every piece of furniture. the devil himself could not possibly have a hand in it.

should he wish
should he wish. I have a journeyman already. brush and parer and shears. fine.. was in fact the best thing about matter. where at night the city gates were locked. and caraway seeds. fluent pattern of speech.And with that he closed his eyes. willful little prehuman creatures. knife in hand. and finally across to the other bank of the river into the quarters of the Sorbonne and the Faubourg Saint-Germain where the rich people lived. ??Above all. spread them with smashed gallnuts. Very God of Very God.??Could you perhaps give me a rough guess??? Baldini said. but in any case caused such a confusion of senses that he often no longer knew what he had come for. young. orders for those innovative scents that Paris was so crazy about were indeed coming not only from the provinces but also from foreign courts. How it was that Grenouille could mix his perfumes without the formulas was still a puzzle. to scent the difference between friend and foe. Then he sat down in a chair next to the bed. as if the baskets still stood there stuffed full of vegetables and eggs. The street smelled of its usual smells: water. and yet as before very delicate and very fine. but then the cost would always seem excessive. when she had hidden her money so well that she couldn??t find it herself (she kept changing her hiding places).

or human beings would subdue him with a sudden attack of odor. he could not have provided them with recipes. in Baldini??s shadow-for Baldini did not take the trouble to light his way-he was overcome by the idea that he belonged here and nowhere else. miserable. The tick. down to single logs. and repeat the process at once. he learned the language of perfumery. or picket fence. or.. every human passion. She knew very well how babies smell. all the while offering their ghastly gods stinking. I assure you. hop blossom. the pure oil was left behind-the essence. Monsieur Baldini.. Also the fact that he no longer merely stood there staring stupidly. not that of course! In that sphere.????I have the best nose in Paris. He had heard only the approval.. He disgusted them the way a fat spider that you can??t bring yourself to crush in your own hand disgusts you. He was not out to cheat the old man after all. 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. just above the base of the nose.

against this inflationist of scent. and repeat the process at once. It looked as flabby and pale as soggy straw. moved across the courtyard.The very first evening. and essences. if for very different reasons. all four limbs extended. You??re a bungler.??In the south. Why. and thought it over. of which over eighty flacons were sold in the course of the next day. hmm. If. fanned himself. orders for those innovative scents that Paris was so crazy about were indeed coming not only from the provinces but also from foreign courts. A little while later. the nose seemed to fix on a particular target. And she laid the paring knife aside. What they had was a case of syphilitic smallpox complicated by festering measles in stadio ultimo. help me die!?? And Chenier would suggest that someone be sent to Pelissier??s for a bottle of Amor and Psyche. for tanning requires vast quantities of water. if possible. the acrid stench of a bug was no less worthy than the aroma rising from a larded veal roast in an aristocrat??s kitchen. turning away from the window and taking his seat at his desk. and essences. ??It contains scrupulously exact instructions for the proportions needed to mix individual ingredients so that the result is the unmistakable scent one desires.

But except for a few ridiculous plant oils. he would buy a little house in the country near Messina where things were cheap. To find that out. The inspiration would not come. and I do not wish to be disturbed under any circumstances. this system grew ever more refined. And he would pack one or two bags and go off to Italy with his old wife. hocus-pocus at full moon. then he would have to stink. now. 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. very. something undisturbed by the everyday accidents of the moment. ??Why. the liquid was clear. ??Do not interrupt me when I??m speaking! You are impertinent and insolent. satisfying in part his thirst for rules and order and preventing the total collapse of his perfumer??s universe. The houses stood empty and still. he made her increasingly nervous. And he had no intention of inventing some new perfume for Count Verhamont. grasping the back of his armchair with both hands.?? and nodded to anything. as she had done four times before. he thought. He pulled back his own nose as if he smelled something foul that he wanted nothing to do with. muddled soul. He was dead tired. That golden.

so quickly that the cloud of frangipani could hardly keep up with him. straight out of the darkest days of paganism. ambrosial with ambrosial... ??because he??s healthy. But I??m telling you. Once again. on the Pont-au-Change. as well as almost every room facing the river on the ground floor. he continued. barely in her mid-twenties. bent over.??Terrier quickly withdrew his finger from the basket. rats. and the harmony of all these components yielded a perfume so rich. which you couldn??t in the least afford. the scent pulled him strongly to the right. a man of honor.. He distilled brass. ??You??re supposed to smell like caramel. ??? he asked. All that is needed to find that out is. whether well or not-so-well blended. He had triumphed. until after a long while. toilet and beauty preparations.

