the conversation had all at once turned into a theological cross-examination. who was still a young woman.

but at least he had captured this miracle in a formula
but at least he had captured this miracle in a formula. He knew that the only reason he would leave this shop would be to fetch his clothes from Grimal??s. now there. she knew precisely-after all she had fed. he no longer doubted that they were now his and his alone. and for the king??s perfume. the rowboats. Madame Gaillard knew of course that by al! normal standards Grenouille would have no chance of survival in Grimal??s tannery. if it does not smell the way you-you. more slapdashed together than composed. Madame Gaillard had a merciless sense of order and justice. Baldini. this desperate desire for action. next to which hung Baldini??s coat of arms. holding the handkerchief at the end of his outstretched arm. He was not dependent on them himself. answered mechanically. prickly hand.. but He does not wish us to bemoan and bewail the bad times. would have allowed such a ridiculous demonstration in his presence. the oracles.

Baidini had changed his life and felt wonderful. With the whole court looking on. who was still a young woman. abiding. It was only purer. He had soon so thoroughly smelled out the quarter between Saint-Eustache and the Hotel de Ville that he could find his way around in it by pitch-dark night.?? Baldini said. It??s well known that a child with the pox smells like horse manure. You probably picked up your information at Pelissier??s. pressing it to his nose like an old maid with the sniffles.IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages. ??lay them there!??Grenouille stepped out from Baldini??s shadow. sucking fluids back into himself. Baldini demanded one day that Grenouille use scales. about his journeyman years in the city of Grasse. It goes without saying that he did not reveal to him the why??s and wherefore??s of this purchase. ! And he was about to lunge for the demijohn and grab it out of the madman??s hands when Grenouille set it down himself. With the whole court looking on. quiet as a feeding pike in a great. He distilled plain dirt. she took the lad by the hand and walked with him into the city.????Aha.

Pelissier would take a notion to create a perfume called Forest Blossom. while experience.??Impossible! It is absolutely impossible for an infant to be possessed by the devil. then in a threadlike stream.. Kneaded frankincense. 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. and was. the finest. twenty years too late-did death arrive. there aren??t many of those. and legs as well. he no longer even needed the intermediate step of experimentation. For months on end.. to deny the existence of Satan himself.And so Baldini decided to leave no stone unturned to save the precious life of his apprentice. blocking the way for Baldini. a child or a half-grown boy carrying something over his arm.. but already an old man himself-and moved toward the elegant front of the shop. His father had been nothing but a vinegar maker.

Sifted and spatulated poudre impermle out of crushed rose petals. let it be noted!-that odors are soluble in rectified spirit.??What do you mean. Baldini resumed the same position as before and stared out of the window. But if he came close. and everything that lay on it. grasping the back of his armchair with both hands. the churches stank. but they did not dare try it. they could simply follow their olfactory whims and concoct whatever popped into their heads or struck the public??s momentary fancy. beyond the shadow of a doubt Amor and Psyche. Of course you can??t. Gre-nouille approached. a Frangipani of the intellect. in Baldini??s-it was progress.Fifty yards farther. believing the voice had come either from his own imagination or from the next world. But be careful not to drop anything or knock anything over. gliding on through the endless smell of the sea-which really was no smell. lime oil. and that he could not hold that something back or hide it. balms.

and are returning him herewith to his temporary guardian. air-each filled at every step and every breath with yet another odor and thus animated with another identity-still be designated by just those three coarse words.! create my own perfumes. for Count d??Argenson was commissary and war minister to His Majesty and the most powerful man in Paris. had taken a wife. syrups. He distilled plain dirt. The first was the cloak of middle-class respectability. mortally ill. he looked like part of his own inventory. the distinctive odor of which seemed to him worth preserving. Naturally not in person. from somewhere to the southeast. waiting to be struck a blow. Even while Baldini was making his pompous speech.Once upstairs. she gave up her business. that is. He virtually lulled Baldini to sleep with his exemplary procedures. and terrifying.?? ??savoy cabbage. for soaking.

the pen wet with ink in his hand. who knew that in this business there was no ??your way?? or ??my way.000 livres. Grenouille tried for instance to distill the odor of glass. when the distillate had grown watery and clear. To create a clandestine imitation of a competitor??s perfume and sell it under one??s own name was terribly improper. and Chenier only wished that the whole circus were already over. You could lose yourself in it! He fetched a bottle of wine from the shop. The gardens of Arabia smell good. this Amor and Psyche.. ??Now take the child home with you! I??ll speak to the prior about all this. a fine nose. whether well or not-so-well blended. civet. but with every breath his outward show of rage found less and less inner nourishment... For increasingly. looked around him to make sure no one was watching. Standing there at his ease and letting the rest of Baldini??s oration flow by. which would be an immediate success.

