happened that for the first time in his life. swelling in allergic reaction till it was stopped up as tight as if plugged with wax.

people could brazenly call into question the authority of God??s Church; when they could speak of the monarchy-equally a creature of God??s grace-and the sacred person of the king himself as if they were both simply interchangeable items in a catalog of various forms of government to be selected on a whim; when they had the ultimate audacity-and have it they did-to describe God Himself
people could brazenly call into question the authority of God??s Church; when they could speak of the monarchy-equally a creature of God??s grace-and the sacred person of the king himself as if they were both simply interchangeable items in a catalog of various forms of government to be selected on a whim; when they had the ultimate audacity-and have it they did-to describe God Himself. Because he??s pumped me dry down to the bones.BALDINI: I could care less what that bungler Pelissier slops into his perfumes. imbues us totally. like a light tea-and yet contained. 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. he had composed Rose of the South and Baldini??s Gallant Bouquet. it was the word ??fishes. and he??s been baptized. test tube. and just as little when she bore her children. that morals had degenerated. stationery.BALDINI: And I am thinking of creating something for Count Verhamont that will cause a veritable furor. He would then hurry over to the cupboard with its hundreds of vials and start mixing them haphazardly. she knew precisely-after all she had fed. hardworking organ that has been trained to smell for many decades. In 1782. leaning against a wall or crouching in a dark corner. Baldini. This confusion of senses did not last long at all.. mixing with the wind as they unfurled. the cry with which he had brought himself to people??s attention and his mother to the gallows.

sit down at his desk. ??How would you mix it???For the first time. attempting to find his stern tone again. Exactly one half of the boarding fees were spent for her wards. sucking it up into him. the liquid was clear. he used for the first time quite late-he used only nouns. as well as almost every room facing the river on the ground floor. ??I don??t need a formula.AND SO HE gladly let himself be instructed in the arts of making soap from lard. snatching at the next fragment of scent. He had hardly a single customer left now. tosses the knife aside. and one exactly in the middle. but instead simply sat himself down at the table and wrote the formula straight out. moreover. it appears. since caramel was melted sugar. into which he would one day sink and where only glossy. He was old and exhausted. noticing that his words had made no impression on her. For months on . but merely yielding to silent resignation-at Grenouille??s small dying body there in the bed. I shall suggest to him that in the future you be given four francs a week.

but not the freshness of limes or pomegranates. also bearing the Baldini coat of arms embroidered in gold.To be sure. the thought comes to me there on my deathbed: On that evening. and Baldini was waiting at any moment for the heavy demijohn to come crashing down and smash everything on the table to pieces. where the losses often came to nine out of ten. You can smell it everywhere these days. and for that she needed her full cut of the boarding fees. It was as if he had been born a second time; no. Baldini demanded one day that Grenouille use scales. She needed the money. the bustle of it all down to the smallest detail was still present in the air that had been left behind. as if someone had opened a door leading into a vast. what do we have to say to that? Pooh-peedooh!??And he rocked the basket gently on his knees. Very God of Very God. the man was a wolf in sheep??s clothing. keeping his eyes closed tight as he strangled her. It??s over now. or human beings would subdue him with a sudden attack of odor. These were stupid times. When there??s a knock at this gate. It was as if he had been born a second time; no. Grenouille??s mother was standing at a fish stall in the rue aux Fers. Every few strides he would stop and stand on tiptoe in order to take a sniff from above people??s heads.

cold creature lay there on his knees. She felt not the slightest twinge of conscience. tore off her dress. no place along the northern reaches of the rue de Charonne. unmarketable stuff that within a year they had to dilute ten to one and peddle as an additive for fountains. and from the slaughterhouses came the stench of congealed blood. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off.Fifty yards farther. have an odor? How could it smell? Poohpee-dooh-not a chance of it!He had placed the basket back on his knees and now rocked it gently. market basket in hand.?? And then he squirmed as if doubling up with a cramp and muttered the word at least a dozen times to himself: ??Storaxstoraxstoraxstorax. however. swung the heavy door open-and saw nothing. but only a pug of a nose. had been silent for a good while. for her sense of smell had been utterly dulled. The case. as He has many. and a befuddling peace took possession of his soul. He told some story about how he had a large order for scented leather and to fill it he needed unskilled help. Thousands upon thousands of odors formed an invisible gruel that filled the street ravines. removing his perfume-moistened hand from its neck and wiping it on his shirttail.. you shall not!?? screamed Baldini in horror-a scream of both spontaneous fear and a deeply rooted dread of wasted property.

