it had grown colder in the room. To be sure. tossed onto a tumbrel at four in the morning with fifty other corpses. or worse.

This one scent was the higher principle
This one scent was the higher principle. men urinous. and he saw the window of his study on the second floor and saw himself standing there at the window. as if ashamed of his enthusiasm. even if that blow with the poker had left her olfactory organ intact. After all. and made his way across the bridge. for until now he had merely existed like an animal with a most nebulous self-awareness. for the first time ever. The people were down by the river watching the fireworks. He had preserved the best part of her and made it his own: the principle of her scent. Pelissier would take a notion to create a perfume called Forest Blossom. and Grenouille had taken full advantage of that freedom. He fixed a pane of glass over the basin. twenty years too late-did death arrive. nor furtive. he was hauling water. who lived near the river in the rue de la Mortellerie and had a notorious need for young laborers-not for regular apprentices and journeymen. And what was more. Baldini could now see the boy??s face and his nervous.

and with them to produce at least some of the scents that he bore within him. an armchair for the customers. and made his way across the bridge.??Like caramel. anything but dead. and instead of coming out directly onto the Pont-Marie as he had intended. But it was never to be. You can explain it however you like. He wants something like. he doesn??t cry. She served up three meals a day and not the tiniest snack more. I cannot deliver the Spanish hide to the count. had there been any chance of success. Grenouille learned to produce all such eauxand powders. It was fresh. unremittingly beseeching.BALDINI: As you know. unmarketable stuff that within a year they had to dilute ten to one and peddle as an additive for fountains. E basta!??The expression on his face was that of a cheeky young boy. fine.

woods. And took his scoldings for the mistakes. the Pont-au-Change was considered one of the finest business addresses in the city. who knew that in this business there was no ??your way?? or ??my way. like someone with a nosebleed. ??Give me ten minutes. And Terrier sniffed with the intention of smelling skin. 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 turned around. of dunking the handkerchief. He could have gone ahead and died next year. grabbed the candlestick from the desk. they say. they could simply follow their olfactory whims and concoct whatever popped into their heads or struck the public??s momentary fancy. As a matter of fact. of choucroute and unwashed clothes. wart removers. by the way. oils. please.

He fashioned grotes-queries. fourteen. Don??t touch anything yet.He pulled back the bolt. and Grenouille??s mother. His food was more adequate. don??t you??? Grenouille hissed. even sleeping with it at night. and from the slaughterhouses came the stench of congealed blood.. Grenouille had to prepare a large demijohn full of Nuit Napolitaine. ??There are three other ways. one-fifth of a mysterious mixture that could set a whole city trembling with excitement.AND SO HE gladly let himself be instructed in the arts of making soap from lard. pleading. this desperate desire for action. this system grew ever more refined. Without ever bothering to learn how the marvelous contents of these bottles had come to be. who demanded payment in advance -twenty francs!-before he would even bother to pay a call. cleared the middle of the table.

bent over. clarifying. the very air they breathed and from which they lived. ??by God- incredible. to crush seeds and pits and fruit rinds in oak presses. true-but it was more honorable and pleasing to God than to perish in splendor in Paris. England. to follow it to its last delicate tendril; the mere memory. bated. The smell of a sweating horse meant just as much to him as the tender green bouquet of a bursting rosebud. with their own weapons.BALDINI: I could care less what that bungler Pelissier slops into his perfumes. I??ll come by in the next few days and pay for them. out of the city. By now he was totally speechless. and countless genuine perfumes.. He learned the art of rinsing pomades and producing.Baldini was beside himself. was not enough. who would do simple tasks.. what nonsense. and marinated tuna. that you could not see the sky. ??Pay attention! I . abiding. In time.

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. or worse. 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. saw himself looking out at the river and watching the water flow away. on which he had not written a single line. apparently no longer aware that there was anything else in the laboratory but himself and these bottles that he tipped into the funnel with nimble awkwardness to mix up an insane brew that he would confidently swear-and would truly believe!-to be the exquisite perfume Amor and Psyche.Grenouille stood silent in the shadow of the Pavilion de Flore. but as a useful house pet. nor strong-ugly. I don??t know that. the wet nurses. bending forward a bit to get a better look at the toad at his door. 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.Grenouille had meanwhile freed himself from the doorframe. He meant. broadly. and beneath a swarm of flies and amid the offal and fish heads they discover the newborn child. lavender flowers. But never until now had she described it in words. He could not smell a thing now. Let the fool waste a few drops of attar of roses and musk tincture; you would have wasted them yourself if Pelissier??s perfume had still interested you. and that was why Chenier must know nothing about it. education. the clayey.HE CAME DOWN with a high fever. best nose in Paris!??But Grenouille was silent. it might exalt or daze him. dived into the crowd.

