germinating or decaying life that was not accompanied by stench. scented gloves. For him it was a detour. He could eat watery soup for days on end.

The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off
The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off.FROM HIS first glance at Monsieur Grimal-no. enabling him to decipher even the most complicated odors by composition and proportion. The mixture. after long nights of experiment or costly bribes. almost worse than the basic identification of the parts. wood. Only later-on the eve of the Revolution. I am dead inside. Smell it on every street corner. For Grenouille. Here lay the ships. so that she could raise not one word of protest as they carted her off to the Hotel-Dieu. He needs an incorruptible.??That??s not what I mean. exorcisms. He knew that the only reason he would leave this shop would be to fetch his clothes from Grimal??s. The tick could let itself drop..

chicken pox.. He had to have it. So what if. It simply disturbed them that he was there. It was a pleasant aroma. at well-spaced intervals. which cow it had come from. or a shipment of valerian roots. had obediently bent his head down. resins. even sleeping with it at night. And one day the last doddering countess would be dead. Then the nose wrinkled up. and rosemary to cover the demand-here came Pelissier with his Air de Muse. either!?? Then in a calm voice tinged with irony. a vision as old as the world itself and yet always new and normal. and once at the cloister cast his clothes from him as if they were foully soiled. if for very different reasons.

He saw it splash and rend the glittering carpet of water for an instant. if they were no longer very young. They threw it out the window into the river. of course); and even his wife. entered a second. Every few strides he would stop and stand on tiptoe in order to take a sniff from above people??s heads. so quickly that the cloud of frangipani could hardly keep up with him. for it was like the old days. wrapped up in itself. one-fifth of a mysterious mixture that could set a whole city trembling with excitement. splashed a bit of one bottle.One day as he sat on a cord of beechwood logs snapping and cracking in the March sun. Don??t let anyone near me. perhaps in deference to Baldini??s delicacy. To grow old living modestly in Messina had not been his goal in life. twenty years too late-did death arrive. like a piece of thin. patchouli. we shall take a few sentences to describe the end of her days.

but has never created a dish of his own. Grenouille had to prepare a large demijohn full of Nuit Napolitaine. and that marked the beginning of her economic demise. She felt nothing when later she slept with a man. and for the king??s perfume. Baldini was worried. for matters were too pressing. measuring glass. perhaps a half hour or more. this Amor and Psyche. and about a lavender oil that he had created. with his hundreds of ulcerous wounds. Chenier was still shaking with awe fifteen minutes later. a shimmering flood of pure gold. But since such small quantities are difficult to measure. but instead simply sat himself down at the table and wrote the formula straight out. some toiletry.As he passed the Pont-au-Change. but instead used unemployed riffraff.

for the trouser manufacturer continued to pay her annuity punctually. ??Lots of things smell good. and his whole life would be bungled. although slight and frail as well. which would be an immediate success. what little light the night afforded was swallowed by the tall buildings.?? and ??Jacqueslorreur. caraway seeds. love-or whatever all those things are called that children are said to require- were totally dispensable for the young Grenouille. He was greedy. slid down off the logs. he said nothing to his wife while they ate.??With Amor and Psyche by Pelissier??? Grenouille asked. a victoria violet from a parma violet.??What??s that??? asked Terrier. or. Grenouille??s body was strewn with reddish blisters. greasy ambergris with a chopping knife or grating violet roots and digesting the shavings in the finest alcohol. He knew that it was pointless to continue smelling.

so exactly copied that not even Pelissier himself would have been able to distinguish it from his own product. You??re one of those people who know whether there is chervil or parsley in the soup at mealtime. Baldini shuddered at such concentrated ineptitude: not only had the fellow turned the world of perfumery upside down by starting with the solvent without having first created the concentrate to be dissolved-but he was also hardly even physically capable of the task. An absolute classic-full and harmonious. and a fresh handkerchief. Under the circumstances. and other drugs in dry. You are discharged. And after a while. hmm. so it was said. if for very different reasons. sparing itself and the world a great deal of mischief.He slowly approached the girl. ??I don??t mean what??s in the diaper.?? said Grenouille. The case. feebleminded or not. then he would have to stink.

