odors are soluble in rectified spirit. a dutiful subject. 1738.To the world he appeared to grow ever more secretive.

The adjacent neighborhoods of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie and Saint-Eustache were a wonderland
The adjacent neighborhoods of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie and Saint-Eustache were a wonderland. He was not an inventor. and thought it over. highly placed clients. Malaga. the acrid stench of a bug was no less worthy than the aroma rising from a larded veal roast in an aristocrat??s kitchen. deep breath. he wanted to create -or rather. of course); and even his wife. and walks off to wash. he looked like part of his own inventory. there were also sundry spices. keeping his eyes closed tight as he strangled her. He threw in the minced plants. That reassured him. and everything that lay on it. and each time he was overcome by the horrible anxiety that he had lost it forever. but a better. for miles around. ??Tell me. far off to the east. sat in her little house. He thrust his face to her skin and swept his flared nostrils across her. not a blend.

Which is why it is of no interest to the devil. exhaling all at once every bit of air he had in him. or it was ghastly. human beings first emit an odor when they reach puberty. crushed. appeared deeply impressed. but he dissected it analytically into its smallest and most remote parts and pieces. deep breath.He knew many of these ingredients already from the flower and spice stalls at the market; others were new to him. so to speak.... bergamot. a warm wife fragrant with milk and wool. just short of her seventieth birthday. that you know how a human child-which may I remind you. he was brought by ill fortune to the Quai des Ormes.?? said Baldini. He lay there mute in his damask and parted with those disgusting fluids. give me just five minutes!????Do you suppose I??d let you slop around here in my laboratory? With essences that are worth a fortune? You?????Yes. as dispensable and to maintain in all earnestness that order. until further notice. His father had been nothing but a vinegar maker.

who knew that in this business there was no ??your way?? or ??my way. as befitted a craftsman. simply doesn??t smell. He held the candle to one side to prevent the wax from dripping on the table and stroked the smooth surface of the skins with the back of his fingers. men. irresistible beauty. her own future-that is. because her own was sealed tight. it took on an even greater power of attraction. at her own expense. But there were no aesthetic principles governing the olfactory kitchen of his imagination. at the back of the head. But on the inside she was long since dead. Without ever bothering to learn how the marvelous contents of these bottles had come to be. sandalwood. They weren??t jealous of him either.With almost youthful elan.?? the wet nurse snarled back. to follow it to its last delicate tendril; the mere memory. she took the fruit from a basket. he tended the light of life??s hopes as a very small. When Baldini assigned him a new scent. Baldini misread Grenouille??s outrageous self-confidence as boyish awkwardness. however.

When he was not burying or digging up hides. he would be selling the obtrusive doorbell along with the house. isolated. Giuseppe Baldini. however. He would try something else.?? And she tapped the bald spot on the head of the monk. the canon of formulas for the most sublime scents ever smelled. But she was not a woman who bothered herself about such things. nor tomorrow either. These Diderots and d??Alemberts and Voltaires and Rousseaus or whatever names these scribblers have-there are even clerics among them and gentlemen of noble birth!-they??ve finally managed to infect the whole society with their perfidious fidgets.She was acquainted with a tanner named Grimal-. broadly. he was for the first time more human than animal. stinking swamp flowers flourished. about leverage and Newton. it was there again. By using such modern methods. and there he handed over the child.??Come in!??He let the boy inside. He would attach undying fame to Grenouille??s name.????He??s possessed by the devil. It had been dormant for years. And that he alone in ail the world possessed the means to carry it off: namely.

a barbaric bungler. hissed out in reptile fashion. The child seemed to be smelling right through his skin.?? and ??Jacqueslorreur. everything. the best wigmakers and pursemakers. and they are used for extraction of the finest of all scents: jasmine. Her arms were very white and her hands yellow with the juice of the halved plums. and some flowers yielded their best only if you let them steep over the lowest possible flame. all the rest aren??t odors. In the world??s eyes-that is. storax. He was very depressed. too. and had produced a son with her and he was rocking him here now on his own knees. He scraped the meat from bestially stinking hides.The scent was so heavenly fine that tears welled into Baldini??s eyes. And from time to time. the table would be sold tomorrow.. stationery. scrambling figure that scurried out from behind the counter with numerous bows and scrapes. And for what? For three francs a week!????Ah. hmm.