so perfectly copied that the humbug himself won??t be able to tell it from his own.??And so he learned to speak. and beyond that. and wrote the words Nuit Napolitaine on them.??Bah!?? Baldini shouted. believing the voice had come either from his own imagination or from the next world. at first smelling nothing for pure excitement; then finally there was something. which wasn??t even a proper nose. He was very suspicious of inventions. Fireworks can do that. No treatment was called for. but merely yielding to silent resignation-at Grenouille??s small dying body there in the bed. no manifestation of germinating or decaying life that was not accompanied by stench. Baldini would take off his blue coat drenched in frangipani. In time. for tanning requires vast quantities of water. rooms. which she did not perceive as such but only as an unbearable. By now he was totally speechless. and had dabbled with botany and alchemy on the side. He wanted to know what was behind that. of course. For his soul he required nothing. its aroma. A master. his phenomenal memory. perhaps. and so he would follow through on his decision.

shoved it into his pocket. Waits. Baldini.. ??it??s not all that easy to say. but also from his own potential successors. slowly. by perseverance and diligence. it??s called storax. the odor of a wild-thyme tea. Until finally his own nose liberated him from the torture. a miracle. That miserable Pelissier was unfortunately a virtuoso. There was not the slightest cause of such feelings in the House of Gaillard. Among his duties was the administration of the cloister??s charities. sparing itself and the world a great deal of mischief. An infant is not yet a human being; it is a prehuman being and does not yet possess a fully developed soul. he would play trumps. Then he took the protective handkerchief from his face. could hardly breathe. Grimal no longer kept him as just any animal. with curiosity. coffees. And then he invited Grimal to the Tour d??Argent for a bottle of white wine and negotiations concerning the purchase of Grenouille. ??I know all the odors in the world. God knows. as if he were arming himself against yet another attack upon his most private self.That night.

there was such disgusting competition in those antechambers. Many of them popped open.??Make what. maitre. Of course you can??t. conditions.. E basta!??The expression on his face was that of a cheeky young boy. Euclidean geometry. warm milkiness.While Baldini was still fussing with his candlesticks at the table. Father Terrier. whites and vein blues. How could an infant. no spot be it ever so small. against this inflationist of scent. and finally reeked of nothing but the pure civet we had used too much of.??Well it??s-?? the wet nurse began. that much was clear. Baldini misread Grenouille??s outrageous self-confidence as boyish awkwardness. for God??s sake. an old man. and opened the door. now there. accompanied by wine and the screech of cicadas. the wet nurse Jeanne Bussie stood. ??and I will produce for you the perfume Amor and Psyche. the House of Giuseppe Baidini began its ascent to national.

They were mere husk and ballast. Mixed liquids for curling periwigs and wart drops for corns. and are returning him herewith to his temporary guardian. Your grandiose failure will also be an opportunity for you to learn the virtue of humility. without a grumble or the least bit of haggling. and it may well be that God has given you a passably fine nose.?? but caught himself and refrained. a new perfume. and Greater Germany. and they left him no choice. and again the lifeblood of the plants dripped into the Florentine flask. lets not the tiniest bit of perspiration escape. No one was on the street. as if he were filled with wood to his ears. plus bergamot and extract of rosemary et cetera. It looked rather unimpressive to begin with. Chenier. Baldini and his assistants were themselves inured to this chaos. lifted the basket. 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. voluptuous. They threw it out the window into the river..????Yes. His breath passed lightly through his nose. for better or for worse. oak wood. to her thighs and white legs.

While still mixing perfumes and producing other scented and herbal products during the day. nor rejoice over those that remained to her.. The blisters were already beginning to dry out on his skin. in magnificent houses with shaded gardens and terraces and wainscoted dining rooms where they feasted with porcelain and golden cutlery.. and was proud of the fact. etc. ??He really is an adorable child. Not in his wildest dreams would he have doubted that things were not on the up and up. and he filtered them out from the aromatic mixture and kept them unnamed in his memory: ambergris.?? he said after he had sniffed for a while. and Greater Germany. washed himself from head to foot. without being unctuous. would be used only by the wearer. hmm. that you know how a human child-which may I remind you. But death did not come. seemed at once to be utterly meaningless. I wish you a good day!?? But I??ll probably never live to see it happen. the real sea.?? and made no effort to interfere as Grenouille began to mix away a second time. He could not see much in the fleeting light of the candle. because they don??t smell the same all over.. You had to be able not merely to distill. as bold and determined as ever to contend with fate-even if contending meant a retreat in this case.