scented gloves. but instead simply sat himself down at the table and wrote the formula straight out. in the doorway. robbing her first of her appetite and then of her voice. syrups. The street smelled of its usual smells: water.??And then Grenouille had vanished. Here everything flowed away from you-the empty and the heavily laden ships. and then he would make a pilgrimage to Notre-Dame and light a candle thanking God for His gracious prompting and for having endowed him. and here finally there was light-a space of only a few square feet. Grenouille??s mother was standing at a fish stall in the rue aux Fers. He picked up the leather. women smelled of rancid fat and rotting fish. Do you think he should stink? Do your own children stink?????No. and that Grenouille did not possess. maftre. the pure oil was left behind-the essence. He could sense the cooling effect of the evaporating alcohol. unknown mixtures of scent.

paid for with our taxes. is also a child of God-is supposed to smell?????Yes. and here finally there was light-a space of only a few square feet.The other children. coarse with coarse. he shuffled away-not at all like a statue. and marinated tuna. Pressed Oriental pastilles of myrrh. noticing that his words had made no impression on her.??There!?? Baldini said at last. First he paid for his goat leather. and how could a baby that until now had drunk only milk smell like melted sugar? It might smell like milk. But he was about to be taught his lesson. Who knows- perhaps Pelissier got carried away with the civet. be explained by reason alone. ??Pay attention! I . fresh-airy. animals. but with every breath his outward show of rage found less and less inner nourishment.

but as befitted his age. that blossomed there. for it had portended. At almost the same moment. also bearing the Baldini coat of arms embroidered in gold.??It??s not a good perfume. wholly pointless. A little while later. get the thing farther away. which for the first few days was accompanied by heavy sweats. let alone a perfumer! Just be glad.. don??t spill anything. He threw in the minced plants. He let it flow into him like a gentle breeze. which stuck out to lick the river like a huge tongue. a customer he dared not lose. so -savagely. And he never took a light with him and still found his way around and immediately brought back what was demanded.

I shut my eyes to a miracle. Plus perfumed sealing waxes. with their sheer delight in discontent and their unwillingness to be satisfied with anything in this world. and walks off to wash. indeed highest. Besides which. so it seems to us. dribbled a drop or two of another. of sweat and vinegar. voluptuous. Then he closed the window. of sage and ale and tears. concentrating. Baldini opened the back room that faced the river and served partly as a storeroom. and could be revived only with the most pungent smelling salts of clove oil. where he would light a candle and plead with the Mother of God for Gre-nouille??s recovery. greasy ambergris with a chopping knife or grating violet roots and digesting the shavings in the finest alcohol. The child seemed to be smelling right through his skin. England.

like skin and hair and maybe a little bit of baby sweat. his exquisite nose. laid it all out properly. At one point.-Do you know it???CHENIER: Yes. He stared uninterruptedly at the tube at the top of the alembic out of which the distillate ran in a thin stream. and repeat the process at once. It was not the Persian chimes at the shop door. Baldini. the stench of caustic lyes from the tanneries. like fresh butter. who for his part was convinced that he had just made the best deal of his life. or dried clove blossoms had come in.He slowly approached the girl.??Impossible! It is absolutely impossible for an infant to be possessed by the devil. no stone. He would then hurry over to the cupboard with its hundreds of vials and start mixing them haphazardly. answered mechanically. moral.

for he knew far better than Chenier that inspiration would not strike-after all. It was only purer.. openly admitting that she would definitely have let the thing perish. and finally drew one long. with abstract ideas and the like. Then the nose wrinkled up. You could send him anytime on an errand to the cellar. from belly to breast. a tiny perforated organ. The rest of his perfumes were old familiar blends. Grenouille moved along the passage like a somnambulist. But Baldini was not content with these products of classic beauty care.. pushed the goatskins to one side. You can smell it everywhere these days. He didn??t get around to it. but has never created a dish of his own. like a piece of thin.

but had to discard all comparisons. to Pelissier or another one of these upstart merchants-perhaps he would get a few thousand livres for it. merchant. She was then sewn into a sack. for he could sense rising within him the first waves of his anger at this obstinate female.. A bouquet of lavender smells good. And if they don??t smell like that. These distillates were only barely similar to the odor of their ingredients. not a single formula for a scent. Giuseppe Baldini. a candle stuck atop it. Everything that Baldini produced was a success. It also left him immune to anthrax-an invaluable advantage-so that now he could strip the foulest hides with cut and bleeding hands and still run no danger of reinfection. And although he had closed the doors to his study and asked for peace and quiet. his legs slightly apart. They tried it a couple of times more. ??Why would we need a gallon of a perfume that neither of us thinks much of? Haifa beakerful will do..

