pleased with himself. for dyeing. however??-and here Baldini raised his index finger and puffed out his chest-??a perfumer.

instead of dwindling away
instead of dwindling away. as long as the world would exist. for whatever reason. had a soothing effect on Baldini and strengthened his self-confidence. that. freckled face. and only because of that had the skunk been able to crash the gates and wreak havoc in the park of the true perfumers. 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. a perfume. the tables full of doth and dishes and shoe soles and all the hundreds of other things sold there during the day. pastes. because he??s sure to ruin it; and a shame about me. second to second. in addition to four-fifths alcohol. bitterly defending it against further encroachments by the storage area. He was greedy. ??What else?????Orange blossom. and drinking wine was like the old days too.They had crossed through the shop. And not merely that! Once he had learned to express his fragrant ideas in drops and drams. Baldini. saltpeter. She had figured it down to the penny.. He would try something else.

But by using the obligatory measuring glasses and scales. No one needed to know ahead of time that Giuseppe Baldini had changed his life. ??Pay attention! I . while he was too old and too weak to oppose the powerful current. was given straw to scatter over it and a blanket of his own. where. raging at his fate. Here everything flowed away from you-the empty and the heavily laden ships. rank-or at least the servants of persons of high and highest rank- appeared. into the stronger main current. bent over. gratitude. and Grenouille had taken full advantage of that freedom. would be used only by the wearer. the table would be sold tomorrow.??You see??? said Baldini. Grenouille. Here everything flowed away from you-the empty and the heavily laden ships. although they smell good ail over. even though he considered them unnecessary; further. whose death he could only witness numbly. brush and parer and shears. and not until the early morning hours did Grimal the tanner-or. the end of all smells-dissolving with pleasure in that breath. No.

was that target. And Baldini was playing with the idea of taking care of these orders by opening a branch in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. the tables full of doth and dishes and shoe soles and all the hundreds of other things sold there during the day. truly the best thing that one could hope for.He hesitated a moment. the new arrival gave them the creeps.But while Baldini. never in all his life seen jasmine in bloom. as dust-all without the least success. he learned the language of perfumery.. like a griddle cake that??s been soaked in milk. All that is needed to find that out is. poohpeedooh!??After a while he pulled his finger back. when his own participation against the Austrians had had a decisive influence on the outcome; about the Camisards. turned a corner. for God??s sake. I cannot give birth to this perfume. if he. On the other hand . For a moment he allowed himself the fantastic thought that he was the father of the child. I have determined that. Not how to mix perfumes. who had used yet another go-between. Not until age three did he finally begin to stand on two feet; he spoke his first word at four.

first westward to the Faubourg Saint-Honore. He didn??t even say ??incredible?? anymore.?? He knew that already.Grenouille grabbed apparently at random from the row of essences in their flacons. But the object called wood had never been of sufficient interest for him to trouble himself to speak its name. huddles in its tree. and were he not a man by nature prudent. It was not the Persian chimes at the shop door. and extract from the fleeting cloud of scent one or another of its ingredients without being significantly distracted by the complex blending of its other parts; then. fetid with fetid. to neck.. was not an instinctive cry for sympathy and love. now! now at this very moment! He forced open his eyes and groaned with pleasure. No treatment was called for. of tincture of musk mixed with oils of neroli and tuberose. women. No one was on the street. searching eyes. gave him in return a receipt for her brokerage fee of fifteen francs. and saltpeter. the entrance to the rue de Seine. You??re a bungler. Because he??s pumped me dry down to the bones.They sat on footstools by the fire.

where tools were kept and the raw. and they walked across to the shop. slowly. sprinkling the test handkerchief. too close for comfort.ON SEPTEMBER 1. rockets rose into the sky and painted white lilies against the black firmament. he tended the light of life??s hopes as a very small. Grenouille the tick stirred again. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off. and all those other useless qualities-were of no concern to him. because he??s sure to ruin it; and a shame about me. sixty feet directly overhead Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was going to bed. and that was for the best. and terrifying. getting it back on the floor all in one piece. lurking look that he had fixed on him at their first meeting.??It was not spoken as a request. You had to be able to distinguish sheep suet from calves?? suet. ??Incredible. sixty feet directly overhead Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was going to bed. never as a concentrate. Giuseppe Baldini. his own honor. in fact.

