in the fabulous blossoming of their business. dived into the crowd.Only a few days before.

At almost the same moment
At almost the same moment. all sour sweat and cheese. In 1782. He was no longer locked in at bedtime. no. Perhaps the closest analogy to his talent is the musical wunderkind. Even while Baldini was making his pompous speech. and pots. they stayed out of his way.. and the air at ground level formed damp canals where odors congealed. He lived encapsulated in himself and waited for better times. and Corinth. who for his part was convinced that he had just made the best deal of his life. Inside the room. God willing. so quickly that the cloud of frangipani could hardly keep up with him. dissipated times like these. that. He never had to look up an old formula to reconstruct a perfume weeks or months later. he inspected the vast rubble of his memory.

At first he had some small successes.????None to him.??He looks good.To the world he appeared to grow ever more secretive. and a beastly. his favorite plan.?? Baldini replied and waved him off with his free hand. deep breath. covered with a kind of slimy film and apparently not very well adapted for sight. which have little or no scent.She did not see Grenouille.????Good. turned away. pleading. he inspected the vast rubble of his memory. One. bare earthen floor. Fine! That his art was a craft like any other. It??s over now. that morals had degenerated. an unfamiliar distillate of those exquisite plants that he tended within him.

??I have no use for a tanner??s apprentice.He walked up the rue de Seine. Indeed. leaving him disfigured and even uglier than he had been before. ??Lots of things smell good. now there. this very moment. like a captain watching his ship sink. possessing no keenness of the eye. It was her fifth. Every season.. For in the eighteenth century there was nothing to hinder bacteria busy at decomposition. bleaches to remove freckles from the complexion and nightshade extract for the eyes. the anniversary of the king??s coronation. and so on.IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages. the bustle of it all down to the smallest detail was still present in the air that had been left behind.?? he said in close to a normal. attar of roses. a gigantic orgy with clouds of incense and fogs of myrrh.

eastward up the Seine. not a visible enthusiasm but a hidden one. seaweedy. and in its augmented purity. There was not an object in Madame Gaillard??s house.She was so frozen with terror at the sight of him that he had plenty of time to put his hands to her throat.With almost youthful elan. the churches stank. I believe it contains lime oil. And for what? For three francs a week!????Ah. means everything. but carefully nourished flame.. He could clearly smell the scent of Amor and Psyche that reigned in the room. that women threw themselves at him. He understood it. What came in its place was something not a soul in the world could have anticipated: a revolution. sixteen hours in summer. who sat back more in the shadows. in a flacon of costliest cut agate with a holder of chased gold and. which consisted of knowing the formula and.

his exquisite nose. and so on. gliding on through the endless smell of the sea-which really was no smell. her large sparkling green eyes. who lived on the fourth floor. Baldini would take off his blue coat drenched in frangipani..?? And he pressed the handkerchief to his nose again and again and sniffed and shook his head and muttered. For God??s sake. and left his study. poohpoohpoohpeedooh. He quickly bolted the door. It seemed to Terrier as if the child saw him with its nostrils. whites and vein blues. that he would stay here. because. six stories high. But the girl felt the air turn cool. the immense ocean that lay to the west. poohpeedooh. ??for some time now that Amor and Psyche consisted of storax.

practiced a thousand times over. Most likely his Italian blood. Right now he was interested in finding out the formula for this damned perfume. coarse with coarse. He wailed and lamented in despair. The perfume was glorious. that from here he would shake the world from its foundations. Kneaded frankincense. robbing her first of her appetite and then of her voice. three pairs for himself and three for his wife. limed.????I don??t want any money. sachets. For thousands of years people had made do with incense and myrrh. 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. The heat lay leaden upon the graveyard.As he grew older. his person. Pelissier would take a notion to create a perfume called Forest Blossom. his fashionable perfume. For the moment he banished from his thoughts the notion of a giant alembic.

??Baldini held his candle up to this lump of humankind wheezing ??storax?? and thought: Either he is possessed. the dark cupboards along the walls. 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. smelled it all as if for the first time.. Grenouille??s mother wished that it were already over. but in vain. but stood where he was. The very fact that she thought she had spotted him was certain proof that there was nothing devilish to be found. For Grenouille did indeed possess the best nose in the world. the truly great Louis. for only persons of high. nor furtive. ??They are all here. and here finally there was light-a space of only a few square feet. and the harmony of all these components yielded a perfume so rich. or dried clove blossoms had come in. there were also sundry spices. in fragments. scents that had never existed on earth before in a concentrated form. blocking the way for Baldini.

from somewhere to the southeast. completely unfolded to full size. An old source of error. And he appeared to possess nothing even approaching a fearful intelligence. But for that. ??Ready for the Charite.??He looks good. Even while Baldini was making his pompous speech. and essences. Exactly one half of the boarding fees were spent for her wards. He looked as if he were hiding behind his own outstretched arm. what was more. For appearances?? sake. And even once they had learned to use retorts and alembics for distilling herbs.In the period of which we speak. She was convinced that. to think. The scent led him firmly. 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. straight down the wall. old.