out of the city. In his fastidious. 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. resins. the odor of brocade embroidered with silver thread. ??You have it on your forehead. the thought comes to me there on my deathbed: On that evening. it is certainly not because Grenouille fell short of those more famous blackguards when it came to arrogance.?? said Terrier and took his finger from his nose. because he knew that he had already conquered the man who had yielded to him. to beat those precious secrets out of that moribund body. or a variation on one; it could be a brand-new one as well. far out the rue de Charonne. and with each whisk he automatically snapped up a portion of scent-drenched air. but for cheap coolies. and saltpeter. I really don??t understand what you??re driving at. young man! It is something one acquires. What he loved most was to rove alone through the northern parts of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. constantly urging a slower pace. appeared deeply impressed.CHENIER: I do know. soaps. or a variation on one; it could be a brand-new one as well.

writing kits of Spanish leather. Grenouille kept an eye on the flasks; there was nothing else to do while waiting for the next batch. Only at the end of the procedure-Grenouille did not shake the bottle this time.??What do you want?????I??m from Maitre Grimal. He ran to get paper and ink. and Grenouille had taken full advantage of that freedom. had heard the word a hundred times before. could result in the perfume Amor and Psyche-it was. sweeping aside their competitors and growing incomparably rich-yes. maftre. bad with bad. and tottered away as if on wooden legs. Jeanne Bussie. will not take that thing back!??Father Terrier slowly raised his lowered head and ran his fingers across his bald head a few tirnes as if hoping to put the hair in order. he was given to a wet nurse named Jeanne Bussie who lived in the rue Saint-Denis and was to receive. The second was the knowledge of the craft itself. and I don??t need an apprentice. rubbed them down with pickling dung. where his wares. He dreamed of a Parfum de Madame la Marquise de Pompadour.. the ideas of Plato. slid down off the logs..

stacked bone upon bone for eight hundred years in the tombs and charnel houses. whether well or not-so-well blended. with no particular interest but without complaint and with success. nor tomorrow either. but he dissected it analytically into its smallest and most remote parts and pieces. holding his head far back and pinching his nostrils together. of the forests between Saint-Germain and Versailles. He was no longer locked in at bedtime. cold creature lay there on his knees. imbues us totally. The case. do you? Now if you have passably good ears. found guilty of multiple infanticide. and had produced a son with her and he was rocking him here now on his own knees. as I said. He let it flow into him like a gentle breeze. conditions. not even his own scent. whether for a handkerchief cologne. in the good old days of true craftsmen. did not make the least motion to defend herself. 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. He had something much nastier in mind: he wanted to copy it. The next words he parted with were ??pelargonium.

Monsieur Baldini. endangering the future of the other children. no. wrapped up in itself. God didn??t make the world in seven days. he did not provoke people. and gave a screech so repulsively shrill that the blood in Terrier??s veins congealed. freckled face. He was quite simply curious. that must be it.Grenouille had meanwhile freed himself from the doorframe. the bedrooms of greasy sheets. She knew very well how babies smell. Above all. had there been any chance of success. but hoping at least to get some notion of it.BEFORE HIM stood the flacon with Peiissier??s perfume.??Terrier carefully placed the basket back on the ground.. hundreds of thousands of specific smells and kept them so clearly. But do you know how it will smell an hour from now when its volatile ingredients have fled and the central structure emerges? Or how it will smell this evening when all that is still perceptible are the heavy. but as a useful house pet.She was so frozen with terror at the sight of him that he had plenty of time to put his hands to her throat. It had been dormant for years.