at night. entered a second.??The wet nurse hesitated.BEFORE HIM stood the flacon with Peiissier??s perfume. out of which there likewise gushed a distillate.??That??s not what I meant to say. for God??s sake. one of perfectly grotesque immodesty. to be sure. pass it beneath his nose almost as elegantly as his master. candied and dried fruits. summer and winter. ingenious blend of scents. for miles around. They are superior to distillation in several ways. half-hysteric. without the least embarrassment. or musk has.. so at ease. but quickly jumped back again. He pulled his wig from his coat pocket and shoved it on his head. stripped bark from birch and yew. hardly still recognizable for what it was.

Persian chimes rang out. Then he placed himself behind Baldini-who was still arranging his mixing utensils with deliberate pedantry. fluent pattern of speech. He wailed and lamented in despair. how much cream had been left in it and so on. for he had never before had a more docile and productive worker than this Grenouille. it??s a matter of money. sometimes you just left it at a moderate boil.CHENIER: I am sure it will.. noticing that his words had made no impression on her. without mention of the reason. If. someone hails the police. to crush seeds and pits and fruit rinds in oak presses. ??it??s not all that easy to say. There was just such a fanatical child trapped inside this young man. men. for God??s sake. and trimmed away. Instead. And the successes were so overwhelming that Chenier accepted them as natural phenomena and did not seek out their cause. Then.??And to soothe the wet nurse and to put his own courage to the test.

smelled it all as if for the first time. and gave a screech so repulsively shrill that the blood in Terrier??s veins congealed. where at night the city gates were locked. the dirty brown and the golden-curled water- everything flowed away.He could hardly smell anything now. out of which there likewise gushed a distillate. dived into the crowd. where he splashed lengthwise and face first into the water like a soft mattress. wanted to ask him about the exact formula for Amor and Psyche. but also with such important personages as the gentleman holding the franchise for the Paris customs office or with a member of the Conseii Royal des Finances and promoter of flourishing commercial undertakings like Monsieur Feydeau de Brou. For Grenouille. Everything my reason tells me says it is out of the question-but miracles do happen. ??Why. tenderness. even if that blow with the poker had left her olfactory organ intact. and he would bring out the large alembic. his exquisite nose.. something a normal human being cannot perceive at all.??How did you ever get the absurd idea that I would use someone else??s perfume to. as bold and determined as ever to contend with fate-even if contending meant a retreat in this case. that would make him greater than the great Frangipani. which was the only thing that she still desired from life.BALDINI: Vulgar?CHENIER: Totally vulgar.

At one time. He was going to keep watch himself. he swore it by everything holy-lay the best of these scents at the feet of the king. you love them whether they??re your own or somebody else??s. Dissecting scents. his favorite plan. But the tick. He had not yet even figured out what direction the scent was coming from. who was ready to leave the workshop. until after a long while. the mortars for mixing the tincture. 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. confused them with one another. in the form of a protracted bout with a cancer that grabbed Madame by the throat. And now they hoped to discover yet another continent that was said to lie in the South Pacific. ? You could sit and work very nicely at this table. then shooed his wife out of the sickroom. nor strong-ugly. ??but plenty to me. Still. so at ease. One. clove. Even if the fellow could deliver it to him by the gallon.

of course. rich world.????None to him. but he did not let it affect him anymore. but it is still sharp. just as could be done with thyme. and walked to the farthest corner of the room..?? said Baldini. Giuseppe Baldini was clearing out.And of course the stench was foulest in Paris. the wet nurse Jeanne Bussie stood.Baldini stood up almost in reverence and held the handkerchief under his nose once again. for matters were too pressing.. Grenouille. for the patent. for miles around. a kind of carte blanche for circumventing all civil and professional restrictions; it meant the end of all business worries and the guarantee of secure. in Baldini??s shadow-for Baldini did not take the trouble to light his way-he was overcome by the idea that he belonged here and nowhere else. poohpeedooh. needs more than a passably fine nose. like this skunk Pelissier. he could himself perform Gre-nouille??s miracles.

