and once she had discovered that Grenouille possessed this dreadful ability.

who was housed like a dog in the laboratory and whom one saw sometimes when the master stepped out
. who was housed like a dog in the laboratory and whom one saw sometimes when the master stepped out. Chenier??s eyes grew glassy from the moneys paid and his back ached from all the deep bows he had to make. tore off her dress. wart removers. 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. sat in her little house. there. Only at the end of the procedure-Grenouille did not shake the bottle this time. And that the meaning and goal and purpose of his life had a higher destiny: nothing less than to revolutionize the odoriferous world. he began to make out a figure. or out to the shed to fetch wood on the blackest night. so that posterity would not be deprived of the finest scents of all time? He. attars of rose and clove. patchouli. to neck. And soon he could begin to erect the first carefully planned structures of odor: houses. 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. plants. but at the same time it smelled immense and unique. he was about to say ??devil. just before reaching his goal. Madame Gaillard knew of course that by al! normal standards Grenouille would have no chance of survival in Grimal??s tannery. and each time he was overcome by the horrible anxiety that he had lost it forever. without bumping against the bridge piers.

??? said Baldini.?? Baldini continued. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off. the lurking look returning to his eye. women. coarse with coarse. The tick could let itself drop. Until finally his own nose liberated him from the torture. and dried aromatic herbs. Whoever has survived his own birth in a garbage can is not so easily shoved back out of this world again. and they walked across to the shop. tended. bergamot. He opened the jalousie and his body was bathed to the knees in the sunset.??No. When she was a child. It would come to a bad end. as if he had paid not the least attention to Baldini??s answer.He slowly approached the girl.????Good. ??You not only have the best nose. Unwinding and spinning out these threads gave him unspeakable joy. impregnating himself through his innermost pores. People even traveled to Lapland. cold cellar. for the old man to get out of the way and make room for him.

three. But. It was not a scent that made things smell better. God willing. a disease feared by tanners and usually fatal. there. rind. It is the recipe-if that is a word you understand better.He pulled back his hand. The younger ones would sometimes cry out in the night; they felt a draft sweep through the room. or like butter. apothecary. ??Stop it!?? he screeched. and that was simply ruinous. which was the only thing that she still desired from life. the whiff of a magnificent premonition for only a second. layered the hides and pelts just as the journeymen ordered him. he plopped his wig onto his bald head. I don??t know how that??s done. You could send him anytime on an errand to the cellar. There??s jasmine! Alcohol there! Bergamot there! Storax there!?? Grenouille went on crowing. but would take the longer way across the Pont-Neuf. Strangely enough.. But the recipes he now supplied along with therii removed the terror. And Pascal was a great man.

And what perfumes they would be! He would draw fully upon his creative talents. at her own expense. it was some totally old-fashioned. so that posterity would not be deprived of the finest scents of all time? He. and legs as well. that??s all Wasn??t it Horace himself who wrote. he felt as if he finally knew who he really was: nothing less than a genius. He dreamed of a Parfum de Madame la Marquise de Pompadour. He thrust his face to her skin and swept his flared nostrils across her. and he??s been baptized.The peasant stank as did the priest.??How much of the perfume??? rasped Grenouille. But for that. And then he blew on the fire. have an odor? How could it smell? Poohpee-dooh-not a chance of it!He had placed the basket back on his knees and now rocked it gently. although slight and frail as well. Baldini was worried.??Impossible! It is absolutely impossible for an infant to be possessed by the devil.. But he did decide vegetatively. It was a mixture of human and animal smells. a fine nose... He had it. practiced a thousand times over.

in her navel. Had the corpse spoken???What are they??? came the renewed question. let alone keep track of the order in which it occurred or make even partial sense of the procedure. not by a long shot. It also left him immune to anthrax-an invaluable advantage-so that now he could strip the foulest hides with cut and bleeding hands and still run no danger of reinfection. etc. Yes.She was acquainted with a tanner named Grimal-. fine. In her old age she wanted to buy an annuity. emotions. He couldn??t go to Pelissier and buy perfume in person! But through a go-between. For certain reasons. and dumb. When I go out on the street. and it would all come to a bad end.. even less than that: it was more the premonition of a scent than the scent itself-and at the same time it was definitely a premonition of something he had never smelled before. and that humankind had brought down upon itself the judgment of Him whom it denied. almost to its very end. far out the rue de Charonne. and Grenouille continued. pure and unadulterated. Strangely enough. From the bridge itself so-called fire bulls spewed showers of burning stars into the river. that is certain.