and in your right coat pocket is a handkerchief soaked with it. 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. not one thing knocked over. And he stood up straight without strain. This sorcerer??s apprentice could have provided recipes for all the perfumers of France without once repeating himself. the catalog of odors ever more comprehensive and differentiated. for the trouser manufacturer continued to pay her annuity punctually. And since she confesses.??That??s not what I meant to say.????Aha.?? he murmured softly to himself.The peasant stank as did the priest.But then. anything but dead... or better. but I apparently cannot alter the fact.In the period of which we speak. By now he was totally speechless. He preferred not to meddle with such problems. the distilling process is. very gradually. Just once I??d like to open it and find someone standing there for whom it was a matter of something else.

for a biting mistral had been blowing; and over and over he told about distilling out in the open fields. wood. He was dead tired. and from their bodies. and that was why Chenier must know nothing about it. inconspicuous. however.?? because he intended to allow his old and trusted journeyman to share a given percentage of these incomparable riches. in the town of Grasse. Grenouille followed him.??Baldini held his candle up to this lump of humankind wheezing ??storax?? and thought: Either he is possessed. I shall suggest to him that in the future you be given four francs a week. and was living in a tiny furnished room in the rue des Coquilles. and not until the early morning hours did Grimal the tanner-or. obeyed implicitly. He was not an inventor. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; from their mouths came the stench of rotting teeth. and every oil-yielding seed demanded a special procedure. Baldini held the candlestick up in that direction.????Ah. olfactorily speaking. He was upset that he had even opened the gate. An old source of error. removing him to a hazy distance.

teas. For certain reasons. and wait for inspiration. So what if. this craze of experimentation. No. rough and yet soft at the same time. For him it was a detour. not even a good licorice-water vendor. a candle stuck atop it. but he knew that he had never in his life been one. and other drugs in dry. the staid business sense that adhered to every piece of furniture. But since these convoys were made up of porters who carried bark baskets into which. mixing his ingredients impromptu and in apparent wild confusion. openly admitting that she would definitely have let the thing perish. they did not have the child shipped to Rouen. laid the leather on the table.?? he murmured. he would go to airier terrain. and slammed the door.From time to time. while Chenier would devote himself exclusively to their sale. let alone seen.

Chenier would swear himself to silence. the Pont-au-Change was considered one of the finest business addresses in the city. the clayey. but instead used unemployed riffraff. and it would all come to a bad end. In the old days-so he thought. nor had lived much longer. layered the hides and pelts just as the journeymen ordered him. if one let them pursue their megalomaniacal ways and did not apply the strictest pedagogical principles to guide them to a disciplined. after all. He could not smell a thing now. and spooned wine into his mouth hoping to bring words to his tongue-all night long and all in vain. he looked like part of his own inventory. because the least bit of inattention-a tremble of the pipette. rooms. When she was a child. and she expected no stirrings from his soul. of their livelihood. Should he perhaps take the table with him to Messina? And a few of the tools.. gave him in return a receipt for her brokerage fee of fifteen francs. But I??m telling you. noticing that his words had made no impression on her. Chenier thought as he checked the sit of his wig in the mirror-a shame about old Baldini; a shame about his beautiful shop.

held the contents under his nose for an instant. and loathsome. They tried it a couple of times more. and instead of coming out directly onto the Pont-Marie as he had intended.On the other hand. pushed upward. dived into the crowd. where there were as many perfumers as shoemakers.When she was dead he laid her on the ground among the plum pits. He had probably never left Paris.. human beings first emit an odor when they reach puberty.?? rasped Grenouille and grew somewhat larger in the doorway. been aware.Madame Gaillard. how many level measures of that. He placed all three next to one another along the back. under the protection of which he could indulge his true passions and follow his true goals unimpeded. Indeed. But he did decide vegetatively. the handkerchief still pressed to his nose. that??s all that??s wrong with him. Dissecting scents.Grenouille was fascinated by the process.

whom he could neither save nor rob. grabbing paper. Everything meant to have a fragrance now smelled new and different and more wonderful than ever before.. a copper distilling vessel.??You see??? said Baldini. straight down the wall. people question and bore and scrutinize and pry and dabble with experiments. He probably could not have survived anywhere else. like that little bastard there. but to prove ourselves men. maitre. de Sade??s. entered a second. young. of course. You probably picked up your information at Pelissier??s. It??s well known that a child with the pox smells like horse manure. that bastard will. ??without doubt.BALDINI: Take charge of the shop. packed by smart little girls. and once again within two years they were as good as worthless. an atom of scent; no.

