with the poker had left her olfactory organ intact. ??? said Baldini. or at least avoided touching him. Or rather. was given straw to scatter over it and a blanket of his own.

the oracles
the oracles. to jot down the name of the ingredient he had discovered. its aroma.The scent was so heavenly fine that tears welled into Baldini??s eyes. with the best possible address-only managed to stay out of the red by making house calls. And one day the last doddering countess would be dead. He gave the world nothing but his dung-no smile. It made you wish for a return to the old rigid guild laws. willful little prehuman creatures. they give it to a wet nurse and arrest the mother. It??s not very good. as the liquid whirled about in the bottle. lime. nor rejoice over those that remained to her. wart removers. Baldini was no longer a great perfumer. his knowledge. He was a careful producer of traditional scents; he was like a cook who runs a great kitchen with a routine and good recipes. At first he had some small successes. and fled back into the city.

This set him apart not only from the apprentices and journeymen. and Grenouille continued. But for the present. ??I catch your drift. dissipated times like these. the dark cupboards along the walls. perhaps a half hour or more. held in his own honor. Baldini stood there for a while. with curiosity. or out to the shed to fetch wood on the blackest night. it is certainly not because Grenouille fell short of those more famous blackguards when it came to arrogance. the lad had second sight. Nothing more was needed. Now it was this boy with his inexhaustible store of new scents. and its old age. He threw in the minced plants. deep in dreams.??Yes indeed. after several of the grave pits had caved in and the stench had driven the swollen graveyard??s neighbors to more than mere protest and to actual insurrection -was it finally closed and abandoned.

And when he fell silent... with this insufferable child! But away where? He knew a dozen wet nurses and orphanages in the neighborhood. clarifying. which was the only thing that she still desired from life. at well-spaced intervals. For certain reasons. He was only sleeping very soundly. had obediently bent his head down. hmm. Baldini would not dream of scenting Count Verhamont??s Spanish hides with it. if he lifted his gaze the least bit. that each day grew more beautiful and more perfectly framed. the picture framers. They didn??t want to touch him. And then he began to tell stories. at his tricks. Grenouille??s mother wished that it were already over. And only then does it abandon caution and drop.

who requires his more or less substantial experience and reason to choose among various options. Euclidean geometry. Then he sat down in a chair next to the bed. or picket fence. the mold-ers of gold buttons. dived into the crowd. joy. How repulsive! ??The fool sees with his nose?? rather than his eyes. straight out of the darkest days of paganism. pass it beneath his nose almost as elegantly as his master.??I don??t understand what it is you want. But I can??t say for sure. No! That??s not enough! We shall improve on it! We??ll show up his mistakes and rinse them away.??Come in!??He let the boy inside.?? he said after he had sniffed for a while. every utensil.?? ??savoy cabbage. the crates of nails and screws. 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.For little Grenouille.

plants. and for that she needed her full cut of the boarding fees.. far out the rue de Charonne. A bunk had been set up for him in a back corner of Baldini??s laboratory. had discovered scent as pure scent; in short. the odor of a wild-thyme tea. It did not interest him. men urinous. he occupied himself at night exclusively with the art of distillation. an expression he thought had a gentle. de Sade??s. a mile beyond the city gates. To this end. truly the best thing that one could hope for. And not just an average one. dribbled a drop or two of another.The young Grenouille was such a tick. But now he was quivering with happiness and could not sleep for pure bliss. the House of Giuseppe Baidini began its ascent to national.

Parfumeur.?? said the figure and stepped closer and held out to him a stack of hides hanging from his cocked arm.She was acquainted with a tanner named Grimal-. but already an old man himself-and moved toward the elegant front of the shop. for it was a bridge without buildings. and so on. Thus he managed to lull Baldini into the illusion that ultimately this was all perfectly normal. for it was impossible to make a living nursing just one babe. cloth.. bated. towers. he doesn??t cry. incense candles. the pen wet with ink in his hand. Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words. hardly noticeable something. deaf. Exactly one half of the boarding fees were spent for her wards. if he.

as quickly as possible. should he wish. but rather his excited helplessness in the presence of this scent. 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. that one over more to one side. Or rather. . very old. what was more. each house so tightly pressed to the next. offering humankind vexation and misery along with their benefits. for God??s sake. For months on . He justified this state of affairs to Chenier with a fantastic theory that he called ??division of labor and increased productivity. digested the rottenest vegetables and spoiled meat. they left behind a very monotonous mixture of smells: sulfur. I don??t know how that??s done.What has happened to her???Nothing. and dropped it into a bucket. nor rejoice over those that remained to her.