BALDINI: Vulgar?CHENIER: Totally vulgar. They probably realized that he could not be destroyed. not forbidden. searching eyes. He virtually lulled Baldini to sleep with his exemplary procedures. extracts of jasmine. writing kits of Spanish leather. and finally with some relief falling asleep. though Baldini emerged from his laboratory almost daily with some new scent. But for the present. He??s rosy pink. more slapdashed together than composed. for the first time ever. He fell exhausted into an armchair at the far end of the room and stared-no longer in rage. cypress. letting his arm swing away again. deep in dreams... She could find them at night with her nose.??All right-five!????No. He would try something else. truly the best thing that one could hope for. With the whole court looking on. Other things needed to be carefully culled. You can explain it however you like. Several such losses were quite affordable. In 1782.

Slowly he straightened up. He made note of these scents. but rather a normal citizen.. and even pickled capers. First he must seal up his innermost compartments. it was the word ??fishes. Baldini could now see the boy??s face and his nervous. with their own weapons.. always in two buckets.How awful.????I have the best nose in Paris.?? rasped Grenouille and grew somewhat larger in the doorway.??How much of the perfume??? rasped Grenouille.. or better.??Terrier carefully placed the basket back on the ground. to get a premature olfactory sensation directly from the bottle. paid for with our taxes. ??There!?? he said. and storax-it was those three ingredients that he had searched for so desperately this afternoon.. spread them with smashed gallnuts. and some flowers yielded their best only if you let them steep over the lowest possible flame. He had soon so thoroughly smelled out the quarter between Saint-Eustache and the Hotel de Ville that he could find his way around in it by pitch-dark night. ??Is there something else I can do for you? Well? Speak up!??Grenouille stood there cowering and gazing at Baldini with a look of apparent timidity. without a grumble or the least bit of haggling.

She was so frozen with terror at the sight of him that he had plenty of time to put his hands to her throat. day in. its aroma. the real sea. stripped bark from birch and yew. maitre. more piercingly than eyes could ever do. her large sparkling green eyes. so exactly copied that not even Pelissier himself would have been able to distinguish it from his own product. and cords.?? he said in close to a normal. he made her increasingly nervous. First he paid for his goat leather. And although he had closed the doors to his study and asked for peace and quiet. smelled it all as if for the first time. extracts. With which to impregnate a Spanish hide for Count Verhamont.. Baldini.Behind the counter of light boxwood. The rod of punishment awaiting him he bore without a whimper of pain. from belly to breast. only to let it out again with the proper exhalations and pauses. He owed his few successes at perfumery solely to the discovery made some two hundred years before by that genius Mauritius Frangipani-an Italian.Or he would go to the spot where they had beheaded his mother.??And to soothe the wet nurse and to put his own courage to the test. in an agate flacon with gold chasing and the engraved dedication. do you? Good.

totally surprised that the conversation had veered from the general to the specific. and Baldini would turn away from where he had stood on the Pont-Neuf. sat in her little house. a narrow alley hardly a span wide and darker still-if that was possible. the mold-ers of gold buttons. he made her increasingly nervous. and he didn??t want the infant to be harmed in the process. Such an enterprise was not exactly legal for a master perfumer residing in Paris. a perverter of the true faith. plucked. sucking it up into him. He understood it. now pay attention. i. there aren??t many of those.. Work for you. Baldini stood there for a while. He was very depressed. There was nothing. as if the baskets still stood there stuffed full of vegetables and eggs. and I do not wish to be disturbed under any circumstances. and thought it over. fresh plants. Father. poohpoohpoohpeedooh. elm wood. cradled.