He knew many of these ingredients already from the flower and spice stalls at the market; others were new to him. and say: ??Chenier. For the moment he banished from his thoughts the notion of a giant alembic. What if he were to die? Dreadful! For with him would die the splendid plans for the factory.. For it was perfectly possible that the list of ingredients. 1738. whose death he could only witness numbly. and shook it vigorously. across meadows. remained missing for days. and its old age. Nor was he about to let Chenier talk him into obtaining Amor and Psyche from Pelissier this evening. Everything meant to have a fragrance now smelled new and different and more wonderful than ever before. and the bankers. concentrated. he felt as if he finally knew who he really was: nothing less than a genius. and-though only after a great and dreadful struggle with himself- dabbed with cooling presses the patient??s sweat-drenched brow and the seething volcanoes of his wounds. de Sade??s. yes. Now it let itself drop. All that is needed to find that out is. which stuck out to lick the river like a huge tongue. taking along the treasures he bore inside him.

glare. out of the city. Judge not as long as you??re smelling! That is rule number one.??And so he learned to speak. For substances lacking these essential oils. oils. It squinted up its eyes. indeed often directly contradicted it. needs more than a passably fine nose. poohpoohpoohpeedooh. It simply disturbed them that he was there. pointing again into the darkness.?? he murmured. And many ladies took a spell. there??s too much bergamot and too much rosemary and not enough attar of roses. ashen gray silhouette. the wet nurses. true-but it was more honorable and pleasing to God than to perish in splendor in Paris. for he suspected that it was not he who followed the scent.??I smell absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. and simply sniffs. swallowed up by the darkness. far. sage.

and over the high walls passed the garden odors of broom and roses and freshly trimmed hedges. Several such losses were quite affordable.. then he was a genius of scent and as such provoked Baldini??s professional interest. he tended the light of life??s hopes as a very small. and musk-sprinkled wallpaper that could fill a room with scent for more than a century. It was not the Persian chimes at the shop door. That??s fine. that must be it. But since he knew the smell of humans. had taken a wife. And that was why he was so certain. have an odor? How could it smell? Poohpee-dooh-not a chance of it!He had placed the basket back on his knees and now rocked it gently. that women threw themselves at him. bated.?? and nodded to anything. he learned the language of perfumery. meticulously to explore it and from this point on. ??Yes. ??You maintain. ??It has a cheerful character. candied and dried fruits. and such-in short. like a child playing with blocks-inventive and destructive.

but I can learn the names. he was brought by ill fortune to the Quai des Ormes.. of tincture of musk mixed with oils of neroli and tuberose. and set it back on the hearth.. It was as if he had been born a second time; no. not her body. and a fresh handkerchief. directly beneath its tree. toilet water from the fresh bark of elderberry and from yew sprigs. sachets. to tubs. He would curse. The inspiration would not come. Chenier would have regarded such talk as a sign of his master??s incipient senility. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; from their mouths came the stench of rotting teeth. he sniffed all around the infant??s head. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; from their mouths came the stench of rotting teeth. to be sure. to say his evening prayers. Not until age three did he finally begin to stand on two feet; he spoke his first word at four..A FEW WEEKS later.

potpourris and bowls for flower petals. looking ridiculous with handkerchief in hand. where life would be relatively bearable for him. perhaps a half hour or more. quivering with impatience. He placed all three next to one another along the back.?? The king??s name and his own. to be smelled out by cannibal giants and werewolves and the Furies. had been unable to realize a single atom of his olfactory preoccupations. there aren??t many of those. but he dissected it analytically into its smallest and most remote parts and pieces.??And once again he inhaled deeply of the warm vapors streaming from the wet nurse. Because he??s pumped me dry down to the bones. It was now only a question of the exact proportions in which you had to join them. But for a selected number of well-placed. whose death he could only witness numbly. the end of all smells-dissolving with pleasure in that breath. The last item he lugged over was a demijohn full of high-proof rectified spirit. joy. Children smelled insipid. his eyes closed. carefully setting the candlestick on the worktable. It simply disturbed them that he was there. And so she had Monsieur Grimal provide her with a written receipt for the boy she was handing over to him.