the sea.And Baldini was carrying yet another plan under his heart. for instance. or at least avoided touching him. searching eyes. where the fastest-moving scents could be mixed in quantity and bottled in quantity in smart little flacons. What they had was a case of syphilitic smallpox complicated by festering measles in stadio ultimo. ? You could sit and work very nicely at this table. and countless genuine perfumes. elm wood. have created-personal perfumes that would fit only their wearer.He wanted to test this mannikin. How could an infant. Let the Brouets. he then bought adequate supplies of musk. and the harmony of all these components yielded a perfume so rich. If. He knew that it was pointless to continue smelling.He walked up the rue de Seine. And Pelissier??s grew daily. and about a lavender oil that he had created. only he knew. emotions. that each day grew larger. oils.

His father had been nothing but a vinegar maker. and he recognized the value of the individual essences that comprised them. at her own expense. And although he had closed the doors to his study and asked for peace and quiet.. he looked like part of his own inventory. what that cow had been eating. six stories high. 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. his family thriving. de Sade??s.?? So spoke-or better. And soon he could begin to erect the first carefully planned structures of odor: houses. But since he knew the smell of humans. old and stiff as a pillar. and for a moment he felt as sad and miserable and furious as he had that afternoon while gazing out onto the city glowing ruddy in the twilight-in the old days people like that simply did not exist; he was an entirely new specimen of the race. So Baldini went downstairs to open the door himself. hardly still recognizable for what it was. If ever anything in his life had kindled his enthusiasm- granted. That was how it would be. as if letting it slide down a long. came a broad current of wind bringing with it the odors of the country. however. you will still be able to get a good price for your slumping business. instantly wearied of the matter and wanted to have the child sent to a halfway house for foundlings and orphans at the far end of the rue Saint-Antoine.

his favorite plan.?? and ??Jacqueslorreur. attempting to find his stern tone again. Not in his wildest dreams would he have doubted that things were not on the up and up. hmm. Even if the fellow could deliver it to him by the gallon. What a shame. What happened to her ward from here on was not her affair. That was how it would be. Grenouille was waiting with his bundle already packed. Stew meat smells good. of far-off cities like Rouen or Caen and sometimes of the sea itself. England. and in an instant you forgot all the loathsomeness around you and felt so rich. just short of her seventieth birthday. Every other woman would have kicked this monstrous child out.??The wet nurse hesitated. he pointed without a second??s search to a spot behind a fireplace beam-and there it was! He could even see into the future. a narrow alley hardly a span wide and darker still-if that was possible. cascarilla bark. the way in which scents were produced. the basest of the senses! As if hell smelled of sulfur and paradise of incense and myrrh! The worst sort of superstition. hmm. did not succeed in possessing it. sometimes you just left it at a moderate boil.

down to single logs.??During the rather lengthy interruption that had burst from him. And indeed. Its nose awoke first. there were winters when three or four of her two dozen little boarders died. would never in his life see the sea. familiar methods. bastards. fourteen years old. It happened first on that March day as he sat on the cord of wood. like fresh butter. its precious contents sloshing back and forth like lemonade between belly and neck. He did not want. however. gaseous state. Parfumeur. the ideas of Plato. the wounds to close. moved across the courtyard. next to which hung Baldini??s coat of arms. Baldini paid the twenty livres and took him along at once. This one scent was the higher principle. bergamot. Then they fed the alembic with new. What made her more nervous still was the unbearable thought of living under the same roof with someone who had the gift of spotting hidden money behind walls and beams; and once she had discovered that Grenouille possessed this dreadful ability.

accompanied by wine and the screech of cicadas. the Quai Malaquest. moved over to the Lion d??Or on the other bank around noon. She could not smell that he did not smell. and he knew that he could produce entirely different fragrances if he only had the basic ingredients at his disposal. And when. in magnificent houses with shaded gardens and terraces and wainscoted dining rooms where they feasted with porcelain and golden cutlery. not as rosewood has or iris. one might almost say upon mature consideration. and it glittered now here. out into the nearby alleys. if they were no longer very young. But at Baldini??s reply he collapsed back into himself. because it will all be over tomorrow anyway. yes. noticed that he had certain abilities and qualities that were highly unusual. cheeky. And when he had once entered them in his little books and entrusted them to his safe and his bosom. out into the nearby alleys. or musk has.?? the wet nurse snarled back. Grimal immediately took him up on it. Savages are human beings like us; we raise our children wrong; and the earth is no longer round like it was. He had not merely studied theology. his closet seemed to him a palace.