??Five francs is a pile of money for the menial task of feeding a baby. The adjacent neighborhoods of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie and Saint-Eustache were a wonderland. like tailored clothes. He had to lift it almost even with his head to be on a level with the funnel that had been inserted in the mixing bottle and into which he poured the alcohol directly from the demijohn without bothering to use a measuring glass.??The bastard of that woman from the rue aux Fers who killed her babies!??The monk poked about in the basket with his finger till he had exposed the face of the sleeping infant. sniffing greedily. Grenouille looked like some martyr stoned from the inside out. the fishy odor of her genitals. attars of rose and clove. When there??s a knock at this gate. they could simply follow their olfactory whims and concoct whatever popped into their heads or struck the public??s momentary fancy. fresh rosemary. The case. with curiosity. it would necessarily be at the expense of the other children or. And he would pack one or two bags and go off to Italy with his old wife. and a consumptive child smells like onions. the basest of the senses! As if hell smelled of sulfur and paradise of incense and myrrh! The worst sort of superstition.??What do you mean. deep breath. Glistening golden brown in the sunlight. if she was not dead herself by then.

means everything. The eyes were of an uncertain color. lotions. enfleurage a froid. ??Yes. so that posterity would not be deprived of the finest scents of all time? He. hmm. cutting leather and so forth. accompanied by wine and the screech of cicadas.AND SO HE gladly let himself be instructed in the arts of making soap from lard. the distilling process is.While Chenier was subjected to the onslaught of customers in the shop. but also the keenest eyes in Paris. his fashionable perfume. ? You could sit and work very nicely at this table. Day was dawning already.. this scruffy brat who was worth more than his weight in gold. A cleverly managed bit of concocting. correcting them then most conscientiously. and instead he pondered how he might make use of his newly gained knowledge for more immediate goals. He lay there mute in his damask and parted with those disgusting fluids.

??I don??t know. The last item he lugged over was a demijohn full of high-proof rectified spirit. to hope that he would get so much as a toehold in the most renowned perfume shop in Paris-all the less so. not one thing knocked over. No one knows a thousand odors by name. ??Jean-Baptiste Gre-nouille. ambrosial with ambrosial. indeed. For now that people knew how to bind the essence of flowers and herbs.??You have. as surely as his name was Doctor Procope. that his business was prospering. an excitement burning with a cold flame-then it was this procedure for using fire.. the volatile substances he was inhaling had long since drugged him; he could no longer recognize what he thought had been established beyond doubt at the start of his analysis. right there! In that bottle!?? And he pointed a finger into the darkness. the finest. Tough. his filthiest thoughts lay exposed to that greedy little nose. Grenouille??s body was strewn with reddish blisters. he drowned in it. he had done all he could to make sure that he would be the one to deliver it.

that was it! That was the place for this screaming brat. but without particular admiration. her hair.000 livres. The streets stank of manure. but not so extremely ugly that people would necessarily have taken fright at him. The perfume was glorious.. more despondent than before-as despondent as he was now. Rolled scented candles made of charcoal. which would be an immediate success.He was an especially eager pupil. and mud. And their heads. the House of Giuseppe Baidini began its ascent to national. let alone a perfumer! Just be glad. But then. cold cellar. for instance. Of course he realized that the purpose of perfumes was to create an intoxicating and alluring effect. And since she also knew that people with second sight bring misfortune and death with them. who.

she thought her actions not merely legal but also just. a Parfum de la Marechale de Villar. even through brick walls and locked doors. For a few moments Grenouille panted for breath. When you opened the door.?? How idiotic. resins. the water hauling left him without a dry stitch on his body; by evening his clothes were dripping wet and his skin was cold and swollen like a soaked shammy. resins. without making one wrong move-not a stumble. with no notion of the ugly suspicions raised against you. I??ll make it better. this system grew ever more refined. and sachets and make his rounds among the salons of doddering countesses. it??s bad. ??Don??t you want to. immediately if possible. indeed European renown. I have a journeyman already. and pots. Malaga. soon consisting of dozens of formulas.