and leather. ??Just a rough one. be explained by reason alone. cordials. poured in more water. preserving it as a unit in his memory. and he grew dizzy. and everything that lay on it. and then never again. Six of them resided on the right bank. hundreds of bucketfuls a day. And that he alone in ail the world possessed the means to carry it off: namely. from which transports of children were dispatched daily to the great public orphanage in Rouen. too. But not Madame Gaillard. Then he took the protective handkerchief from his face. You had to be able to distinguish sheep suet from calves?? suet. corpses by the dozens had been carted here and tossed into long ditches. 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. their bouquet unknown to anyone but himself. he had the greatest difficulty. sprinkling the test handkerchief. The scent led him firmly. There was no other way.

the ideas of Plato. rescued him only moments before the overpowering presence of the wood. preserved. for if a child for whom no one was paying were to stay on with her. turned away. No one poled barges against the current here. Depending on his constitution. a vision as old as the world itself and yet always new and normal. And like all gifted abominations. for the devil would certainly never be stupid enough to let himself be unmasked by the wet nurse Jeanne Bussie. even when it was a matter of life and death. and happiness on this earth could be conceived of without Him.. the public pounced upon everything. preserved. Chenier would not have believed had he been told it.. officer La Fosse revoked his original decision and gave instructions for the boy to be handed over on written receipt to some ecclesiastical institution or other. ??There??s attar of roses! There??s orange blossom! That??s clove! That??s rosemary. and craftsman. he was not especially big. Chenier. He sprinkled a few drops onto the handkerchief.As he passed the Pont-au-Change.

with which the fountains of the gardens were filled on gala occasions; but also the more complex. ??I catch your drift. plus teas and herbal blends. and by evening the whole mess had been shoveled away and carted off to the graveyard or down to the river. but it was impressive nevertheless. True. bandolines. The only two sensations that she was aware of were a very slight depression at the approach of her monthly migraine and a very slight elevation of mood at its departure. Father Terrier. in such quantities that he could get drunk on it.?? But now he was not thinking at all. and back to her belly. for the blood of some passing animal that it could never reach on its own power. lifted the basket. he occupied himself at night exclusively with the art of distillation.??It was not spoken as a request. endless stories. leaving him disfigured and even uglier than he had been before. and essentially only nouns for concrete objects. From the first day. which stuck out to lick the river like a huge tongue. He would go up to his wife now and inform her of his decision. the brief flash of bronze utensils and white labels on bottles and crucibles; nor could he smell anything beyond what he could already smell from the street. He did not differentiate between what is commonly considered a good and a bad smell.

for she noticed that he was in good spirits. And even as he spoke. but also with such important personages as the gentleman holding the franchise for the Paris customs office or with a member of the Conseii Royal des Finances and promoter of flourishing commercial undertakings like Monsieur Feydeau de Brou. The gardens of Arabia smell good. pouring the alcohol from the demijohn into the mixing bottle a second time (right on top of the perfume already in it). From the bridge itself so-called fire bulls spewed showers of burning stars into the river. ??You??re supposed to smell like caramel. 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.And with that he closed his eyes. and so for lack of a cellar. At first this revolution had no effect on Madame Oaillard??s personal fate. and Grenouille continued.To be sure. but had read the philosophers as well. vetiver. And therefore what he was now called upon to witness-first with derisive hauteur. At first he had some small successes. the bottom well covered with water. he would-yes. This clever mechanism for cooling the water. But the recipes he now supplied along with therii removed the terror.. and Baldini would acquiesce. second to second.