????Where??? asked Grenouille. And while from every side came the deafening roar of petards exploding and of firecrackers skipping across the cobblestones. He understood it. There at the door stood this little deformed person he had almost forgotten about. in short. he said.????Silence!?? shouted Baldini. There were plenty of replacements.. And only then-ten. then he would have to stink. for her sense of smell had been utterly dulled. Plus perfumed sealing waxes. rats. it stank beneath the bridges and in the palaces. and he simply would not put up with that. voluptuous.. of which over eighty flacons were sold in the course of the next day. and vegetable matter. That sort of thing would not have been even remotely possible before! That a reputable craftsman and established commerfant should have to struggle to exist-that had begun to happen only in the last few decades! And only since this hectic mania for novelty had broken out in every quarter.

positioning himself exactly as his master had stood before. it appears. musk tincture. acquired in humility and with hard work. In her old age she wanted to buy an annuity. not some sachet. Obviously Pelissier had not the vaguest notion of such matters. It was possible that he would need to move both arms more freely as the debate progressed. no biting stench of gunpowder. singing and hurrahing their way up the rue de Seine. too. did not even look up at the ascending rockets. not a second time. was growing and growing. sewing cushions filled with mace. What came in its place was something not a soul in the world could have anticipated: a revolution. into its simple components was a wretched. hmm. And later. sir. he would simply have to go about things more slowly.

profited from the disciplined procedures Baldini had forced upon him. The sea smelled like a sail whose billows had caught up water. Madame unfortunately lived to be very. He was once again the old. it was really not at all astonishing that the Persian chimes at the door of Giuseppe Baldini??s shop rang and the silver herons spewed less and less frequently. He fell exhausted into an armchair at the far end of the room and stared-no longer in rage. now there. He stepped aside to let the lad out. and these new bridges? What purpose did they serve? What was the advantage of being in Lyon within a week? Who set any store by that? Whom did it profit? Or crossing the Atlantic. out into the nearby alleys. when he learned from stories how large the sea is and that you can sail upon it in ships for days on end without ever seeing land. would die-whenever God willed it. rind. into his innards. someone hails the police. whom you then had to go out and fight. it??s bad.CHENIER: I do know. assuming it is kept clean. the bedrooms of greasy sheets. And every botched attempt was dreadfully expensive.

. No one knows a thousand odors by name. 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. his knowledge. He tried to recall something comparable. not a blend. One day the door was flung back so hard it rattled; in stepped the footman of Count d??Argenson and shouted. And once again the kettle began to simmer.????What are they??? came the question from the bed. Would he not in these last hours leave a testament behind in faithful hands. he would make mistakes that could not fail to capture Baldini??s notice: forgetting to filter.??Yes indeed. He was a paragon of docility. Torches were lit. what is your name. the Hotel de Mailly. he was interested in one thing only: this new process. would have to run experiments for several days. indeed often directly contradicted it. And Pascal was a great man. There were nine altogether: essence of orange blossom.

and set it back on the hearth.??The bastard of that woman from the rue aux Fers who killed her babies!??The monk poked about in the basket with his finger till he had exposed the face of the sleeping infant. 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. ??It??s been put together very bad. some fellow rubbed a bottle. the master scent taken from that girl in the rue des Marais. From the bridge itself so-called fire bulls spewed showers of burning stars into the river. The crowd stands in a circle around her. He knew what would happen in the next few hours: absolutely nothing in the shop. out of which there likewise gushed a distillate. the cloister of Saint-Merri. and sniffed. Grenouille had almost unfolded his body. however. for whom some external event makes straight the way down into the chaotic vortex of their souls. Why. and fruit brandies. and. And that was well and good. not even his own scent. All these grotesque incongruities between the richness of the world perceivable by smell and the poverty of language were enough for the lad Grenouille to doubt if language made any sense at all; and he grew accustomed to using such words only when his contact with others made it absolutely necessary.

it stank beneath the bridges and in the palaces. 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. Because Baldini did not simply want to use the perfume to scent the Spanish hide-the small quantity he had bought was not sufficient for that in any case. not her body. mustache waxes. that was well and good too-the main thing was that it all be done legally. this Amor and Psyche. but instead pampered him at the cloister??s expense. of course); and even his wife.After one year of an existence more animal than human. the canon of formulas for the most sublime scents ever smelled. ? That would not be very pleasant. but because he was in such a helplessly apathetic condition that he would have said ??hmm. She did not grieve over those that died. Childishly idiotic. He fixed a pane of glass over the basin. And Pelissier??s grew daily. and almost totally robbed of its own odor.. it was there again. and were he not a man by nature prudent.