There??s jasmine! Alcohol there! Bergamot there! Storax there!?? Grenouille went on crowing. He had just lit the tallow candle in the stairwell to light his way up to his living quarters when he heard a doorbell ring on the ground floor.. he thought. One day the door was flung back so hard it rattled; in stepped the footman of Count d??Argenson and shouted. I??m not in the mood to test it at the moment. Baldini was no longer a great perfumer. defeated.By that time the child had already changed wet nurses three times. The blisters were already beginning to dry out on his skin. Then he pulled back the top one and ran his hand across the velvety reverse side.A FEW WEEKS later. The rest of the stupid stuff-the blossoms. he began to make out a figure. orders for those innovative scents that Paris was so crazy about were indeed coming not only from the provinces but also from foreign courts. till that moment: the odor of pressed silk. The decisions are still in your hands. In the world??s eyes-that is. but simply because the boy had said the name of the wretched perfume that had defeated his efforts at decoding today. in the rush of nausea he would have hurled it like a spider from him. or better. after all.

and then never again. the balm is called storax. pleading.Fifty yards farther. Pascal said that. have created-personal perfumes that would fit only their wearer..Away with it! thought Terrier. benzoin. tosses the knife aside. young man. Gre-nouille saw the whole market smelling. But what does a baby smell like. His most tender emotions.By that time the child had already changed wet nurses three times. and left his study. and yet as before very delicate and very fine. And from time to time. because by the time he has ruined it.BALDINI: Vulgar?CHENIER: Totally vulgar. because the least bit of inattention-a tremble of the pipette. not as rosewood has or iris.

and tinctures. He threw in the minced plants. ??lay them there!??Grenouille stepped out from Baldini??s shadow. To such glorious heights had Baldini??s ideas risen! And now Grenouille had fallen ill. which by rolling its blue-gray body up into a ball offers the least possible surface to the world; which by making its skin smooth and dense emits nothing. He tried to recall something comparable. and saltpeter. ladies and gentlemen of the highest rank used their influence. don??t spill anything. You can smell it everywhere these days. where he was forever synthesizing and concocting new aromatic combinations.By that time the child had already changed wet nurses three times. The crowd stands in a circle around her. slipped into his blue coat. the picture framers. to Pelissier or another one of these upstart merchants-perhaps he would get a few thousand livres for it. stairways. attention. And once again. The people who lived there no longer experienced this gruel as a special smell; it had arisen from them and they had been steeped in it over and over again; it was. very good hides-perhaps he could make gloves from them. ? Who knew-it could make a bad impression.

He made note of these scents. produced countless pustules. In time. that he wanted five bottles of this new scent. bottles. but nothing else. If the rage one year was Hungary water and Baldini had accordingly stocked up on lavender. so. How often have we not discovered that a mixture that smelled delightfully fresh when first tested.And then it began to wail. But for the present. however. The view of a glistening golden city and river turned into a rigid.He walked up the rue de Seine. But she dreaded a communal. but he also had strength of character. and so on. endangering the future of the other children. Grenouille??s body was strewn with reddish blisters. ??Come closer. the staid business sense that adhered to every piece of furniture. Stew meat smells good.

And during that same night. like wet nurse??s milk. It had been dormant for years. After a while he even came to believe that he made a not insignificant contribution to the success of these sublime scents. did not listen to him at all. which had on first encounter so profoundly shaken him. ??because he??s healthy. that floated behind the carriages like rich ribbons on the evening breeze. that morals had degenerated. after long nights of experiment or costly bribes. struck speechless for a moment by this flood of detailed inanity. plus bergamot and extract of rosemary et cetera.????Yes. everyday language soon would prove inadequate for designating all the olfactory notions that he had accumulated within himself. ??And don??t interrupt me when I am speaking. the odor of a cork from a bottle of vintage wine. a shimmering flood of pure gold. pleading.??BALDSNI: Correct. worse. when he had wandered the streets with a boxful of wares dangling at his belly. They tried it a couple of times more.

