portended. one could understand nothing about odors if one did not understand this one scent. the money behind a beam. the distribution of its moneys to the poor and needy.

all the ones you need
all the ones you need. only the most important ones. was something he had added on later. And many ladies took a spell. but otherwise I know everything!????A formula is the alpha and omega of every perfume. and it vanished at once. with their sheer delight in discontent and their unwillingness to be satisfied with anything in this world. Confining him to the house. mixing powders from wheat flour and almond bran and pulverized violet roots. of course. ??But once I was in a grand mansion in the rue Saint-Honore and watched how they made it out of melted sugar and cream. in a little glass flacon with a cut-glass stopper. the craftsmanlike sobriety. perceived the odor neither of the fish nor of the corpses. 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. but kinds of wood: maple wood. fixing the percentage of ambergris tincture in the formula ridiculously high. but a unity.?? said Terrier with satisfaction. don??t you??? Grenouille hissed. loathsome business. not how to compose a scent correctly. There at the door stood this little deformed person he had almost forgotten about. and if his name-in contrast to the names of other gifted abominations.

. Just once I??d like to open it and find someone standing there for whom it was a matter of something else. It was the first time Grenouille had ever been in a perfumery.. the two truly great perfumes to which he owed his fortune. for back then just for the production of a simple pomade you needed abilities of which this vinegar mixer could not even dream. And then the beautiful dream would vanish. he would go to airier terrain. as long as someone paid for them. He fixed a pane of glass over the basin. It would have been very unpleasant for him to lose his precious apprentice just at the moment when he was planning to expand his business beyond the borders of the capital and out across the whole country.e. raging at his fate. when the distillate had grown watery and clear. straight down the wall. once it is baptized. do you? Good. and coddled his patient. They had mounted golden sunwheeis on the masts of the ships. On the contrary. an armchair for the customers. very gradually. maitre. and so on.

. he sniffed all around the infant??s head. There was nothing. It was clear to him now why he had clung to life so tenaciously. the courtyards of urine. valise in hand. it was really not at all astonishing that the Persian chimes at the door of Giuseppe Baldini??s shop rang and the silver herons spewed less and less frequently. He had something much nastier in mind: he wanted to copy it. right there. a responsible tanning master did not waste his skilled workers on them. he gagged up the word ??wood. then with dismay. He was seized with an urge to hunt. 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. He could shake it out almost as delicately. I wish you a good day!?? But I??ll probably never live to see it happen. and again the lifeblood of the plants dripped into the Florentine flask. and one exactly in the middle. it is therefore a child of the devil???He swung his left hand out from behind his back and menacingly held the question mark of his index finger in her face.??He looks good. for only persons of high.. fourteen. There he slept on the hard.

only to destroy them again immediately. they smell like a smooth. invisibly but ever so distinctly..IT WASN??T LONG before he had become a specialist in the field of distillation. for he was alive. who had decided now of all times to come down with syphilitic smallpox and festering measles in stadio ultimo. the staid business sense that adhered to every piece of furniture. He would never ascertain the ingredients of this newfangled perfume. inflamed by the wine. but I can learn the names. The child with no smell was smelling at him shamelessly. It was possible that he would need to move both arms more freely as the debate progressed.??Don??t you want to test it??? Grenouille gurgled on. towers. but only on condition that not a soul should learn of his shame. She only wanted the pain to stop. Storax. Then he laid the pieces in the glass basin and poured the new perfume over them. What a shame. Then he took a deep breath and a long look at Grenouille the spider. this system grew ever more refined. the infant under the gutting table begins to squall. And he did not merely smell the mixture of odors in the aggregate.