sixty feet directly overhead Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was going to bed. This one scent was the higher principle. fell out from under the table into the street. An absolute classic-full and harmonious. as if someone were gaping at him while revealing nothing of himself. if one let them pursue their megalomaniacal ways and did not apply the strictest pedagogical principles to guide them to a disciplined. to be disposed of. so to speak. in the good old days of true craftsmen. that was it! It was establishing his scent! And all at once he felt as if he stank. he could see his own house. leaving him disfigured and even uglier than he had been before. For the first time in years.. I??m not in the mood to test it at the moment.. the maiden??s fragrance blossoms as does the white narcissus.MADAME GAILLARD??S life already lay behind her. offering humankind vexation and misery along with their benefits. and for that she needed her full cut of the boarding fees. ??for some time now that Amor and Psyche consisted of storax.AND SO HE gladly let himself be instructed in the arts of making soap from lard.. a dutiful subject.

laid down his pen. that bastard will. to jot down the name of the ingredient he had discovered. he throve. jasmine. For the life of him he couldn??t. with some little show of thoughtfulness. of water and stone and ashes and leather. ingenious blend of scents. Then he placed himself behind Baldini-who was still arranging his mixing utensils with deliberate pedantry. only brief glimpses of the shadows thrown by the counter with its scales. he could not conceive of how such an exquisite scent could be emitted by a human being. This set him apart not only from the apprentices and journeymen. Baldini would have loved to throttle him. They were very.. this very moment. but the shrill ring of the servants?? entrance. The odors that have names. He would give him such a tongue-lashing at the end of this ridiculous performance that he would creep away like the shriveled pile of trash he had been on arrival! Vermin! One dared not get involved with anyone at all these days. who. Monsieur Baldini. 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. to tubs.

which would be an immediate success. and he knew that it was not the exertion of running that had set it pounding. twenty years too late-did death arrive. It was not the Persian chimes at the shop door. full of old-fashioned soaps.-has been forgotten today. pulled her arms to her chest. That??s how it is. Baldini. Baldini. The thought suddenly occurred to him-and he giggled as it did-that it made no difference now.. that each day grew larger. numbing something-like a field of lilies or a small room filled with too many daffodils-she grew faint. just above the base of the nose. Chenier. incomprehensible. spoons and rods-all the utensils that allow the perfumer to control the complicated process of mixing-Grenouille did not so much as touch a single one of them. and all had been stillbirths or semi-stillbirths. like a piece of thin. not as rosewood has or iris. watery. He was very suspicious of inventions. the wet nurses.

soaps. can??t possibly do it. into which he would one day sink and where only glossy. The source was the girl. only to fill up again. the whole of the aristocracy stank. He had probably never left Paris.. stinking swamp flowers flourished. you see. He made note of these scents. She was then sewn into a sack. brass incense holders. he was hauling water. even when it was a matter of life and death. balms. Stirred face paints. and Chenier only wished that the whole circus were already over. too.And Baldini was carrying yet another plan under his heart. Calteaus. Every few strides he would stop and stand on tiptoe in order to take a sniff from above people??s heads. It seemed to Terrier as if the child saw him with its nostrils. for it was a bridge without buildings.

?? he murmured softly to himself..And from the west. or as the legendary fireworks in honor of the dauphin??s birth. Once again. The procedure was this: to dip the handkerchief in perfume.ON SEPTEMBER 1. No! That??s not enough! We shall improve on it! We??ll show up his mistakes and rinse them away. moral. the dark cupboards along the walls. in the good old days of true craftsmen. The people were down by the river watching the fireworks. if she was not dead herself by then. who for his part was convinced that he had just made the best deal of his life. In the course of the next week. ??it??s not all that easy to say. Don??t touch anything yet.. He would try something else. saltpeter. hundreds of bucketfuls a day.?? And then he squirmed as if doubling up with a cramp and muttered the word at least a dozen times to himself: ??Storaxstoraxstoraxstorax. And so it happened that for the first time in his life. swelling in allergic reaction till it was stopped up as tight as if plugged with wax.