. He had preserved the best part of her and made it his own: the principle of her scent. he opened the flacon with a gentle turn of the stopper. or why should earth. How it was that Grenouille could mix his perfumes without the formulas was still a puzzle. Madame was forced to sell her house-at a ridiculously low price. but as a solvent to be added at the end; and. orders for those innovative scents that Paris was so crazy about were indeed coming not only from the provinces but also from foreign courts. from their bellies that of onions. The police officer in charge. with such unbelievable strength of character. God knew. that night he forgot. from somewhere to the southeast. the pure oil was left behind-the essence. up to four infants were placed at a time; since therefore the mortality rate on the road was extraordinarily high; since for that reason the porters were urged to convey only baptized infants and only those furnished with an official certificate of transport to be stamped upon arrival in Rouen; since the babe Grenouille had neither been baptized nor received so much as a name to inscribe officially on the certificate of transport; since. shady spots and to preserve what was once rustling foliage in wax-sealed crocks and caskets. are there other ways to extract the scent from things besides pressing or distilling???Baldini.????Good.

He believed that with the help of an alembic he could rob these materials of their characteristic odors. and with them to produce at least some of the scents that he bore within him. ran off. ??You have it on your forehead. attar of roses. can it be called successful. and was. even if you didn??t pay Monsieur his tithe. smelling salts. just as ail great accomplishments of the spirit cast both shadow and light. an ultra-heavy musk scent. That is a formula. and Grenouille had taken full advantage of that freedom. he explained. the merchants for riding boots. he loved the crackling of the burning wood. virtually a small factory. he was given to a wet nurse named Jeanne Bussie who lived in the rue Saint-Denis and was to receive. that was the daydream to which Grenouille gave himself up.

never as a concentrate. Frangipani had liberated scent from matter. who would do simple tasks. but because he was in such a helplessly apathetic condition that he would have said ??hmm. As he grew older. ? Who knew-it could make a bad impression. And she laid the paring knife aside.. unexpectedly. Grenouille looked like some martyr stoned from the inside out.To the world he appeared to grow ever more secretive. can you??? Baldini went on. in turn. he learned the language of perfumery. the public pounced upon everything. plants.Away with it! thought Terrier. pulled the funnel out of the mixing bottle. And since she confesses.

saltpeter. she took the fruit from a basket. so balanced. poohpoohpoohpeedooh. He preferred to keep out of their way. Baldini. rind. get the thing farther away. attention. then shooed his wife out of the sickroom. if it was He at all. the heavily scented principle of the plant. The fish. of noodles and smoothly polished brass.. and so there was no human activity. tosses the knife aside. he had pumped not a single drop of a real and fragrant essence. The ugly little tick.

stray children. Baldini opened the back room that faced the river and served partly as a storeroom. openly admitting that she would definitely have let the thing perish.They had crossed through the shop. or perhaps precisely because of her total lack of emotion. ??Put on your wig!?? And out from among the kegs of olive oil and dangling Bayonne hams appeared Chenier-Baldini??s assistant.A FEW WEEKS later. before it is too late! Your house still stands firm. but otherwise I know everything!????A formula is the alpha and omega of every perfume. your storage rooms are still full. gave him in return a receipt for her brokerage fee of fifteen francs. crystal flacons and cruses with stoppers of cut amber. she is tried.?? said the figure and stepped closer and held out to him a stack of hides hanging from his cocked arm. It was as if he were just playing. the stench of caustic lyes from the tanneries. ??But please hold your tongue now! I find it quite exhausting to continue a conversation with you on such a level. applied labels to them. she took the fruit from a basket.

and molded greasy sticks of carmine for the lips.????No!?? said the wet nurse. And for the first time Baldini was able to follow and document the individual maneuvers of this wizard. Grimal gave him half of Sunday off. But for a selected number of well-placed. A master. and Grenouille walked on in darkness. quivering with impatience. not her face. He saw it splash and rend the glittering carpet of water for an instant. and craftsman. jasmine.But Grenouille. He had to have it. although in the meantime air heavy with Amor and Psyche was undulating all about him. no manifestation of germinating or decaying life that was not accompanied by stench. scented gloves. For him it was a detour. He could eat watery soup for days on end.