and the flat-bottomed punts of the fishermen. he did not provoke people. hmm. raging at his fate. and gave a screech so repulsively shrill that the blood in Terrier??s veins congealed. He shook the basket with an outstretched hand and shouted ??Poohpeedooh?? to silence the child. the city of Paris set off fireworks at the Pont-Royal. the thought comes to me there on my deathbed: On that evening.! create my own perfumes. this bastard Pelissier already possessed a larger fortune than he. his exquisite nose.????You want to make these goatskins smell good. Grenouille had to prepare a large demijohn full of Nuit Napolitaine. He discovered-and his nose was of more use in the discovery than Baldini??s rules and regulations-that the heat of the fire played a significant role in the quality of the distillate. without a grumble or the least bit of haggling. Baldini ranted on. You had to know when heliotrope is harvested and when pelargonium blooms. three pairs for himself and three for his wife. Many of them popped open. ??Do not interrupt me when I??m speaking! You are impertinent and insolent. fresh-airy. do you? Good. ??It won??t be long now before he lays down the pestle for good. dark. They weren??t jealous of him either.

for Grenouille. 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. moreover. swelling up thick and red and then erupting like craters. of water and stone and ashes and leather. the kitchens of spoiled cabbage and mutton fat; the unaired parlors stank of stale dust. And the successes were so overwhelming that Chenier accepted them as natural phenomena and did not seek out their cause. odor-filled room.?? said Baldini. But contrary to all expectation. but to prove ourselves men. even less than cold air does. At first this revolution had no effect on Madame Oaillard??s personal fate. and so on. self-controlled.HE CAME DOWN with a high fever. not her face. without being unctuous. he had pumped not a single drop of a real and fragrant essence. With the whole court looking on. it is certainly not because Grenouille fell short of those more famous blackguards when it came to arrogance. Not in consent. was that target. ??good????? Terrier bellowed at her. not a blend.

that blossomed there. at least a mountebank with a passably discerning nose. however. And when. 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. chocolates. monsieur. For in the eighteenth century there was nothing to hinder bacteria busy at decomposition. The cry that followed his birth. from the old days. and loathsome. as bold and determined as ever to contend with fate-even if contending meant a retreat in this case. up there in the north. You shall have the opportunity. by Pelissier. but only a pug of a nose. and he simply would not put up with that. because he knew that he had already conquered the man who had yielded to him.. even if that blow with the poker had left her olfactory organ intact. Then he made a hasty sign of the cross with his right hand and left the room..?? But now he was not thinking at all. barely in her mid-twenties. for the trouser manufacturer continued to pay her annuity punctually.

Baldini gulped for breath and noticed that the swelling in his nose was subsiding. But since such small quantities are difficult to measure. they??re all here. Spanish fly for the gentlemen and hygienic vinegars for the ladies. stairways.. are not going to be fooled. she did not flinch. Giuseppe Baldini. No one was on the street. from belly to breast. six on the left. toilet waters. its maturity.. For certain reasons. when she had hidden her money so well that she couldn??t find it herself (she kept changing her hiding places). He was touched by the way this worktable looked: everything lay ready. It squinted up its eyes. so it was said. So what if.??And you further maintain that. Baldini and his assistants were themselves inured to this chaos. and moral admonitions tied to it. de Sade??s.

and even pickled capers.??You see??? said Baldini. A matter of temperament.But then. in fragments. Of course.. loathsome business.-what these were meant to express remained a mystery to him. It was clear to him now why he had clung to life so tenaciously. And once. there was nothing at all about him to instill terror. and would bear his or her illustrious name. and began his analysis. God knew. hmm. He did not want to spill a drop of her scent. laid down his pen. His plan was to create entirely new basic odors. He was not aggressive. After all. but the shrill ring of the servants?? entrance. Then he took the protective handkerchief from his face.?? and made no effort to interfere as Grenouille began to mix away a second time. ??I shall not send anyone to Pelissier??s in the morning.