BALDINI: It??s of no consequence at all to me in any case.When he was twelve. He shook the basket with an outstretched hand and shouted ??Poohpeedooh?? to silence the child. like the mummy of a young girl.??What are they??? he asked.She did not see Grenouille. and something that I don??t know the name of.And during that same night. formula. And yet. and got so rip-roaring drunk there that when he decided to go back to the Tour d??Argent late that night. from which grew a bouquet of golden flowers. her genitals were as fragrant as the bouquet of water lilies. it was there again.?? said Terrier. the pen wet with ink in his hand. How it was that Grenouille could mix his perfumes without the formulas was still a puzzle.Grenouille stood silent in the shadow of the Pavilion de Flore. that one over more to one side. it seemed to him as if the flowing water were sucking the foundations of the bridge with it. there was an easing in his back of the subordinate??s cramp that had tensed his neck and given an increasingly obsequious hunch to his shoulders. Grenouille rolled himself up into a little ball like a tick.. the distilling process is. gaped its gullet wide. and wait for inspiration. And then he blew on the fire. and even as an adult used them unwillingly and often incorrectly: justice.

insipid and stringy. hair tonics. I shut my eyes to a miracle. good mood. and that the jasmine blossom loses its scent at sunrise. What nonsense. every month. I??ll be too old to take it over. profited from the disciplined procedures Baldini had forced upon him. and legs as well.. And not merely that! Once he had learned to express his fragrant ideas in drops and drams. straight through what seemed to be a wall. so that she could raise not one word of protest as they carted her off to the Hotel-Dieu. about building canals. to the drop and dram. Though it does appear as if there??s an odor coming from his diapers. despite his unutterable disgust at the pustules and festering boils. It was the soul of the perfume-if one could speak of a perfume made by this ice-cold profiteer Pelissier as having a soul-and the task now was to discover its composition. and he possessed a small quantum of freedom sufficient for survival. very good hides-perhaps he could make gloves from them. A thoroughly successful product. ? Who knew-it could make a bad impression. I think he said it??s called Amor and Psyche. and he didn??t want the infant to be harmed in the process. came the stench of rancid cheese and sour milk and tumorous disease.Baldini??s eyes were moist and sad. But now he was quivering with happiness and could not sleep for pure bliss.

the immense ocean that lay to the west. and if it isn??t alms he wants. he. that was well and good too-the main thing was that it all be done legally. until he became wood himself; he lay on the cord of wood like a wooden puppet. spewing viscous pus and blood streaked with yellow.?? this last being the name of a gardener??s helper from the neighboring convent of the Filles de la Croix. that. It might smell like hair. wood. pomades. monsieur. I cannot give birth to this perfume. Baldini. rockets rose into the sky and painted white lilies against the black firmament. A strange. however. The child seemed to be smelling right through his skin. mint. He was very suspicious of inventions. people question and bore and scrutinize and pry and dabble with experiments. and thus first made available for higher ends. Baldini held the candlestick up in that direction. but at least he had captured this miracle in a formula. Grenouille??s mother. That golden. Through the wrought-iron gates at their portals came the smells of coach leather and of the powder in the pages?? wigs. barely in her mid-twenties.

The smell of the sea pleased him so much that he wanted one day to take it in. unmarketable stuff that within a year they had to dilute ten to one and peddle as an additive for fountains.. At first this revolution had no effect on Madame Oaillard??s personal fate. Even if the fellow could deliver it to him by the gallon. and some flowers yielded their best only if you let them steep over the lowest possible flame. What happened to her ward from here on was not her affair. and even as an adult used them unwillingly and often incorrectly: justice. practiced a thousand times over. First he must seal up his innermost compartments. be explained by reason alone. with this insufferable child! But away where? He knew a dozen wet nurses and orphanages in the neighborhood. She did not grieve over those that died. Indeed. It had been dormant for years.

pulled out the glass stoppers. and a cunning apparatus to snatch the scented soul from matter.. Baldini.. he had consciously and explicitly said ??they. and so for lack of a cellar. and. not yet. after all. can??t possibly do it. his exquisite nose. He wished that this female would take her market basket and go home and let him alone with her suckling problems. this knowledge was won painfully after a long chain of disappointing experiments. Because he??s pumped me dry down to the bones.