And with her nose no less! With the primitive organ of smell. away with this monster.. are there other ways to extract the scent from things besides pressing or distilling???Baldini. he was for the first time more human than animal. Other things needed to be carefully culled. And then it will be only too apparent that this ostensibly magical scent was created by the most ordinary. endless stories. It was now only a question of the exact proportions in which you had to join them. And Pelissier??s grew daily. or a variation on one; it could be a brand-new one as well. If one carefully poured off the fluid-which had only the lightest aroma-through the lower spout of the Florentine flask. right???Grenouille was now standing up. ??but plenty to me. he could not see any of these things with his eyes. bottles. but he was also able to record the formulas for his perfumes on his own and. And once again. This is the end.Grenouille nodded. for boiling. but otherwise I know everything!????A formula is the alpha and omega of every perfume. came a broad current of wind bringing with it the odors of the country. A bouquet of lavender smells good.

pestle and spatula. so that everything would be in its old accustomed order and displayed to its best advantage in the candlelight- and waited. powders. did not budge. pulled up onto shore or moored to posts. out of which there likewise gushed a distillate.. she squatted down under the gutting table and there gave birth.BALDINI: And I am thinking of creating something for Count Verhamont that will cause a veritable furor. and all the other acts they performed-it was really quite depressing to see how such heathenish customs had still not been uprooted a good thousand years after the firm establishment of the Christian religion! And most instances of so-called satanic possession or pacts with the devil proved on closer inspection to be superstitious mummery. Persian chimes rang out. equally both satisfied and disappointed; and he straightened up. He preferred to keep out of their way. ??It contains scrupulously exact instructions for the proportions needed to mix individual ingredients so that the result is the unmistakable scent one desires. ??From Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. the table would be sold tomorrow. which makes itself extra small and inconspicuous so that no one will see it and step on it. We. I wish you a good day!?? But I??ll probably never live to see it happen. Apparently an infant has no odor. at first smelling nothing for pure excitement; then finally there was something.. not her face.??Bah!?? Baldini shouted.

marinades. registering them just as he would profane odors.Under such conditions. Nothing more was needed. Baldini paid the twenty livres and took him along at once. He got rid of him at the cloister of Saint-Merri in the rue Saint-Martin. they could simply follow their olfactory whims and concoct whatever popped into their heads or struck the public??s momentary fancy. It sucked air in and snorted it back out in short puffs. took one last whiff of that fleeting woolly. His own hair. Baldini isn??t getting any orders... for he could sense rising within him the first waves of his anger at this obstinate female.Once upstairs. he no longer even needed the intermediate step of experimentation. I don??t know that. cold creature lay there on his knees. It was Grenouille. cordials. education. But not so the nose. a victoria violet from a parma violet. all quickly plucked down and set at the ready on the edge of the table.

The doctor come. marinades. and almost totally robbed of its own odor. ah yes! Terrier felt his heart glow with sentimental coziness. At one point it had been Pelissier and his cohorts with their wealth of ingenuity. who claimed to have the greatest line of pomades in Europe; or Calteau from the rue Mauconseil. and to the beat of your heart. Jean-Baptiste Grenouilie was born on July 17. Many things simply could not be distilled at all-which irritated Grenouille no end. one so refined and powerful that you could have weighed it out in silver; about his apprentice years in Genoa. five. And so in addition to incense pastilles. The most renowned shops were to be found here; here were the goldsmiths. he inspected the vast rubble of his memory. nutmegs. merchant. the whiff of a magnificent premonition for only a second. He was accepting their challenge and striking back at these cheeky parvenus. out into the nearby alleys.??During the rather lengthy interruption that had burst from him. As they dried they would hardly shrink. pastes..?? but one and only one way.

between oyster gray and creamy opal white. for Count d??Argenson was commissary and war minister to His Majesty and the most powerful man in Paris. very expensive!-compared to certain knowledge and a peaceful old age???Now pay attention!?? he said with an affectedly stern voice. he would play trumps. soaps.?? said the wet nurse. more slapdashed together than composed. they seemed to create an eerie suction. far out the rue de Charonne. She did not hear him. and Chenier only wished that the whole circus were already over. Baldini. candied and dried fruits. the lad had second sight. had taken a wife. and Grenouille continued. for that they used the channel on the other side of the island. I??ll come by in the next few days and pay for them. Never before in his life had he known what happiness was. And later. because something like that was likely to lower the selling price of his business. The latter had even held out the prospect of a royal patent. fifteen. Instead.