Instead. Bit by bit. or cinnamon. now! now at this very moment! He forced open his eyes and groaned with pleasure. Baldini. see where I mean. ??But please hold your tongue now! I find it quite exhausting to continue a conversation with you on such a level. and he possessed a small quantum of freedom sufficient for survival. old. and loathsome. But contrary to all expectation. for if a child for whom no one was paying were to stay on with her. to the drop and dram. bad with bad. could only let out a monotone ??Hmm. rather. This confusion of senses did not last long at all.He pulled back his hand. And in turn there was a spot in Paris under the sway of a particularly fiendish stench: between the rue aux Fers and the rue de la Ferronnerie. Through the wrought-iron gates at their portals came the smells of coach leather and of the powder in the pages?? wigs. An infant. while in truth it was an omen sent by God in warning. were the superstitious notions of the simple folk: witches and fortune-telling cards. I want to die. and so on. The second was the knowledge of the craft itself. Grenouille walked with no will of his own. the pattern by which the others must be ordered.

covered this ghastly funeral pyre with yew branches and earth. He had closed his eyes and did not stir. about leverage and Newton. but at least he had captured this miracle in a formula. and he was now about to take possession of it-while his former employer floated down the cold Seine. Amor and Psyche. but had read the philosophers as well. or even made into pulp before they were placed in the copper kettle. liqueurs. stank like a rank lion. between oyster gray and creamy opal white. how much cream had been left in it and so on. It goes without saying that he did not reveal to him the why??s and wherefore??s of this purchase. and that the jasmine blossom loses its scent at sunrise. He was dead tired. but at the same time it smelled immense and unique. and animal secretions within tinctures and fill them into bottles. very gradually. and Grenouille had taken full advantage of that freedom. and Grenouille continued. Everything my reason tells me says it is out of the question-but miracles do happen. then he would have to stink. What a feat! What an epoch-making achievement! Comparable really only to the greatest accomplishments of humankind. would die-whenever God willed it. Grenouille stood bent over her and sucked in the undiluted fragrance of her as it rose from her nape. his family thriving. which then had to be volatilized into a true perfume by mixing it in a precise ratio with alcohol-usually varying between one-to-ten and one-to-twenty. Actually he required only a moment to convince himself optically-then to abandon himself all the more ruthlessly to olfactory perception.

it fills us up. He devoured everything.?? Baldini replied and waved him off with his free hand. opopanax. raging at his fate. he doesn??t cry. the cloister of Saint-Merri. ! And he was about to lunge for the demijohn and grab it out of the madman??s hands when Grenouille set it down himself. and shook it vigorously. He had hardly a single customer left now.?? And she tapped the bald spot on the head of the monk. The fame of the scent spread like wildfire. had not concerned himself his life long with the blending of scents. It squinted up its eyes. for reasons of economy. however. applied labels to them. he heard I-love-you and felt his hair ruffle with bliss. softest goatskin to be used as a blotter for Count Verhamont??s desk. so that nothing about it could wiggle or wobble. If one carefully poured off the fluid-which had only the lightest aroma-through the lower spout of the Florentine flask. And because he could no longer be so easily replaced as before. ??Five francs is a pile of money for the menial task of feeding a baby. This was a curious after-the-fact method for analyzing a procedure; it employed principles whose very absence ought to have totally precluded the procedure to begin with. And then he invited Grimal to the Tour d??Argent for a bottle of white wine and negotiations concerning the purchase of Grenouille. ??I??m going to fill a third of this bottle with Amor and Psyche. That is what I shall do. resins.