so balanced. of course. and it may well be that God has given you a passably fine nose. and. But by using the obligatory measuring glasses and scales. A truly Promethean act! And yet. The more Grenouille mastered the tricks and tools of the trade. and then never again. an atom of scent; no.?? said Baidini. for matters were too pressing. He recognized at once the source of the scent that he had followed from half a mile away on the other bank of the river: not this squalid courtyard. It was not the Persian chimes at the shop door.BALDINI: It??s of no consequence at all to me in any case. He had to lift it almost even with his head to be on a level with the funnel that had been inserted in the mixing bottle and into which he poured the alcohol directly from the demijohn without bothering to use a measuring glass. It was one of the hottest days of the year. sniffing greedily. Parfumeur. Baldini enjoyed the blaze of the fire and the flickering red of the flames and the copper. even though he considered them unnecessary; further. but it was impressive nevertheless. And here he had gone and fallen ill.

the left one. and scratch and bore and bite into that alien flesh. Grenouille survived the illness. disgustingly cadaverous. it appears. And now they hoped to discover yet another continent that was said to lie in the South Pacific. and the air at ground level formed damp canals where odors congealed. Such things come only with age. He had something much nastier in mind: he wanted to copy it. rather. He wished that this female would take her market basket and go home and let him alone with her suckling problems. he continued. for it was like the old days. Obviously Pelissier had not the vaguest notion of such matters. But there were also substances with which the procedure was a complete failure. now there. Smell it on every street corner. if he were simply to send the boy back. and that Grenouille did not possess. like a golden ass. And Baldini was playing with the idea of taking care of these orders by opening a branch in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. I??ll make it better.

he inspected the vast rubble of his memory. For all their extravagant variety as they glittered and gushed and crashed and whistled. packed by smart little girls. Because constantly before his eyes now was a river flowing from him; and it was as if he himself and his house and the wealth he had accumulated over many decades were flowing away like the river.. a disease feared by tanners and usually fatal. period. so to speak. in the rush of nausea he would have hurled it like a spider from him. animals. By the end he was distilling plain water. hmm. who had not yet finished his speech. since we know that the decision had been made to dissolve the business. But if you ask me-nothing special! It most certainly can??t be compared in any way with what you will create. keeping his eyes closed tight as he strangled her. But he let the idea go. singing and hurrahing their way up the rue de Seine.BALDINI: As you know. He could clearly smell the scent of Amor and Psyche that reigned in the room. right there. fully human existence.

He lay there mute in his damask and parted with those disgusting fluids. And when the final contractions began. He was shaking with exertion. the wet nurse Jeanne Bussie stood. The prevailing mishmash of odors hit him like a punch in the face. Sometimes there were intervals of several minutes before a shred was again wafted his way. The very fact that she thought she had spotted him was certain proof that there was nothing devilish to be found. but with every breath his outward show of rage found less and less inner nourishment. Grenouille followed him. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. ladies and gentlemen of the highest rank used their influence. But on the whole they seemed to him rather coarse and ponderous. But now he was quivering with happiness and could not sleep for pure bliss. At almost the same moment. equally both satisfied and disappointed; and he straightened up. Baldini can??t pay his bills. He was touched by the way this worktable looked: everything lay ready. ??There are three other ways. with no particular interest but without complaint and with success. while he was too old and too weak to oppose the powerful current. so. The thought suddenly occurred to him-and he giggled as it did-that it made no difference now.

and castor for the next year. and a cunning apparatus to snatch the scented soul from matter. and the diameter of the earth. fourteen years old. and moral admonitions tied to it. with curiosity. and had produced a son with her and he was rocking him here now on his own knees. 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. in fact. in addition to four-fifths alcohol. for only persons of high. pearwood. That is what I shall do. Grenouille yielded nothing except watery secretions and bloody pus. they are simply stenches. blind. flooding the whole world with a distillate of his own making. The mixture would be a failure. quality. swirling the mixing bottles. instantly wearied of the matter and wanted to have the child sent to a halfway house for foundlings and orphans at the far end of the rue Saint-Antoine. But after today.

brass incense holders. Madame unfortunately lived to be very. But never until now had she described it in words. crystal flacons and cruses with stoppers of cut amber. Don??t touch anything yet. and increasingly large doses of perfume sprinkled onto his handkerchief and held to his nose. and in the wrinkles inside her elbow. to Baldini.. But death did not come.?? Grenouille interrupted with a rasp..?? which in a moment of sudden excitement burst from him like an echo when a fishmonger coming up the rue de Charonne cried out his wares in the distance.. just for once to see everything flowing toward him; and for a few moments he basked in the notion that his life had been turned around. Its right fist. that night he forgot. puts you in a good mood at once. the public pounced upon everything. His plan was to create entirely new basic odors. She was not happy that the conversation had all at once turned into a theological cross-examination. who was still a young woman.