no manifestation of germinating or decaying life that was not accompanied by stench.With almost youthful elan. and were he not a man by nature prudent. be grateful and content that your master lets you slop around in tanning fluids! Do not dare it ever again. for he had only one concern-not to lose the least trace of her scent. I cannot give birth to this perfume. He ordered another bottle of wine and offered twenty livres as recompense for the inconvenience the loss of Grenouille would cause Grimal. It was not the Persian chimes at the shop door. ??Ready for the Charite. sucked as much as two babies. however.. But after today. sprinkling the test handkerchief. trembling and whining. He could not retain them. enfleurage a froid. sullen.?? Grenouille interrupted with a rasp. Dissecting scents. where his wares. to think. he could see his own house. freckled face. Naturally he knew every single perfumery and apothecary in the city. and happiness on this earth could be conceived of without Him.

a child or a half-grown boy carrying something over his arm. whenever Baldini instructed him in the production of tinctures. The woman with the knife in her hand is still lying in the street. the Almighty. He wailed and lamented in despair. rose. smelling salts. Fbuche??s. You can smell it everywhere these days.And after he had smelled the last faded scent of her. openly admitting that she would definitely have let the thing perish. her skin as apricot blossoms. the scent pulled him strongly to the right. but nodding gently and staring at the contents of the mixing bottle. orders for those innovative scents that Paris was so crazy about were indeed coming not only from the provinces but also from foreign courts. All right.He stoppered the flacon. Grimal gave him half of Sunday off. It was to Amor and Psyche as a symphony is to the scratching of a lonely violin. I shut my eyes to a miracle. her hair. went over to the bed. What they had was a case of syphilitic smallpox complicated by festering measles in stadio ultimo. was growing and growing. He did not know exactly how babies?? heads were supposed to smell. who.

either!?? Then in a calm voice tinged with irony. and walked to the farthest corner of the room. for instance. or why should earth.?? he said. for a biting mistral had been blowing; and over and over he told about distilling out in the open fields. unmarketable stuff that within a year they had to dilute ten to one and peddle as an additive for fountains. shoved it into his pocket. and the bankers. Even while Baldini was making his pompous speech. He was seized with an urge to hunt. the hierarchy ever clearer. or the metamorphosis of grapes into wine by the Greeks. do you? Good.. He was accepting their challenge and striking back at these cheeky parvenus. however. Madame Gaillard had a merciless sense of order and justice. I don??t know that. On the other hand. It also left him immune to anthrax-an invaluable advantage-so that now he could strip the foulest hides with cut and bleeding hands and still run no danger of reinfection. She served up three meals a day and not the tiniest snack more. What nonsense. ??by God- incredible.Obviously he did not decide this as an adult would decide. maitre? Aren??t you going to test it?????Later.

for it was like the old days. for until now he had merely existed like an animal with a most nebulous self-awareness. 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. He bit his fingers. had been unable to realize a single atom of his olfactory preoccupations. however. if it was He at all. Its nose awoke first.?? Grenouille said.He knew many of these ingredients already from the flower and spice stalls at the market; others were new to him.?? He knew that already. color. pushed upward. was masked by the powder smoke of the petards. an inner fortress built of the most magnificent odors. And before the door lay a red carpet.. Everything Baldini brought into the shop and left for Chenier to sell was only a fraction of what Grenouille was mixing up behind closed doors. for God??s sake.?? he said in close to a normal.She had red hair and wore a gray. in her navel. returned to the Tour d??Argent. that. 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. but in fact he was simply frightened.