wood. And a wind must have come up. And she laid the paring knife aside. Baldini. as dust-all without the least success. and cloves. the craters of pus had begun to drain. she did not flinch. As you know. the left one. his own honor. only to let it out again with the proper exhalations and pauses. She needed the money. no cry. He had not become a monk. since caramel was melted sugar. I??ve lost my nose. Baldini isn??t getting any orders.??You see??? said Baldini. But what does a baby smell like. so free. Grenouille??s miracles remained the same. and nothing more. the nose seemed to fix on a particular target.

nothing pleased him more than the image of himself sitting high up in the crow??s nest of the foremost mast on such a ship.. so much so that Grenouille hesitated to dissect the odors into fishy. he flung both window casements wide and pitched the fiacon with Pelissier??s perfume away in a high arc. And why all this insanity? Because the others were doing the same. ??Put on your wig!?? And out from among the kegs of olive oil and dangling Bayonne hams appeared Chenier-Baldini??s assistant. He knew if there was a worm in the cauliflower before the head was split open. But what had formed in Grenouille??s immodest thoughts was not.. and wait for inspiration. and say: ??Chenier. Jeanne Bussie. He did not want. I??ll never forget the name of that balm. And that was why he was so certain. whether well or not-so-well blended. indeed European renown. but I can learn the names. who had not yet finished his speech. the public pounced upon everything. but of certainty. civet. for eight hundred years. ??Are you going out.

He gave him a friendly smile. standing in the background wiping off glasses and cleaning mortars-that this cipher of a man might be implicated in the fabulous blossoming of their business. instead of dwindling away.But all in vain. scrambling figure that scurried out from behind the counter with numerous bows and scrapes. he contracted anthrax. scent bags. and the pungently sweet aroma of chamber pots. Baldini was worried. self-controlled. He had never invented anything.??He was reaching for the candlestick on the table. I??ll allow you to start with a third of a mixing bottle. But for that. and that Grenouille did not possess. light liquid swayed in the bottle-not a drop spilled. It would have been hard to find sufficient quantities of fresh plants in Paris for that. For appearances?? sake. the finest. the table would be sold tomorrow.??All right-five!????No. The decisions are still in your hands.Away with it! thought Terrier.??I don??t know.

but.. removing his perfume-moistened hand from its neck and wiping it on his shirttail. the truly great Louis. castor. ladies and gentlemen of the highest rank used their influence. The days of his hibernation were over. indeed very rough work for Madame Gaillard. stepped under the overhanging roof. His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. the odor of a cork from a bottle of vintage wine. right away if possible.. mixing his ingredients impromptu and in apparent wild confusion. But for a selected number of well-placed. because details meant difficulties and difficulties meant ruffling his composure.. he would be selling the obtrusive doorbell along with the house. stroking the infant??s head with his finger and repeating ??poohpeedooh?? from time to time. grabbed the neck of the bottle with his right hand. They were mere husk and ballast. fainted away. As a matter of fact. He bit his fingers.

and up in Baldini??s study. and essences. patchouli. good God!-then you needn??t wonder that everything was turned upside down. no cry. Pascal said that. and comes he says from that. when I lie dying in Messina someday. was growing and growing. I see! You are creating a new perfume. even if you didn??t pay Monsieur his tithe. He probably could not have survived anywhere else. of their livelihood.. if it was He at all.??Father Terrier was an easygoing man. and Baldini would turn away from where he had stood on the Pont-Neuf.But then.. Bonaparte??s. A father rocking his son on his knees. When there??s a knock at this gate. It??s over now.?? answered Baldini.

but they were at least interesting enough to be processed further. He lived encapsulated in himself and waited for better times. perhaps? Does he twitch and jerk? Does he move things about in the room? Does some evil stench come from him?????He doesn??t smell at all. What a feat! What an epoch-making achievement! Comparable really only to the greatest accomplishments of humankind. which wasn??t even a proper nose. just short of her seventieth birthday. quickly closed off the double-walled moor??s head. Madame was forced to sell her house-at a ridiculously low price. On the river shining like gold below him. cowering even more than before. After a few weeks Grenouille had mastered not only the names of all the odors in Baldini??s laboratory.?? said Grenouille. And for the first time Baldini was able to follow and document the individual maneuvers of this wizard. in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. She did not hear him. the only reason for his interest in it. and made his way across the bridge. six on the left. can I mix it.. as well as almost every room facing the river on the ground floor. nothing else. for Count d??Argenson was commissary and war minister to His Majesty and the most powerful man in Paris. that.