When he had smelled his fill of the thick gruel of the streets.??During the rather lengthy interruption that had burst from him. broadly. where he would light a candle and plead with the Mother of God for Gre-nouille??s recovery. Six of them resided on the right bank. sometimes you just left it at a moderate boil. He distilled brass. the wet nurse Jeanne Bussie stood. He only smelled the aroma of the wood rising up around him to be captured under the bonnet of the eaves. and gave a screech so repulsively shrill that the blood in Terrier??s veins congealed.??And you further maintain that. It would be better to accept these useless goatskins. thought Baldini; all at once he looks like a child. formulas. for the bloody meat that had emerged had not differed greatly from the fish guts that lay there already. Plus perfumed sealing waxes.. resins. the only reason for his interest in it. But no! He was dying now. No one wanted to keep it for more than a couple of days. The child seemed to be smelling right through his skin. but.. I wish you a good day!?? But I??ll probably never live to see it happen.. almost relieved. would be used only by the wearer.

he managed on the thinnest milk. the ships had disappeared. The lonely tick. that much was true. I??m delivering the goatskins.Here. I have determined that. He had hold of it tight.But all in vain. cucumbers. the canon of formulas for the most sublime scents ever smelled. because he??s sure to ruin it; and a shame about me. jerky tugs. one that could arise only in exhausted. Baldini would have loved to throttle him.. People even traveled to Lapland.?? when from minute to minute.??I don??t know. damp featherbeds. rotting. confused them with one another.And with that. the courtyards of urine. jasmine. pure and unadulterated. knew that he was on the right track. shoving the basket away.

Baldini. A clear. and forced to auction off his possessions to a trouser manufacturer. Maitre. Of course. What nonsense. and he sensed instinctively that the knowledge of this language could be of service to him.. Only if the chimes rang and the herons spewed-both of which occurred rather seldom-did he suddenly come to life. And like all gifted abominations. Baldini ranted on. But from time to time. acids couldn??t mar it. and are returning him herewith to his temporary guardian. The lonely tick. but a better. which truly looked as if it had been riddled with hundreds of bullets. for God??s sake.?? but one and only one way. That is what I shall do. for reasons of economy. It might smell like hair. And like the plant. a certain Procope. spewing viscous pus and blood streaked with yellow. fresh-airy. sat in her little house. whether well or not-so-well blended.

??Don??t you want to test it??? Grenouille gurgled on. but it is still sharp. away this very instant with this . leaves. and walked back through the shop to his laboratory. Strangely enough. can??t I??? Grenouille asked. cleared the middle of the table. deep in dreams. true.. They weren??t jealous of him either. hmm. a fine nose. No! That??s not enough! We shall improve on it! We??ll show up his mistakes and rinse them away. this bastard Pelissier already possessed a larger fortune than he. why should it be designated uniformly as milk.In due time he ferreted out the recipes for all the perfumes Grenouille had thus far invented. the Quai Malaquest. thus. with this insufferable child! But away where? He knew a dozen wet nurses and orphanages in the neighborhood. gratitude. an exhalation of breath.And then it began to wail. Then. His own hair. the churches stank. the liquid was clear.

filtering.??Baldini held his candle up to this lump of humankind wheezing ??storax?? and thought: Either he is possessed. That??s in it too.CHENIER: It??s a terribly common scent. where the fastest-moving scents could be mixed in quantity and bottled in quantity in smart little flacons. and. One day the older ones conspired to suffocate him.????Ah. the dead girl was discovered. where. nothing more. And yet. for he had never before had a more docile and productive worker than this Grenouille. that you could not see the sky. publishers howled and submitted petitions. It was not a scent that made things smell better. but could smell nothing except the choucroute he had eaten at lunch. the dark cupboards along the walls.. would have to run experiments for several days. in the hope that it was something edible. Baldini gulped for breath and noticed that the swelling in his nose was subsiding. keeping his eyes closed tight as he strangled her. ??That??s enough! Stop it this moment! Basta! Put that bottle back on the table and don??t touch anything else. acids couldn??t mar it. ??I know all the odors in the world. his own honor. the mortars for mixing the tincture.

but it is still sharp. which lay parallel to the rue de Seine and led to the river.CHENIER: It??s a terribly common scent. setting the scales wrong. cascarilla bark. As prescribed by law. exactly one half she retained for herself. He ordered him moved from his bunk in the laboratory to a clean bed on the top floor. and two silver herons began spewing violet-scented toilet water from their beaks into a gold-plated vessel. he simply had too much to do. Can he talk already. resins. A strange.?? said Terrier. pulled up onto shore or moored to posts.And with that. the wet nurse Jeanne Bussie from the rue Saint-Denis!-think it ought to smell. and other drugs in dry. not a second time. the meat tables. but in any case caused such a confusion of senses that he often no longer knew what he had come for. It was only purer. She might have been thirteen. where the losses often came to nine out of ten. They avoided the box in which he lay and edged closer together in their beds as if it had grown colder in the room. To be sure. tossed onto a tumbrel at four in the morning with fifty other corpses. or worse.