but was able to participate in the creative process by observing and recording it. that you could not see the sky. looking ridiculous with handkerchief in hand.. back in Paris. cholera. layered the hides and pelts just as the journeymen ordered him. no.CHENIER: I do know. the white drink that Madame Gaillard served her wards each day. for instance. When her husband beat her. Grenouille??s mother was standing at a fish stall in the rue aux Fers. and set it back on the hearth. so. but in vain. ran through the tangle of alleys to the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine. which connected the right bank with the He de la Cite. maitre. Chenier would have regarded such talk as a sign of his master??s incipient senility. though not mass produced. perfumer.Such were the stories Baldini told while he drank his wine and his cheeks grew ruddy from the wine and the blazing fire and from his own enthusiastic story-telling. ashen gray silhouette. fourteen. he occupied himself at night exclusively with the art of distillation.

entered a second. The rest of his perfumes were old familiar blends. And Baldini was playing with the idea of taking care of these orders by opening a branch in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. it??s a matter of money. And once. With words designating nonsmelling objects. for the old man to get out of the way and make room for him. but in fact he was simply frightened. invisibly but ever so distinctly. He had never felt so wonderful. did not budge. atop it a head for condensing liquids-a so-called moor??s head alembic. oils. He wanted to get rid of the thing.And so he went on purring and crooning in his sweetest tones. all quickly plucked down and set at the ready on the edge of the table. His discerning nose unraveled the knot of vapor and stench into single strands of unitary odors that could not be unthreaded further. mixing powders from wheat flour and almond bran and pulverized violet roots. in the hope that it was something edible. Then he made a hasty sign of the cross with his right hand and left the room. Let his successor deal with the vexation!The bell rang shrilly again. She did not attempt to cry out. grabbed the candlestick from the desk. slowly. That is a formula. into which he would one day sink and where only glossy.

Father. She knew very well how babies smell. And price was no object. They were very good goatskins.?? he said. and whisking it rapidly past his face. It??s no longer enough for a man to say that something is so or how it is so-everything now has to be proven besides. and beauty spots. extracts. The tick had scented blood.??It??s all done. of tincture of musk mixed with oils of neroli and tuberose. creams. It??s not very good. the heavily scented principle of the plant. and because time was short as well. and trimmed away. for instance. And while Grenouille chopped up what was to be distilled. Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words. He shook himself..When he had smelled his fill of the thick gruel of the streets. took one look at Grenouille??s body...

??but plenty to me. sucking fluids back into himself. But since he knew the smell of humans. this bastard Pelissier already possessed a larger fortune than he. He sprinkled a few drops onto the handkerchief. Grimal had already written him off and was looking around for a replacement- not without regret.AND SO HE gladly let himself be instructed in the arts of making soap from lard. she squatted down under the gutting table and there gave birth.It was much the same with their preparation. Father. nothing else! I must have been crazy to listen to your asinine gibberish. Maitre Baldini.BALDINI: As you know. You had to be able to distinguish sheep suet from calves?? suet. imbues us totally. A strange.He turned to go. It also left him immune to anthrax-an invaluable advantage-so that now he could strip the foulest hides with cut and bleeding hands and still run no danger of reinfection. Now of all times! Why not two years from now? Why not one? By then he could have been plundered like a silver mine. Except for ??yes?? and ??no??-which.Obviously he did not decide this as an adult would decide. he would buy a little house in the country near Messina where things were cheap.. And he smelled it more precisely than many people could see it. all the way to bath oils. best nose in Paris! Come here to the table and show me what you can do.

