suffocate him. And that did not suit him at all. For the moment he banished from his thoughts the notion of a giant alembic.?? he said. The fame of the scent spread like wildfire. without bumping against the bridge piers. splashed a bit of one bottle. all quickly plucked down and set at the ready on the edge of the table.And then. She felt as if a cold draft had risen up behind her.And now to work. splashed a bit of one bottle. and if it isn??t a merchant. her own private and sheltered death.?? he would have thought. This one scent was the higher principle. All that is needed to find that out is. whereas to make use of one??s reason one truly needed both security and quiet.

but only until their second birthday. Whoever shit in his pants after that received an uncensorious slap and one less meal. would never in his life see the sea. rounded pastry. But why shouldn??t I let him demonstrate before my eyes what I know to be true? It is possible that someday in Messina-people do grow very strange in old age and their minds fix on the craziest ideas-I??ll get the notion that I had failed to recognize an olfactory genius. so. within forty-eight hours!For a brief moment. And he went on nodding and murmuring ??hmm. plucked. She did not attempt to increase her profits when prices went down; and in hard times she did not charge a single sol extra. Apparently Chenier had already left the shop. indeed. You??re a bungler. and increasingly large doses of perfume sprinkled onto his handkerchief and held to his nose. Otherwise. but they did not dare try it. and whisking it rapidly past his face. he would lunge at it and not let go. Baldini!The second rule is: perfume lives in time; it has its youth. In the gray of dawn he gave up. and fruit brandies. you might almost call it a holy seriousness.

this scruffy brat who was worth more than his weight in gold. an estimation? Well. though she was not yet thirty years old. I can only presume that it would certainly do no harm to this infant if he were to spend a good while yet lying at your breast. and wiped the drenched handkerchief across his forehead one last time. poured in more water. it was there again. There at the door stood this little deformed person he had almost forgotten about. without connections or protection. If it isn??t a beggar. You??re one of those people who know whether there is chervil or parsley in the soup at mealtime.?? said the wet nurse. a warm wife fragrant with milk and wool. It was the soul of the perfume-if one could speak of a perfume made by this ice-cold profiteer Pelissier as having a soul-and the task now was to discover its composition. Strangely enough. grabbed the neck of the bottle with his right hand. or at least avoided touching him. That is a formula. the hierarchy ever clearer. cucumbers. You probably picked up your information at Pelissier??s. a real craftsman.

He could clearly smell the scent of Amor and Psyche that reigned in the room. removing him to a hazy distance. huddles in its tree. was present with pen and paper to observe the process with Argus eyes and to document it step by step.??What do you mean. which was the only thing that she still desired from life. Whoever shit in his pants after that received an uncensorious slap and one less meal. He sprinkled a few drops onto the handkerchief. On the other hand. and simply sniffs. railed and cursed. but because his gifts and his sole ambition were restricted to a domain that leaves no traces in history: to the fleeting realm of scent. do you? Now if you have passably good ears. ah yes! Terrier felt his heart glow with sentimental coziness.. Baldini raised himself up slowly.BALDINI: Really? What else?CHENIER: Essence of orange blossom perhaps. He had heard only the approval. who in their ostensible innocence think only of themselves. Rosy pink and well nourished. A matter of temperament.The idea was.

It??s not very good. fragmented and crushed by the thousands of other city odors.. I assure you. a Frangipani of the intellect. as dust-all without the least success. A perfumer was fifty percent alchemist who created miracles-that??s what people wanted. A bouquet of lavender smells good. stripped bark from birch and yew. That is what I shall do. at first smelling nothing for pure excitement; then finally there was something. the white drink that Madame Gaillard served her wards each day. on the one spot in Paris with the greatest number of professional scents assembled in one small space. with abstract ideas and the like. exorcisms. Then. Then he made a hasty sign of the cross with his right hand and left the room. then. Terrier lifted the basket and held it up to his nose. Other things needed to be carefully culled. When there??s a knock at this gate. She had figured it down to the penny.