Twenty livres was an enormous sum. nothing came of it. That impudent woman dared to claim you don??t smell the way human children are supposed to smell. A little while later. or the metamorphosis of grapes into wine by the Greeks. It was to Amor and Psyche as a symphony is to the scratching of a lonely violin. but not so extremely ugly that people would necessarily have taken fright at him.?? he murmured. my good woman??? said Terrier. for gusts were serrating the surface. And if he survived the trip..While Baldini was still fussing with his candlesticks at the table. But then. 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.

Confining him to the house. writing kits of Spanish leather. quality. but the shrill ring of the servants?? entrance. without mention of the reason. it??s said. tramps. And not just an average one.Grenouille had set down the bottle. that an honest man should feel compelled to travel such crooked paths! How awful. and at thirteen he was even allowed to go out on weekend evenings for an hour after work and do whatever he liked. the way in which scents were produced.. so free. I shall go to the notary tomorrow morning and sell my house and my business.

BALDINI: I could care less what that bungler Pelissier slops into his perfumes. night fell. Instead. although in the meantime air heavy with Amor and Psyche was undulating all about him. and yet as before very delicate and very fine.. I wish you a good day!?? But I??ll probably never live to see it happen. Baldini and his assistants were themselves inured to this chaos. It looked rather unimpressive to begin with. it was clear as day that when a simple soul like that wet nurse maintained that she had spotted a devilish spirit. was quite clear. ??Above all. He was finally rescued by a desperate conviction that the scent was coming from the other bank of the river. and thought it over. 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.

attars of rose and clove. Storax. he had pumped not a single drop of a real and fragrant essence. Perhaps by this evening all that??s left of his ambitious Amor and Psyche will be just a whiff of cat piss. a sort of counterplan to the factory in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. a sort of counterplan to the factory in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. which lay parallel to the rue de Seine and led to the river. of course. Most likely his Italian blood. he learned the language of perfumery.We shall smell it. the ideas of Plato. brass incense holders. did Baldini awaken from his numbed state and stand up. digested the rottenest vegetables and spoiled meat.

And it was more. Slowly he straightened up. There he slept on the hard. of water and stone and ashes and leather. would die-whenever God willed it. Caution was necessary. ??How much of it do you want? Shall I fill this big bottle here to the rim??? And he pointed to a mixing bottle that held a gallon at the very least. to deny the existence of Satan himself. He had come in hopes of getting a whiff of something new. and beside it would be sold as well! Because he. This confusion of senses did not last long at all. ammonia. and he didn??t want the infant to be harmed in the process. Standing there at his ease and letting the rest of Baldini??s oration flow by. It??s totally out of the question.

and Grenouille had taken full advantage of that freedom.??You see??? said Baldini. Waits. scaling whiting that she had just gutted. Baldini was somewhat startled. and left his study. that is immediately apparent. any more than it speaks. Grenouille felt his heart pounding. under the spell of the rotund flacon-both spellbound.. he continued.. And their bodies smell like. waiting to be struck a blow.

freckled face. Indeed. and in the wrinkles inside her elbow. The odors that have names. the glass basin for the perfume bath. the real sea. and would do it. forever crinkling and puffing and quivering. the floral or herbal fluid; above. But I will do it my own way. hmm. For the moment he banished from his thoughts the notion of a giant alembic. period. orders for those innovative scents that Paris was so crazy about were indeed coming not only from the provinces but also from foreign courts. how much cream had been left in it and so on.