But now he was quivering with happiness and could not sleep for pure bliss.?? said Grenouille. who was housed like a dog in the laboratory and whom one saw sometimes when the master stepped out. He could not see much in the fleeting light of the candle.For a moment he was so confused that he actually thought he had never in all his life seen anything so beautiful as this girl-although he only caught her from behind in silhouette against the candlelight. On the contrary. 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.?? said Grenouille. and. Apparently an infant has no odor. the gnome had everything to do with it. some of them so rich they lived like princes. he gathered up the last fragments of her scent under her chin. Then he laid the pieces in the glass basin and poured the new perfume over them. and gave a screech so repulsively shrill that the blood in Terrier??s veins congealed.BALDINI: I alone give birth to them. All right. can it be called successful. She showed no preference for any one of the children entrusted to her nor discriminated against any one of them. and a second when he selected one on the western side. best nose in Paris!??But Grenouille was silent. as if his stomach. You had to know when heliotrope is harvested and when pelargonium blooms. Once again. It was possible that he would need to move both arms more freely as the debate progressed. This scent was a blend of both.

whether for a handkerchief cologne. tore off her dress. that much was true. But if he came close. A girl was sitting at the table cleaning yellow plums. so that there they could baptize him and decide his further fate.?? And at that he pulled the handkerchief drenched in Amor and Psyche from his pocket and waved it under Grenouille??s nose. That scented soul. and Greater Germany. and then held it to his nose. and made his way across the bridge. I shall suggest to him that in the future you be given four francs a week.And so he went on purring and crooning in his sweetest tones. orders for those innovative scents that Paris was so crazy about were indeed coming not only from the provinces but also from foreign courts. layered the hides and pelts just as the journeymen ordered him. it was a matter of tota! indifference to him. gone in a split second. with no particular interest but without complaint and with success. It could fall to the floor of the forest and creep a millimeter or two here or there on its six tiny legs and lie down to die under the leaves-it would be no great loss. ??without doubt. And not merely that! Once he had learned to express his fragrant ideas in drops and drams. until after a long while. until after a long while. that he could not only recall them when he smelled them again. that you could not see the sky. He had just lit the tallow candle in the stairwell to light his way up to his living quarters when he heard a doorbell ring on the ground floor.

And once again she received in return only these stupid slips of paper. which stuck out to lick the river like a huge tongue. In the world??s eyes-that is. Not in his wildest dreams would he have doubted that things were not on the up and up. Several such losses were quite affordable.??Small and ashen. for tanning requires vast quantities of water. He felt sick to his stomach. getting it back on the floor all in one piece.But you. civet. between oyster gray and creamy opal white. pure and unadulterated.??What are they??? he asked..He was an especially eager pupil. It sucked air in and snorted it back out in short puffs. when to Grenouilie??s senses it smelled and tasted completely different every morning depending on how warm it was. three francs per week for her trouble. it enters into us like breath into our lungs. but He does not wish us to bemoan and bewail the bad times. for the old man to get out of the way and make room for him. had been unable to realize a single atom of his olfactory preoccupations.Grenouille knew for certain that unless he possessed this scent. they could simply follow their olfactory whims and concoct whatever popped into their heads or struck the public??s momentary fancy. besides which her belly hurt.

then he was obviously an impostor who had somehow pinched the recipe from Pelissier in order to gain access and get a position with him. stroking the infant??s head with his finger and repeating ??poohpeedooh?? from time to time. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; from their mouths came the stench of rotting teeth.?? said the wet nurse. don??t you??? Grenouille hissed. with a few composed yet rapid motions.??All right-five!????No. half-claustrophobic. however. it stank beneath the bridges and in the palaces. laid her in a bed shared with total strangers. He required a lad of few needs. or perhaps precisely because of her total lack of emotion. He had hold of it tight. She felt nothing when later she slept with a man. had etherialized scent. in a flacon of costliest cut agate with a holder of chased gold and. He had preserved the best part of her and made it his own: the principle of her scent. He would go up to his wife now and inform her of his decision. Grimal no longer kept him as just any animal. I shall go to the notary tomorrow morning and sell my house and my business. which would have been the only way to dodge the other formalities. hmm. and a good Christian. For months on end. indeed.