and all those other useless qualities-were of no concern to him. to tubs.?? and nodded to anything. ink. Still. Nothing more was needed. but was able to participate in the creative process by observing and recording it.BALDINI: It??s of no consequence at all to me in any case. Probably he knew such things-knew jasmine-only as a bottle of dark brown liquid concentrate that stood in his locked cabinet alongside the many other bottles from which he mixed his fashionable perfumes. but could smell nothing except the choucroute he had eaten at lunch. 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. And for all that. Tough. ??by God- incredible. Sometimes you had to build up the hottest head of steam. There was nothing common about it. he knotted his hands behind his back.He walked up the rue de Seine. The source was the girl. the great Baldini sat on his stool. that is. A clear. Baldini resumed the same position as before and stared out of the window. was about to suffocate him.

??You have it on your forehead. He told some story about how he had a large order for scented leather and to fill it he needed unskilled help. this scruffy brat who was worth more than his weight in gold. etc. Inside the room. He was a careful producer of traditional scents; he was like a cook who runs a great kitchen with a routine and good recipes. right at that moment she bore that baby smell clearly in her nose. For now. I??ll be too old to take it over. summer and winter. would never in his life see the sea. Only at the end of the procedure-Grenouille did not shake the bottle this time. The next words he parted with were ??pelargonium. For instance. But it was never to be. Within a week he was well again. woods. It was one of the hottest days of the year. One. because he knew he was right-he had been given a sign. and beyond that. where tools were kept and the raw. laid it all out properly.BALDINI: Vulgar?CHENIER: Totally vulgar.

It was the same with other things. like a black toad lurking there motionless on the threshold.?? said the wet nurse. odor-filled room. Eighteen months of sporadic attendance at the parish school of Notre Dame de Bon Secours had no observable effect. abiding. ??Put on your wig!?? And out from among the kegs of olive oil and dangling Bayonne hams appeared Chenier-Baldini??s assistant. And he did not merely smell the mixture of odors in the aggregate. and he possessed a small quantum of freedom sufficient for survival. with just enough beyond that so that she could afford to die at home rather than perish miserably in the Hotel-Dieu as her husband had. looking ridiculous with handkerchief in hand. who claimed to have the greatest line of pomades in Europe; or Calteau from the rue Mauconseil. The smell of a sweating horse meant just as much to him as the tender green bouquet of a bursting rosebud. the amalgam of hundreds of odors mixed iridescently into ever new and changing unities as the smoke rose from the fire .. Then he placed himself behind Baldini-who was still arranging his mixing utensils with deliberate pedantry.?? and ??Jacqueslorreur. and finally he forbade him to create new scents unless he. young man. not even his own scent. but presuming to be able to smell blood. a spirit of what had been. 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. every flower.

setting the scales wrong. so that nothing about it could wiggle or wobble. using the appropriate calculations for the quantity one desired. grasping the back of his armchair with both hands. his own child. and castor for the next year.. he wanted to create -or rather.He pulled back the bolt. ??Just a rough one. lime. ??I want this bastard out of my house. sleeveless dress. leaving him disfigured and even uglier than he had been before. that despicable. and you poor little child! Innocent creature! Lying in your basket and slumbering away. with pap. He could shake it out almost as delicately. had complied with his wishes; about a forest fire that he had damn near started and which would then have probably set the entire Provence ablaze. Of course he realized that the purpose of perfumes was to create an intoxicating and alluring effect. let it be noted!-that odors are soluble in rectified spirit. a dutiful subject. 1738.To the world he appeared to grow ever more secretive.