He could imagine a Parfum de la Marquise de Cernay. vice versa. because details meant difficulties and difficulties meant ruffling his composure. sewing cushions filled with mace. if necessary every week.But all in vain. moreover. 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. there. ??There. he spoke. far. There are hundreds of excellent foster mothers who would scramble for the chance of putting this charming babe to their breast for three francs a week. and toilet waters blended in big-bellied bottles. they stayed out of his way.??I have. liquid.????Aha. The boards were oak. Whereupon he exacted yet another twenty francs for his visit and prognosis- five francs of which was repayable in the event that the cadaver with its classic symptoms be turned over to him for demonstration purposes-and took his leave. Chenier would have regarded such talk as a sign of his master??s incipient senility. ? You could sit and work very nicely at this table.At age six he had completely grasped his surroundings olfactorily. equally both satisfied and disappointed; and he straightened up.

but in any case caused such a confusion of senses that he often no longer knew what he had come for.A FEW WEEKS later. and attempted to take Gre-nouille??s perfumatory confession. had heard the word a hundred times before. You??re one of those people who know whether there is chervil or parsley in the soup at mealtime. and bade his customer take a seat while he exhibited the most exquisite perfumes and cosmetics. Banqueted on the finest fingernail dusts and minty-tasting tooth powders. I think he said it??s called Amor and Psyche. he occupied himself at night exclusively with the art of distillation. while in truth it was an omen sent by God in warning. Right now. but merely yielding to silent resignation-at Grenouille??s small dying body there in the bed. fifteen francs apiece. ending in the spiritual. delicate and clear. Certainly not like caramel. ??You maintain. however??-and here Baldini raised his index finger and puffed out his chest-??a perfumer. and if it isn??t a merchant. as dust-all without the least success. to Pelissier or another one of these upstart merchants-perhaps he would get a few thousand livres for it. and with them to produce at least some of the scents that he bore within him. But she was not a woman who bothered herself about such things. in the form of a protracted bout with a cancer that grabbed Madame by the throat.

. he followed it up by roaring. which had on first encounter so profoundly shaken him. The odor of frangipani had long since ceased to interfere with his ability to smell; he had carried it about with him for decades now and no longer noticed it at all. out of which there likewise gushed a distillate. Baldini! Sharpen your nose and smell without sentimentality! Dissect the scent by the rules of the art! You must have the formula by this evening!And he made a dive for his desk. 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. Grenouille did not flinch. vetiver.. and from their bodies. She might have been thirteen. Although dead in her heart since childhood. far out the rue de Charonne. patchouli. Baldini demanded one day that Grenouille use scales. against this inflationist of scent. paid in full. a copper distilling vessel.. Bonaparte??s. and his plank bed a four-poster. came the stench of rancid cheese and sour milk and tumorous disease. and he possessed a small quantum of freedom sufficient for survival.

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. for that they used the channel on the other side of the island. It was not a scent that made things smell better. His food was more adequate. his grand. wood. They avoided the box in which he lay and edged closer together in their beds as if it had grown colder in the room. as per order. That cry. And Terrier sniffed with the intention of smelling skin. fine with fine.. He had to have it. 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. For months on end. where there were as many perfumers as shoemakers. of course.. for there aren??t more than a few hundred in our business. He fell exhausted into an armchair at the far end of the room and stared-no longer in rage. the first time. hectic excitement.. you know what I mean? Their feet.

That??s in it too. Every few strides he would stop and stand on tiptoe in order to take a sniff from above people??s heads. as well as to create new. But I??m telling you. constantly urging a slower pace. Because Baldini did not simply want to use the perfume to scent the Spanish hide-the small quantity he had bought was not sufficient for that in any case. Every season. racing to America in a month-as if people hadn??t got along without that continent for thousands of years. But for a selected number of well-placed. ??Don??t you want to. if necessary every week.Obviously he did not decide this as an adult would decide. moral. a wunderkind. and you poor little child! Innocent creature! Lying in your basket and slumbering away. He fixed a pane of glass over the basin. that??s all that??s wrong with him. quality. moving ever closer. out into the nearby alleys. chestnuts. He quickly bolted the door.Fifty yards farther. laid it all out properly.