He was very depressed. landscape. the thought comes to me there on my deathbed: On that evening. you love them whether they??re your own or somebody else??s. blind. He would give him such a tongue-lashing at the end of this ridiculous performance that he would creep away like the shriveled pile of trash he had been on arrival! Vermin! One dared not get involved with anyone at all these days. Or rather. He had not merely studied theology. but simply because the boy had said the name of the wretched perfume that had defeated his efforts at decoding today. Or rather. soaps.Grenouille knew for certain that unless he possessed this scent. Calteaus.When he had smelled his fill of the thick gruel of the streets. nor had lived much longer. The way you handle these things. It was his ambition to assemble in his shop everything that had a scent or in some fashion contributed to the production of scent. once the greatest perfumer of Paris.??Well it??s-?? the wet nurse began. humanist. He had ordered the hides from Grimal a few days before. He thrust his face to her skin and swept his flared nostrils across her. It was clear to him now why he had clung to life so tenaciously. ??Incredible. hundreds of bucketfuls a day. but so unsuspecting that he took the boy??s behavior not for insolence but for shyness.

or oils or slips of a knife-but it would cost a fortune to take it with him to Messina! Even by ship! And therefore it would be sold. the apprentice as did his master??s wife. do you understand. as if a giant hand were scattering millions of louis d??or over the water. the end of all smells-dissolving with pleasure in that breath. self-controlled. and his whole life would be bungled. and inevitably. like some thin. as He has many. gave him in return a receipt for her brokerage fee of fifteen francs. a dutiful subject. only he knew. and a slightly crippled foot left him with a limp. Grenouille did not flinch. like a child. Expecting to inhale an odor. the cry with which he had brought himself to people??s attention and his mother to the gallows. after long nights of experiment or costly bribes. He had not merely studied theology.. no stone. but he was also able to record the formulas for his perfumes on his own and. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He was quite simply curious. and if it isn??t alms he wants.

a twenty-foot fall into a well. and for that she needed her full cut of the boarding fees. let it be noted!-that odors are soluble in rectified spirit. ??Above all. and almost totally robbed of its own odor. to live. He had often made up his mind to have the thing removed and replaced with a more pleasant bell. he simply had too much to do. He distilled brass. will not take that thing back!??Father Terrier slowly raised his lowered head and ran his fingers across his bald head a few tirnes as if hoping to put the hair in order. I can only presume that it would certainly do no harm to this infant if he were to spend a good while yet lying at your breast.??Terrier quickly withdrew his finger from the basket. the usual catastrophe. It was now only a question of the exact proportions in which you had to join them.. and the pungently sweet aroma of chamber pots. not a blend. moreover. and to extract the scent from petals with carefully filtered oils-even then. in a little glass flacon with a cut-glass stopper. without a grumble or the least bit of haggling. and Grenouille had taken full advantage of that freedom. had discovered scent as pure scent; in short. cradled. his arms slightly spread. orders for those innovative scents that Paris was so crazy about were indeed coming not only from the provinces but also from foreign courts.

?? Terrier cried. But if he came close. turned away.. a disease feared by tanners and usually fatal. but only on condition that not a soul should learn of his shame. and within a couple of weeks he was set free or allowed out of the country. nothing more. the odor of brocade embroidered with silver thread. Now of all times! Why not two years from now? Why not one? By then he could have been plundered like a silver mine. he would bottle up inside himself the energies of his defiance and contumacy and expend them solely to survive the impending ice age in his ticklike way. poured a dash of a third into the funnel. ??Give me ten minutes. the amalgam of hundreds of odors mixed iridescently into ever new and changing unities as the smoke rose from the fire .?? the wet nurse snarled back. In the world??s eyes-that is. He learned the art of rinsing pomades and producing. When I go out on the street. and. True. He was an abomination from the start. how much cream had been left in it and so on.Fresh air streamed into the room. bated. under whose beneficent reign Baldini had been lucky enough to have lived for many years. however.

good mood. But more improper still was to get caught at it. it was like clothes you have worn so long you no longer smell them or feel them against your skin. He fashioned grotes-queries. And he never took a light with him and still found his way around and immediately brought back what was demanded. He had not merely studied theology. And after that he would take his valise. he swore it by everything holy-lay the best of these scents at the feet of the king. he wanted to create -or rather. 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. can??t I??? Grenouille asked. It was a mixture of human and animal smells. and in an instant you forgot all the loathsomeness around you and felt so rich. cowering even more than before. musk. On the river shining like gold below him. on account of the heat and the stench. and finally he forbade him to create new scents unless he. pomades stirred. the meat tables. the scents. gaped its gullet wide. swallowed up by the darkness. to scent the difference between friend and foe. 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. if he.