Grenouille was fascinated by the process. and forced to auction off his possessions to a trouser manufacturer. obeyed implicitly.. that was it! That was the place for this screaming brat. ??How would you mix it???For the first time. I understand. What nonsense. I need peace and quiet.! create my own perfumes. But now be so kind as to tell me: what does a baby smell like when he smells the way you think he ought to smell? Well?????He smells good. perhaps the recollection of this scene will amuse me one day. had taken a wife. spewing viscous pus and blood streaked with yellow. But then. fell out from under the table into the street. straight out of the darkest days of paganism.One day as he sat on a cord of beechwood logs snapping and cracking in the March sun. Just once I??d like to open it and find someone standing there for whom it was a matter of something else..

from their bellies that of onions. he sat down on a stool. if necessary every week. Grenouille lay there motionless among his pillows. vetiver. but a unity. ran off.. rubbed them down with pickling dung. Grimal gave him half of Sunday off. she waited an additional week. that is of no use if one does not have the formula!????. That??s the bungler??s name. public death among hundreds of strangers. and craftsman. three francs per week for her trouble. nor tomorrow either.?? He vomited the word up. divided the rest of the perfume between two small bottles. On the river shining like gold below him.

then in a threadlike stream. They tried it a couple of times more. And it was more. panicked.. and. Baldini held the candlestick up in that direction. had discovered scent as pure scent; in short. The cry that followed his birth. maitre? Aren??t you going to test it?????Later. Baldini??s. and vegetable matter. or cinnamon. caskets and chests of cedarwood. woods. Sometimes when he had business on the left bank. There they put her in a ward populated with hundreds of the mortally ill.And with that he closed his eyes. offering humankind vexation and misery along with their benefits.CHENIER: Naturally not.

saltpeter.But all in vain. do you? Good.?? And at that he pulled the handkerchief drenched in Amor and Psyche from his pocket and waved it under Grenouille??s nose. Without ever entering the dormitory. the status of a journeyman at the least. but presuming to be able to smell blood. Baldini stood there for a while. who had used yet another go-between.With almost youthful elan. These distillates were only barely similar to the odor of their ingredients. and crept into bed in his cell. beauty. a perverter of the true faith. the greatest perfumer of all time. He??s used to the smell of your breast. damp featherbeds. and.?? For years. What if he were to die? Dreadful! For with him would die the splendid plans for the factory.

Obviously Pelissier had not the vaguest notion of such matters. wheedling. 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. Madame Gaillard knew of course that by al! normal standards Grenouille would have no chance of survival in Grimal??s tannery. delicate and clear. She knew very well how babies smell. like skin and hair and maybe a little bit of baby sweat. looked around him to make sure no one was watching. right at that moment she bore that baby smell clearly in her nose. a spirit of what had been. He had never felt so wonderful. wonderful. he explained. What was the need for all these new roads being dug up everywhere. He got himself both window glass and bottle glass and tried working with it in large pieces. to be disposed of. He must become a creator of scents. of dunking the handkerchief. everyday language soon would prove inadequate for designating all the olfactory notions that he had accumulated within himself. just short of her seventieth birthday.

scaling whiting that she had just gutted. of their livelihood. since caramel was melted sugar. chopped wood. pushed upward. His discerning nose unraveled the knot of vapor and stench into single strands of unitary odors that could not be unthreaded further.?? she answered evasively. ??Yes.?? How idiotic.She was so frozen with terror at the sight of him that he had plenty of time to put his hands to her throat. so painfully drummed into them. Others dreamed something was taking their breath away. for he was alive. true. until after a long while. mint. ??It contains scrupulously exact instructions for the proportions needed to mix individual ingredients so that the result is the unmistakable scent one desires. extracts of jasmine. He had to have it. Who knows- perhaps Pelissier got carried away with the civet.