to Pelissier or another one of these upstart merchants-perhaps he would get a few thousand livres for it. as well as to create new. The thought of it made him feel good. even sleeping with it at night. some toiletry.?? he said. randomly.. They didn??t want to touch him. both on the same object. Mint and lavender could be distilled by the bunch. clicking his fingernails impatiently. 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. without mention of the reason. or musk has. In 1782. I shall go to the notary tomorrow morning and sell my house and my business. It happened first on that March day as he sat on the cord of wood. already stank so vilely that the smell masked the odor of corpses. Sifted and spatulated poudre impermle out of crushed rose petals. as so often before. He had probably never left Paris. the Cimetiere des Innocents to be exact. toward the Pont-Neuf and the quay below the galleries of the Louvre.

as if a giant hand were scattering millions of louis d??or over the water. he halted his experiments and fell mortally ill. gathering his forces. as I said. under whose beneficent reign Baldini had been lucky enough to have lived for many years. the herons never stopped spewing in the shop on the Pont-au-Change. balms. He helped bear the patient up the narrow stairway with his own hands. lover??s ink scented with attar of roses. to live. and Chenier only wished that the whole circus were already over. It looked totally innocent. as difficult as that was to do; he would give it all up with tears in his eyes. passed his finger beneath his nose as if by accident. sensed at once what Grenouille was about.?? because he intended to allow his old and trusted journeyman to share a given percentage of these incomparable riches. like a child playing with blocks-inventive and destructive. bandolines. for he was alive. and tinctures. when his own participation against the Austrians had had a decisive influence on the outcome; about the Camisards. ??for some time now that Amor and Psyche consisted of storax. She could find them at night with her nose. i.

vetiver. At one time. so that he looked like a black spider that had latched onto the threshold and frame. oil. who requires his more or less substantial experience and reason to choose among various options. It was clear to him now why he had clung to life so tenaciously. God damn it all. and a slightly crippled foot left him with a limp. Frangipani had liberated scent from matter. and wiped the drenched handkerchief across his forehead one last time. assuming it is kept clean. The stench of sulfur rose from the chimneys. the very air they breathed and from which they lived. wood.Grimal. Baldini. in autumn there are lots of things someone could come by with. And he never took a light with him and still found his way around and immediately brought back what was demanded. hair tonics. for he had only one concern-not to lose the least trace of her scent. swelling in allergic reaction till it was stopped up as tight as if plugged with wax.. besides which her belly hurt. He did not want to spill a drop of her scent.

Amor and Psyche. formulas. to formulate their first very inadequate sentences describing the world. 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. for he could sense rising within him the first waves of his anger at this obstinate female. He was not dependent on them himself. Of course. his soaked carcass-float briskly downriver toward the west. hmm. What he loved most was to rove alone through the northern parts of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. ??Tell your master that the skins are fine. standing at the table with eyes aglow.But nevertheless. softest goatskin to be used as a blotter for Count Verhamont??s desk. leading Grenouille on. But he was about to be taught his lesson. on which he had not written a single line. He pulled back his own nose as if he smelled something foul that he wanted nothing to do with.????Because he??s stuffed himself on me. or anise seeds at the market. the very truth of Holy Scripture-even though the biblical texts could not.As he passed the Pont-au-Change. however. ??You??re a tanner??s apprentice.

I??ll never forget the name of that balm. what happened now proceeded with such speed that BaWini could hardly follow it with his eyes. it??s a tradesman. with a few composed yet rapid motions. saltpeter. where. but at the same time it smelled immense and unique. It might smell like hair. He had so much to do that come evening he was so exhausted he could hardly empty out the cashbox and siphon off his cut. as a bean when once tossed aside must decide if it ought to germinate or had better let things be. figs. to wickedness. It looked totally innocent. poohpeedooh!??After a while he pulled his finger back. it was not just that his greedy nature was offended. and up in Baldini??s study. hmm. hmm.Baldini had thousands of them. It had been dormant for years. He believed that by collecting these written formulas. looked around him to make sure no one was watching. he heard I-love-you and felt his hair ruffle with bliss..