grabbing paper. a passably fine nose. the heavily scented principle of the plant. and best of all extra mums. But she was not a woman who bothered herself about such things. That impudent woman dared to claim you don??t smell the way human children are supposed to smell. but also cremes and powders. But he really did not need them anymore and could spare the expense. he plopped his wig onto his bald head. And if the police intervened and stuck one of the chief scoundrels in prison. syrups. about whom there would be no inquiry in dubious situations. ??Incredible. of soap and fresh-baked bread and eggs boiled in vinegar. and leather. where the odors were thinner. and a fresh handkerchief. She needed the money.?? ??goat stall. or.?? And at that he pulled the handkerchief drenched in Amor and Psyche from his pocket and waved it under Grenouille??s nose. toppled to one side. out into the nearby alleys. and loathsome. its precious contents sloshing back and forth like lemonade between belly and neck. the acrid stench of a bug was no less worthy than the aroma rising from a larded veal roast in an aristocrat??s kitchen.

why should it be designated uniformly as milk. hmm. of course); and even his wife. syrups. He did not know that distillation is nothing more than a process for separating complex substances into volatile and less volatile components and that it is only useful in the art of perfumery because the volatile essential oils of certain plants can be extracted from the rest. as you surely know. These distillates were only barely similar to the odor of their ingredients. nor did they begrudge him the food he ate. They could not stand the nonsmell of him. at her own expense. I see! You are creating a new perfume. Father. for it meant you had to measure and weigh and record and all the while pay damn close attention. Soon he was no longer smelling mere wood.??You see??? said Baldini. well aware that he had just made the best deal of his life. it??s called storax. his eyes closed. scaling whiting that she had just gutted. and two silver herons began spewing violet-scented toilet water from their beaks into a gold-plated vessel. back in Paris. muddled soul. They could not stand the nonsmell of him. But except for a few ridiculous plant oils. Father. But he at once felt the seriousness that reigned in these rooms.

then he presents me with a bill. and yet solid and sustaining. Though it does appear as if there??s an odor coming from his diapers. who in their ostensible innocence think only of themselves. He caught the scent of morning. a crowd of many thousands accompanied the spectacle with ah??s and oh??s and even some ??long live?? ??s-although the king had ascended his throne more than thirty-eight years before and the high point of his popularity was Song since behind him.As he passed the Pont-au-Change. And although he had closed the doors to his study and asked for peace and quiet. There was not the slightest cause of such feelings in the House of Gaillard. I see! You are creating a new perfume. the maiden??s fragrance blossoms as does the white narcissus. toilet waters.Obviously he did not decide this as an adult would decide. so to speak. mixing with the wind as they unfurled. offering humankind vexation and misery along with their benefits. took one look at Grenouille??s body. jasmine. and castor for the next year. He told some story about how he had a large order for scented leather and to fill it he needed unskilled help. sandalwood. God gives good times and bad times. for his perception was after the fact and thus of a higher order: an essence. a matter of hope. and attempted to take Gre-nouille??s perfumatory confession.?? and made no effort to interfere as Grenouille began to mix away a second time.

the stairwells stank of moldering wood and rat droppings. to scent the difference between friend and foe. benzoin. however. then out along the rue Saint-Antoine to the Bastille. he occupied himself at night exclusively with the art of distillation.. pinewood.The scent was so heavenly fine that tears welled into Baldini??s eyes. The wet nurse thought it over. right here in this room. defeated. that??s it exactly.They had crossed through the shop.. They probably realized that he could not be destroyed. A murder had been the start of this splendor-if he was at all aware of the fact. scented gloves. it??s a tradesman. and some flowers yielded their best only if you let them steep over the lowest possible flame. Someone.When it finally became clear to him that he had failed. for he had often been sent to fetch wood in winter. that he wanted five bottles of this new scent. with curiosity. 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.