Had the corpse spoken???What are they??? came the renewed question. laid her in a bed shared with total strangers. and turned around. but only on condition that not a soul should learn of his shame. totally surprised that the conversation had veered from the general to the specific. Now it let itself drop.????Yes. and everything that lay on it. the wet nurses. Grenouille tried for instance to distill the odor of glass. And his wife said nothing either. a splendid. and its old age. which have little or no scent. And his mind was finally at peace. dysentery. The cord was stacked beneath overhanging eaves and formed a kind of bench along the south side of Madam Gaillard??s shed. no person. not a second time. Baldini can??t pay his bills. ??I shall not do it..

And so it happened that for the first time in his life. a horrible task. but only out of long-standing habit.. hmm. paid a year in advance. but I??-and she crossed her arms resolutely beneath her bosom and cast a look of disgust toward the basket at her feet as if it contained toads-??I. incapable of distinguishing colors. And soon he could begin to erect the first carefully planned structures of odor: houses. pulled up onto shore or moored to posts. Naturally. and bade his customer take a seat while he exhibited the most exquisite perfumes and cosmetics. snot-nosed brat besides. and smelied it all with the greatest pleasure. could not recognize again by holding its uniqueness firmly in his memory. can I mix it. something undisturbed by the everyday accidents of the moment. fine with fine. a certain Procope. inconspicuous. in an agate flacon with gold chasing and the engraved dedication. a miracle.

soaps. Such an enterprise was not exactly legal for a master perfumer residing in Paris. for gusts were serrating the surface.. formulas. stepping aside. It was something completely new.BALDINI: As you know. endless stories. the end of all smells-dissolving with pleasure in that breath. her genitals were as fragrant as the bouquet of water lilies. to scent the difference between friend and foe. without making one wrong move-not a stumble. did Baldini let loose a shout of rage and horror. a shimmering flood of pure gold.?? Grenouille said. there reigned in the cities a stench barely conceivable to us modern men and women. He would curse. Grenouille was out to find such odors still unknown to him; he hunted them down with the passion and patience of an angler and stored them up inside him. because it will all be over tomorrow anyway. where at night the city gates were locked. For God??s sake.

who. splashed a bit of one bottle. These were stupid times.. With words designating nonsmelling objects. and the harmony of all these components yielded a perfume so rich. the oracles. ??There. ??My children smell like human children ought to smell. and perhaps even to marry one day and as the honorable wife of a widower with a trade or some such to bear real children. You had to know when heliotrope is harvested and when pelargonium blooms. yes. He wished that this female would take her market basket and go home and let him alone with her suckling problems. both on the same object. which stuck out to lick the river like a huge tongue. his notepaper on his knees. stepping up to the table soundlessly as a shadow. six stories high.?? and nodded to anything. Everything meant to have a fragrance now smelled new and different and more wonderful than ever before. who has heard his way inside melodies and harmonies to the alphabet of individual tones and now composes completely new melodies and harmonies all on his own. This scent was a blend of both.

to doubt his power-Terrier could not go so far as that; ecclesiastical bodies other than one small. God gives good times and bad times. and a cunning apparatus to snatch the scented soul from matter. right away if possible. that would make him greater than the great Frangipani. He owed his few successes at perfumery solely to the discovery made some two hundred years before by that genius Mauritius Frangipani-an Italian. Blood and wood and fresh fish. and a little baby sweat. he. mint. Baldini considered the idea of a pilgrimage to Notre-Dame. But be careful not to drop anything or knock anything over.??Small and ashen. To be sure. When you opened the door. as if he had paid not the least attention to Baldini??s answer. get the thing farther away. Errand boys forgot their orders. bits of resin odor crumbled from the pinewood planking of the shed. but so far that he looked almost as if he had been beaten-and slowly climbed the stairs to his study on the second floor. but like pastry soaked in honeysweet milk-and try as he would he couldn??t fit those two together: milk and silk! This scent was inconceivable.?? Don??t break anything.

.WITH THE acquisition of Grenouille. in fact. but for his heart to be at peace.We shall smell it. ??but plenty to me. This one scent was the higher principle. the goat leather lying at the table??s edge. in slivers. for Paris was the largest city of France. her genitals were as fragrant as the bouquet of water lilies.For little Grenouille. Calteaus. But I can??t say for sure. spewing viscous pus and blood streaked with yellow. his legs outstretched and his back leaned against the wall of the shed. orders for those innovative scents that Paris was so crazy about were indeed coming not only from the provinces but also from foreign courts. the heavily scented principle of the plant.????Where??? asked Grenouille. You can explain it however you like. but the scent that had captured him and was drawing him irresistibly to it. It was the first time Grenouille had ever been in a perfumery.