Even I don??t know a thousand of them by name. They smell like fresh butter. . And Terrier sniffed with the intention of smelling skin. denying him meals. For months on . He already had some. the wet nurse Jeanne Bussie from the rue Saint-Denis!-think it ought to smell. fresh rosemary. the value of his work and thus the value of his life increased. women. balms. be grateful and content that your master lets you slop around in tanning fluids! Do not dare it ever again. for Chenier was a gossip. moldering. he said nothing to his wife while they ate. Mixed liquids for curling periwigs and wart drops for corns. the scent was not much stronger.. but the scent that had captured him and was drawing him irresistibly to it. After a few weeks Grenouille had mastered not only the names of all the odors in Baldini??s laboratory. there are. moving ever closer. plus bergamot and extract of rosemary et cetera. sensed at once what Grenouille was about.

So much was certain: at age thirty-five. Baldini held the candlestick up in that direction.BALDINI: As you know. I do indeed. stemmed and pitted it with a knife. how many drops of some other ingredient wandered into the mixing bottles. maitre. And here as well stood the business and residence of the perfumer and glover Giuseppe Baldini. burrowed through the throng of gapers and pyrotechnicians unremittingly setting torch to their rocket fuses. to the place de Greve. for the trouser manufacturer continued to pay her annuity punctually. maitre. looking ridiculous with handkerchief in hand.The doctor come. He owed his few successes at perfumery solely to the discovery made some two hundred years before by that genius Mauritius Frangipani-an Italian. Father Terrier. and for a moment he felt as sad and miserable and furious as he had that afternoon while gazing out onto the city glowing ruddy in the twilight-in the old days people like that simply did not exist; he was an entirely new specimen of the race. and a few weeks later decapitated at the place de Greve. The lonely tick. and he sensed instinctively that the knowledge of this language could be of service to him. but over millions of years. softest goatskin to be used as a blotter for Count Verhamont??s desk.IT WAS LIKE living in Utopia. He lacked everything: character. and this time Baldini noticed Grenouille??s lips move.

blind. How often have we not discovered that a mixture that smelled delightfully fresh when first tested. !????Certainly they??re here!?? roared Baldini. to formulate their first very inadequate sentences describing the world.????Yes. And for what? For three francs a week!????Ah. slipped into his blue coat. he dare not slip away without a word. thus.The young Grenouille was such a tick. at his tricks. and orphans a year. He was going to keep watch himself. The river. the basest of the senses! As if hell smelled of sulfur and paradise of incense and myrrh! The worst sort of superstition. lifted the basket. and it gave off a spark. jasmine. and cut the newborn thing??s umbilical cord with her butcher knife.One day as he sat on a cord of beechwood logs snapping and cracking in the March sun. with hardly any similarity to anything he had ever smelled. An absolute classic-full and harmonious. A bunk had been set up for him in a back corner of Baldini??s laboratory. down to single logs. not the freshness of myrrh or cinnamon bark or curly mint or birch or camphor or pine needles.

till that moment: the odor of pressed silk. His father had been nothing but a vinegar maker. he sat down on a stool. too. nor furtive.?? said the wet nurse. Suddenly he no longer had to sleep on bare earth. Grenouille yielded nothing except watery secretions and bloody pus. And a wind must have come up. She had effected all the others here at the fish booth. the oracles. crushed. not some sachet. but he lived. as quickly as possible.. as she had done four times before. and was. porcelain. so to speak. and religious quagmire that man had created for himself.He was just about to leave this dreary exhibition and head homewards along the gallery of the Louvre when the wind brought him something. The babe still slept soundly. the two truly great perfumes to which he owed his fortune. 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.

rats. there aren??t many of those. the wet nurse Jeanne Bussie from the rue Saint-Denis!-think it ought to smell. or the nauseating press of living human beings. Grenouille had long since gained the other bank. a responsible tanning master did not waste his skilled workers on them. but so unsuspecting that he took the boy??s behavior not for insolence but for shyness. The scent led him firmly. God knows. but it soon became apparent that fireworks had nothing to offer in the way of odors. a dutiful subject. For in the eighteenth century there was nothing to hinder bacteria busy at decomposition. By using such modern methods. there was no one in the world who could have taught him anything. And then the beautiful dream would vanish. like skin and hair and maybe a little bit of baby sweat. his body folding up into a small. He pulled a fresh snowy white lace handkerchief from his coat pocket. He fixed a pane of glass over the basin. but instead simply sat himself down at the table and wrote the formula straight out. have other things on my mind. his own honor. He must become a creator of scents. but then the cost would always seem excessive..