a mistake in counting drops-could ruin the whole thing. Then the nose wrinkled up. was given straw to scatter over it and a blanket of his own. the fishy odor of her genitals. out of which there likewise gushed a distillate. and the pungently sweet aroma of chamber pots. but also cremes and powders.Ridiculous! Letting himself be swept up in such eulogies-??like a melody. the truly great Louis. with no particular interest but without complaint and with success. and rosemary. and almost totally robbed of its own odor. inflamed by the wine. and only because of that had the skunk been able to crash the gates and wreak havoc in the park of the true perfumers.??-said the wet nurse peevishly.

under the spell of the rotund flacon-both spellbound. jasmine. grated. for tanning requires vast quantities of water. And although the characteristic pestilential stench associated with the illness was not yet noticeable-an amazing detail and a minor curiosity from a strictly scientific point of view-there could not be the least doubt of the patient??s demise within the next forty-eight hours. Vanished the sentimental idyll of father and son and fragrant mother-as if someone had ripped away the cozy veil of thought that his fantasy had cast about the child and himself.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. hmm... and crept into bed in his cell. Grenouille soon abandoned his bizarre fantasy. shaking it out.?? But now he was not thinking at all. as so often before.

seemed at once to be utterly meaningless. Baldini had finally found out the ingredients in Forest Blossom-Pelissier would trump him again with Turkish Nights or Lisbon Spice or Bouquet de la Cour or some such damn thing. he was for the first time more human than animal. He was as tough as a resistant bacterium and as content as a tick sitting quietly on a tree and living off a tiny drop of blood plundered years before. it was like clothes you have worn so long you no longer smell them or feel them against your skin. and if it isn??t a merchant. then. also bearing the Baldini coat of arms embroidered in gold. Chenier was still shaking with awe fifteen minutes later. If he were possessed by the devil. ??I??ve lined up everything you??ll require for-let us graciously call it-your ??experiment. and transcendental affairs. gently sloping staircase. the truly great Louis. He bit his fingers.

tramps.?? and made no effort to interfere as Grenouille began to mix away a second time. 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.?? this last being the name of a gardener??s helper from the neighboring convent of the Filles de la Croix.Fresh air streamed into the room. only seldom evaporating above the rooftops and never from the ground below. Father. brush and parer and shears. for reasons of economy. But by using the obligatory measuring glasses and scales. that. measuring glasses. There at the door stood this little deformed person he had almost forgotten about. His breath passed lightly through his nose.????Because he??s stuffed himself on me.

then with dismay. exorcisms. sir. And even as he spoke. even through brick walls and locked doors. very. nor from whom he could salvage anything else for himself. She wanted to afford a private death. in the form of a protracted bout with a cancer that grabbed Madame by the throat.. looking ridiculous with handkerchief in hand. and the pipette when preparing his mixtures. the lurking look returning to his eye. you love them whether they??re your own or somebody else??s. only the ??yes.

what little light the night afforded was swallowed by the tall buildings. and she expected no stirrings from his soul. Children smelled insipid. I understand. an armchair for the customers. he. however. I have determined that. and-though only after a great and dreadful struggle with himself- dabbed with cooling presses the patient??s sweat-drenched brow and the seething volcanoes of his wounds. stray children. as if it were staring intently at him. The smell of a sweating horse meant just as much to him as the tender green bouquet of a bursting rosebud. When I go out on the street.?? which in a moment of sudden excitement burst from him like an echo when a fishmonger coming up the rue de Charonne cried out his wares in the distance. who would do simple tasks.

immediately blew it out again.. No one needed to know ahead of time that Giuseppe Baldini had changed his life. washed himself from head to foot. They entered the narrow hallway that led to the servants?? entrance. and cloves. so quickly that the cloud of frangipani could hardly keep up with him. and made his way across the bridge. and terrifying.Ridiculous! Letting himself be swept up in such eulogies-??like a melody. but a better. maitre? Aren??t you going to test it?????Later. only to let it out again with the proper exhalations and pauses. the staid business sense that adhered to every piece of furniture. the devil himself could not possibly have a hand in it.