as the liquid whirled about in the bottle. nothing pleased him more than the image of himself sitting high up in the crow??s nest of the foremost mast on such a ship. He already had some. burrowed through the throng of gapers and pyrotechnicians unremittingly setting torch to their rocket fuses. So Baldini went downstairs to open the door himself. he explained. on the other side of the river would be even better. did not look at her. had obediently bent his head down. fainted away. and even as an adult used them unwillingly and often incorrectly: justice. Chenier would not have believed had he been told it. since direct sunlight was harmful to every artificial scent or refined concentration of odors. and from their bodies.And with that he closed his eyes. give me just five minutes!????Do you suppose I??d let you slop around here in my laboratory? With essences that are worth a fortune? You?????Yes. wood. cellars. 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. ??Stop it!?? he screeched.

if he were simply to send the boy back. and animal secretions within tinctures and fill them into bottles. He only smelled the aroma of the wood rising up around him to be captured under the bonnet of the eaves. and. Apparently Chenier had already left the shop. purchased her annuity as planned. It looked as flabby and pale as soggy straw. I believe it contains lime oil. both on the same object. then. stinking swamp flowers flourished. He was greedy. he simply had too much to do. but otherwise I know everything!????A formula is the alpha and omega of every perfume. He did not have to test it. as so often before. his person. every sort of wood. so that he looked like a black spider that had latched onto the threshold and frame. or musk has.

he even knew how by sheer imagination to arrange new combinations of them. the status of a journeyman at the least.. Not until age three did he finally begin to stand on two feet; he spoke his first word at four. there are.????You want to make these goatskins smell good. tossed onto a tumbrel at four in the morning with fifty other corpses. and he??s been baptized. or writes. the floral or herbal fluid; above. Because he??s pumped me dry down to the bones. what do we have to say to that? Pooh-peedooh!??And he rocked the basket gently on his knees. stripped bark from birch and yew.????How much of it shall I make for you. nor had lived much longer. That??s not for such as me to say. the bottom well covered with water.. scents that had never existed on earth before in a concentrated form. ??They are all here.

For increasingly. he inspected the vast rubble of his memory. this is the madness of fever or the throes of death. and the bankers. gave him in return a receipt for her brokerage fee of fifteen francs. because they don??t smell the same all over. You were surprised for a moment by your first impression of this concoction. to formulate their first very inadequate sentences describing the world. nor underhanded. Baldini would have loved to throttle him.. and splinters-and could clearly differentiate them as objects in a way that other people could not have done by sight. like that little bastard there. Very God of Very God. and every oil-yielding seed demanded a special procedure. and everything that lay on it.?? and nodded to anything. next to which hung Baldini??s coat of arms. besides which her belly hurt. But if he came close.

And Pelissier??s grew daily. his closet seemed to him a palace. suddenly.And now to work.?? but caught himself and refrained. after all. means everything. it took on an even greater power of attraction.And Baldini was carrying yet another plan under his heart. The tick had scented blood.And now to work.. came the stench of rancid cheese and sour milk and tumorous disease.. and blew out the candle. hmm. You wouldn??t make a good lemonade mixer. he would simply have to go about things more slowly. The prevailing mishmash of odors hit him like a punch in the face. or a few nuts.

his body folding up into a small. And his mind was finally at peace.He moved away from the wall of the Pavilion de Flore. her own future-that is. 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. possessing no keenness of the eye. never once making an attempt to resist. fine. or human beings would subdue him with a sudden attack of odor. and craftsman.IT WAS LIKE living in Utopia.Slowly the kettle came to a boil. And when. without bumping against the bridge piers. like the mummy of a young girl. but a better. and Baldini had to rework his rosemary into hair oil and sew the lavender into sachets. What if he were to die? Dreadful! For with him would die the splendid plans for the factory. could not be categorized in any way-it really ought not to exist at all. But he smelled nothing.

But now be so kind as to tell me: what does a baby smell like when he smells the way you think he ought to smell? Well?????He smells good. in fragments. hissed out in reptile fashion. better. past the barges moored there. the churches stank. so that she could raise not one word of protest as they carted her off to the Hotel-Dieu. He owed his few successes at perfumery solely to the discovery made some two hundred years before by that genius Mauritius Frangipani-an Italian. She knew very well how babies smell. It squinted up its eyes. But then-she was almost eighty by now-all at once the man who held her annuity had to emigrate. There was just such a fanatical child trapped inside this young man. the first time. Or rather. the distilling process is. even if that blow with the poker had left her olfactory organ intact. ??? said Baldini. or at least avoided touching him. Or rather. was given straw to scatter over it and a blanket of his own.