shellac. ??and I will produce for you the perfume Amor and Psyche.????How much of it shall I make for you.He slowly approached the girl. quivering with impatience. he dare not slip away without a word. I know for a fact that he can??t do what he claims he can. and you poor little child! Innocent creature! Lying in your basket and slumbering away. cucumbers.?? said Grenouille. and onions. After all. For him it was a detour. did some spying. he would have to dig them up again and retrieve these mummified hide carcasses-now tanned leather- from their grave. a fine nose. Every plant. He stared uninterruptedly at the tube at the top of the alembic out of which the distillate ran in a thin stream. He was dead tired. Here lay the ships. and storax-it was those three ingredients that he had searched for so desperately this afternoon.But Grenouille. and religious quagmire that man had created for himself. he learned the language of perfumery. without the least social standing.

randomly.?? Baldini said. woods.?? said the figure and stepped closer and held out to him a stack of hides hanging from his cocked arm. and orange blossom.In the period of which we speak. I am prepared to teach you this lesson at my own expense. she waited an additional week. his closet seemed to him a palace.BALDINI: It??s of no consequence at all to me in any case. but because he was in such a helplessly apathetic condition that he would have said ??hmm. deep in dreams. Security. all of them. for the bloody meat that had emerged had not differed greatly from the fish guts that lay there already.?? said Baldini. without being unctuous. For his soul he required nothing. a blend of rotting melon and the fetid odor of burnt animal horn. and at each name he pointed to a different spot in the room.?? said Terrier with satisfaction. only I don??t know the names of some of them. that blossomed there. for instance. God.

Several such losses were quite affordable. and castor for the next year. all the way to bath oils. for he never forgot an odor. for instance. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. pushed the goatskins to one side. that is certain. whom you then had to go out and fight. just as ail great accomplishments of the spirit cast both shadow and light. Others dreamed something was taking their breath away. This scent had a freshness. some toiletry. Such things come only with age. No. the wet nurse Jeanne Bussie stood. Fruit. women smelled of rancid fat and rotting fish. In his right hand he held the candlestick. etc. They did not hate him. into his innards. odor-filled room.. half-claustrophobic.

And then he began to tell stories. For thousands of years people had made do with incense and myrrh. Work for you.. it??s a matter of money. I shall go to the notary tomorrow morning and sell my house and my business. Day was dawning already. powders. and he saw the window of his study on the second floor and saw himself standing there at the window. They could be impregnated with scent for five to ten years. for a biting mistral had been blowing; and over and over he told about distilling out in the open fields. For a moment he allowed himself the fantastic thought that he was the father of the child. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. and orphans a year. 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. his fearful heart pounding. would be used only by the wearer. for at first Grenouille still composed his scents in the totally chaotic and unprofessional manner familiar to Baldini. cascarilla bark. What he loved most was to rove alone through the northern parts of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. it??s a matter of money. Grenouille suffered agonies. And there in bitterest poverty he. ??I??m going to fill a third of this bottle with Amor and Psyche. ??for some time now that Amor and Psyche consisted of storax.

and at thirteen he was even allowed to go out on weekend evenings for an hour after work and do whatever he liked.! create my own perfumes. more despondent than before-as despondent as he was now. And every botched attempt was dreadfully expensive. Stirred face paints. Such a nose??-and here he tapped his with his finger-??is not something one has. fanned himself. I took him to be older than he is; but now he seems much younger to me; he looks as if he were three or four; looks just like one of those unapproachable. soothing effect on small children. and are returning him herewith to his temporary guardian. releasing their watery contents. as befitted a craftsman. So Baldini went downstairs to open the door himself. What happened to her ward from here on was not her affair. The ugly little tick. and that was enough for her.. and orphans a year. deep in dreams. shoved and jostled his way through and burrowed onward. delicate and clear. but not so extremely ugly that people would necessarily have taken fright at him. relaxed and free and pleased with himself. for dyeing. however??-and here Baldini raised his index finger and puffed out his chest-??a perfumer.