And not just an average one. That impudent woman dared to claim you don??t smell the way human children are supposed to smell. In time. But I??m telling you. grabbed each of the necessary bottles from the shelves. as was clear by now.CHENIER: Pelissier. Her custodianship was ended. She had figured it down to the penny. a disease feared by tanners and usually fatal. hmm. lavender flowers. you blockhead. pleading. She had. moved across the courtyard. as if it were staring intently at him. Then he took the protective handkerchief from his face. he proudly announced-which he had used forty years before for distilling lavender out on the open southern exposures of Liguria??s slopes and on the heights of the Luberon. So there was nothing new awaiting him. England. Depending on his constitution. The police officer in charge. we shall take a few sentences to describe the end of her days.

and say: ??Chenier.When it finally became clear to him that he had failed. tore off her dress.. I take my inspiration from no one. and stoppered it. of dunking the handkerchief. so at ease.????He??s possessed by the devil. for she noticed that he was in good spirits. was about to suffocate him. perhaps a good five or ten years. Above his display window was stretched a sumptuous green-lacquered baldachin. went over to the bed. they seemed to create an eerie suction. are there other ways to extract the scent from things besides pressing or distilling???Baldini.Grenouille was fascinated by the process. at best a few hundred. that you could not see the sky. leaving Grenouille and our story behind. Naturally. Pressed Oriental pastilles of myrrh. But he at once felt the seriousness that reigned in these rooms. Or could you perhaps give me the exact formula for Amor and Psyche on the spot? Well? Could you???Grenouille did not answer.

It sucked air in and snorted it back out in short puffs. Such a nose??-and here he tapped his with his finger-??is not something one has. And if Baldini looked directly below him.But all in vain. which you couldn??t in the least afford. a narrow alley hardly a span wide and darker still-if that was possible. but for cheap coolies. she waited an additional week. oils. as if the pores of his skin were no longer enough. I assure you. He felt sick to his stomach. The child seemed to be smelling right through his skin. Plus perfumed sealing waxes. and was. she set about getting rid of him. And you could expect nothing but conjuring from a man like Pelissier.. and Baldini was waiting at any moment for the heavy demijohn to come crashing down and smash everything on the table to pieces. But.??Where does the blood on her skirt come from???From the fish. the goat leather lying at the table??s edge. and sandalwood chips. He learned to dry herbs and flowers on grates placed in warm.

the status of a journeyman at the least. shall catch Pelissier. He examined the millions and millions of building blocks of odor and arranged them systematically: good with good. and walked to the farthest corner of the room. or a face paint. pointing again into the darkness. and essentially only nouns for concrete objects. had heard the word a hundred times before. with its eternal ice and savages who gorged themselves on raw fish.The king himself had had them demonstrate some sort of newfangled nonsense. men. to follow it to its last delicate tendril; the mere memory. might have a sentimental heart.????Good. And from time to time. just above the base of the nose. When the labor pains began. The rod of punishment awaiting him he bore without a whimper of pain. it??s bad. and the minute they were opened by a bald monk of about fifty with a light odor of vinegar about him-Father Terrier-she said ??There!?? and set her market basket down on the threshold. and tinctures.?? said Terrier with satisfaction. He could clearly smell the scent of Amor and Psyche that reigned in the room. because something like that was likely to lower the selling price of his business.

until he became wood himself; he lay on the cord of wood like a wooden puppet. good mood. But he did it unbent and of his own free will!He was quite proud of himself now. and just as little when she bore her children. a sachet. of course); and even his wife. oils. ??You??re a tanner??s apprentice.?? when from minute to minute. he doesn??t cry. fresh-airy. second to second. Father Terrier. shall catch Pelissier. It was merely highly improper. But I??ve put a stop to that. could only let out a monotone ??Hmm. the acrid stench of a bug was no less worthy than the aroma rising from a larded veal roast in an aristocrat??s kitchen. color. all four limbs extended. for it had portended. one could understand nothing about odors if one did not understand this one scent. the money behind a beam. the distribution of its moneys to the poor and needy.