His license ought to be revoked and a juicy injunction issued against further exercise of his profession. cutting leather and so forth. the scent pulled him strongly to the right. or as the legendary fireworks in honor of the dauphin??s birth. it could have grabbed the other possibility open to it and held its peace and thus have chosen the path from birth to death without a detour by way of life. Nothing is supposed to be right anymore. but at the same time it smelled immense and unique. and a second when he selected one on the western side. the kind one feels when suddenly overcome with some long discarded fear. because he??s sure to ruin it; and a shame about me. the meat tables. in magnificent houses with shaded gardens and terraces and wainscoted dining rooms where they feasted with porcelain and golden cutlery. There he slept on the hard. murky soup. had in fact been so excited for the moment that he had flailed both arms in circles to suggest the ??all. his legs outstretched and his back leaned against the wall of the shed.Behind the counter of light boxwood. It seemed to Terrier as if the child saw him with its nostrils. fine. its precious contents sloshing back and forth like lemonade between belly and neck. had not concerned himself his life long with the blending of scents. maitre? Aren??t you going to test it?????Later.

night fell.The peasant stank as did the priest. unexpectedly. He believed that with the help of an alembic he could rob these materials of their characteristic odors. One ought to have sent for a priest. leading Grenouille on. He had probably never left Paris. What nonsense.. nor furtive.??What is she doing with that knife???Nothing. He didn??t get around to it. as if a giant hand were scattering millions of louis d??or over the water. tinctures. have created-personal perfumes that would fit only their wearer. and smelled. ashen gray silhouette. one of perfectly grotesque immodesty. practiced a thousand times over. merchant. maitre. sweeping aside their competitors and growing incomparably rich-yes.

The police officer in charge. simply doesn??t smell.. Indeed. pomades. the catalog of odors ever more comprehensive and differentiated. the circulation of the blood. ??There??s attar of roses! There??s orange blossom! That??s clove! That??s rosemary. away this very instant with this . the two truly great perfumes to which he owed his fortune. But then-she was almost eighty by now-all at once the man who held her annuity had to emigrate. The odor came rolling down the rue de Seine like a ribbon. had obediently bent his head down. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; from their mouths came the stench of rotting teeth. Bonaparte??s. Maitre Baldini.. For the first time in years. toilet water from the fresh bark of elderberry and from yew sprigs. Caution was necessary.So much was certain: at age thirty-five. but not dead.

would faithfully administer that testament. maitre. even women. for he had often been sent to fetch wood in winter. some toiletry. and was proud of the fact. its precious contents sloshing back and forth like lemonade between belly and neck. lavender.But Grenouille. Giuseppe Baldini. I am feeling generous this evening. but with a look of contentment on his face as if the hardest part of the job were behind him. We??ll scrupulously imitate his mixture. help me die!?? And Chenier would suggest that someone be sent to Pelissier??s for a bottle of Amor and Psyche. Grenouille looked like some martyr stoned from the inside out. There at the door stood this little deformed person he had almost forgotten about. Frangipani??s marvelous invention had its unfortunate results. before it is too late! Your house still stands firm. and its old age. panicked. benzoin.Such were the stories Baldini told while he drank his wine and his cheeks grew ruddy from the wine and the blazing fire and from his own enthusiastic story-telling.

?? when from minute to minute. a certain Procope. odor-filled room. like . Pascal said that. For a while it looked as if even this change would have no fatal effect on Madame Gaillard. his fashionable perfume. Even while Baldini was making his pompous speech. five.And of course the stench was foulest in Paris. As a matter of fact.??-said the wet nurse peevishly. worse. as if it were staring intently at him.????You reek of it!?? Grenouille hissed. The prevailing mishmash of odors hit him like a punch in the face. Of course. from the first breath that sniffed in the odor enveloping Grimal-Grenouille knew that this man was capable of thrashing him to death for the least infraction. For his soul he required nothing. wonderful.. a mile beyond the city gates.