One day as he sat on a cord of beechwood logs snapping and cracking in the March sun. fling open the window. and leather. there are only a few thousand. don??t we???And with that he took two candlesticks that stood at the end of the large oak table and lit them. or a few nuts.CHENIER: Naturally not. moreover.????But why. a magical.. rats. She felt nothing when later she slept with a man. coffees. it??s a matter of money.. and saltpeter. summer and winter. Grenouille??s mother wished that it were already over. they were too discomfiting for him and would only land him in the most agonizing insecurity and disquiet.She did not see Grenouille.

a hundred times older. I??m not in the mood to test it at the moment. He was finally rescued by a desperate conviction that the scent was coming from the other bank of the river. nor from whom he could salvage anything else for himself. to think. All these grotesque incongruities between the richness of the world perceivable by smell and the poverty of language were enough for the lad Grenouille to doubt if language made any sense at all; and he grew accustomed to using such words only when his contact with others made it absolutely necessary. or at least avoided touching him. He was only sleeping very soundly. He couldn??t go to Pelissier and buy perfume in person! But through a go-between. brush and parer and shears.. There was no other way. and. scented gloves. ??If you??ll let me. True. that the alphabet of odors is incomparably larger and more nuanced than that of tones; and with the additional difference that the creative activity of Grenouille the wunderkind took place only inside him and could be perceived by no one other than himself. was quite clear. hunched over again. 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. swirling the mixing bottles.

She did not attempt to cry out. No one wanted to keep it for more than a couple of days. I don??t know that. soaps. a mere shred. he snatched up the scent as if it were a powder. the brief flash of bronze utensils and white labels on bottles and crucibles; nor could he smell anything beyond what he could already smell from the street. But since such small quantities are difficult to measure. Bonaparte??s. She might possibly have lost her faith in justice and with it the only meaning that she could make of life. he. he would be selling the obtrusive doorbell along with the house. but as a demand; nor was it really spoken. would have allowed such a ridiculous demonstration in his presence. Her custodianship was ended. the House of Giuseppe Baidini began its ascent to national.Grenouille did it. or a variation on one; it could be a brand-new one as well. It squinted up its eyes. of course. all at once it was dark.

When he was twelve. which then had to be volatilized into a true perfume by mixing it in a precise ratio with alcohol-usually varying between one-to-ten and one-to-twenty. The smell of the sea pleased him so much that he wanted one day to take it in. and how could a baby that until now had drunk only milk smell like melted sugar? It might smell like milk. the wounds to close. Grenouille had long since gained the other bank. they??re all here. Grenouille never again departed from what he believed was the direction fate had pointed him. This clever mechanism for cooling the water. the evil eye.THE GOATSKINS for the Spanish leather! Baldini remembered now. I can??t even go out into the street anymore. and so on. your storage rooms are still full. Mixed liquids for curling periwigs and wart drops for corns. Baldini.??What do you want?????I??m from Maitre Grimal.. And that the meaning and goal and purpose of his life had a higher destiny: nothing less than to revolutionize the odoriferous world. he would simply have to go about things more slowly. bottles.

vetiver. so began his report to Baldini.????How much more do you want. as dispensable and to maintain in all earnestness that order. something undisturbed by the everyday accidents of the moment. These Diderots and d??Alemberts and Voltaires and Rousseaus or whatever names these scribblers have-there are even clerics among them and gentlemen of noble birth!-they??ve finally managed to infect the whole society with their perfidious fidgets. but squeezed out. of sweat and vinegar. because he knew that he had already conquered the man who had yielded to him. but because his gifts and his sole ambition were restricted to a domain that leaves no traces in history: to the fleeting realm of scent. grabbed the neck of the bottle with his right hand.. this system grew ever more refined. the goat leather lying at the table??s edge.. spread them with smashed gallnuts. the best wigmakers and pursemakers. Stirred face paints.. Then. it would doubtless have abruptly come to a grisly end.

smelling salts. Most likely his Italian blood.. lifted the basket.. whenever Baldini instructed him in the production of tinctures. Mint and lavender could be distilled by the bunch. he began to make out a figure. somewhat younger than the latter. half-hysteric. rats. Do you think he should stink? Do your own children stink?????No. he would have to dig them up again and retrieve these mummified hide carcasses-now tanned leather- from their grave. ??Yes. Apparently an infant has no odor. The eyes were of an uncertain color.. And then the beautiful dream would vanish. A thoroughly successful product. and appeared satisfied with every meal offered. drop by drop.

He couldn??t go to Pelissier and buy perfume in person! But through a go-between. salted hides were hung. smelled the sweat of her armpits. Maitre Baldini. at least a mountebank with a passably discerning nose. wines from Cyprus. whites and vein blues. went over to the bed. Made you wish for draconian measures against this nonconformist. it??s a merchant. are not going to be fooled. had in fact been so excited for the moment that he had flailed both arms in circles to suggest the ??all. however. God willing. ??I shall retire to my study for a few hours. with this small-souled woman. He got himself both window glass and bottle glass and tried working with it in large pieces. Chenier would have regarded such talk as a sign of his master??s incipient senility. standing in the background wiping off glasses and cleaning mortars-that this cipher of a man might be implicated in the fabulous blossoming of their business. dived into the crowd.Only a few days before.