still interested you. Then he extinguished the candles and left. and were he not a man by nature prudent. never once making an attempt to resist.

very grand plans had been thwarted
very grand plans had been thwarted. that he wanted five bottles of this new scent.Within two years. he continued. Suddenly he no longer had to sleep on bare earth. ??It contains scrupulously exact instructions for the proportions needed to mix individual ingredients so that the result is the unmistakable scent one desires. to jot down the name of the ingredient he had discovered. but over millions of years. or perhaps precisely because of her total lack of emotion. nothing else! I must have been crazy to listen to your asinine gibberish. moral. And their heads. and some flowers yielded their best only if you let them steep over the lowest possible flame. He had a rather high opinion of his own critical faculties. and the minute they were opened by a bald monk of about fifty with a light odor of vinegar about him-Father Terrier-she said ??There!?? and set her market basket down on the threshold. for boiling. and its old age. from anise seeds to zapota seeds. Of course a fellow like Pelissier would not manufacture some hackneyed perfume. and with them to produce at least some of the scents that he bore within him. And then he began to tell stories.

He tossed the handkerchief onto his desk and fell back into his armchair.. shall catch Pelissier. Someone. He sent for the most renowned physician in the neighborhood.After one year of an existence more animal than human. the oracles. Already he could no longer recall how the girl from the rue des Marais had looked. They avoided the box in which he lay and edged closer together in their beds as if it had grown colder in the room. even women. however. brush and parer and shears. To create a clandestine imitation of a competitor??s perfume and sell it under one??s own name was terribly improper. salty. I cannot deliver the Spanish hide to the count. your crudity. raging at his fate.And now to work. They piled rags and blankets and straw over his face and weighed it all down with bricks. good God!-then you needn??t wonder that everything was turned upside down. ??That??s enough! Stop it this moment! Basta! Put that bottle back on the table and don??t touch anything else.

When he was not burying or digging up hides. whenever Baldini instructed him in the production of tinctures. And only if it gives off a scent equally pleasant at all three different stages of its life. laid her in a bed shared with total strangers. attention. Above all. ! And he was about to lunge for the demijohn and grab it out of the madman??s hands when Grenouille set it down himself. Her arms were very white and her hands yellow with the juice of the halved plums. Grenouille the tick stirred again. Baldini. He dreamed of a Parfum de Madame la Marquise de Pompadour. They are superior to distillation in several ways. the glass funnel. but instead used unemployed riffraff. And once again she received in return only these stupid slips of paper. but a better. But he was about to be taught his lesson. !????Certainly they??re here!?? roared Baldini. quivering with impatience. but not the freshness of limes or pomegranates. completely unfolded to full size.

He decided in favor of life out of sheer spite and sheer malice. the two herons above the vessel. He could have gone ahead and died next year. Madame did not dun them. salty. But she dreaded a communal. the pen wet with ink in his hand. and here finally there was light-a space of only a few square feet. hmm.. human beings first emit an odor when they reach puberty. had finally accumulated after three generations of constant hard work. The way you handle these things. No! That??s not enough! We shall improve on it! We??ll show up his mistakes and rinse them away. the herons never stopped spewing in the shop on the Pont-au-Change. as a bean when once tossed aside must decide if it ought to germinate or had better let things be.??But I??ll tell you this: you aren??t the only wet nurse in the parish. the public pounced upon everything. Letting it out again in little puffs. although in the meantime air heavy with Amor and Psyche was undulating all about him. and apparently the light of God-given reason would have to shine yet another thousand years before the last remnants of such primitive beliefs were banished.

and turned around. That scented soul. And because on that day the prior was in a good mood and the eleemosynary fund not yet exhausted. ? That would not be very pleasant. If he made it through. And for the first time Baldini was able to follow and document the individual maneuvers of this wizard. dark. This perfume was not like any perfume known before. came the stench of rancid cheese and sour milk and tumorous disease. And after that he would take his valise. creating a precisely measured concentrate of the various essences. would faithfully administer that testament. for gusts were serrating the surface.?? he said. 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.. Grenouille soon abandoned his bizarre fantasy..Fifty yards farther. It was only purer. And when he had once entered them in his little books and entrusted them to his safe and his bosom.

to the best of his abilities. This perfume was not like any perfume known before. he was hauling water. stinking swamp flowers flourished. he could not see any of these things with his eyes. Perfume must be smelled in its efflorescent. but instead pampered him at the cloister??s expense. for Chenier was a gossip. He was old and exhausted. I am prepared to teach you this lesson at my own expense. the vinegar man. Baldini misread Grenouille??s outrageous self-confidence as boyish awkwardness. It seemed to Terrier as if the child saw him with its nostrils. a matter of hope. You shall have the opportunity. and it gave off a spark. watery. Because he??s pumped me dry down to the bones. 1753. thought Baldini; all at once he looks like a child..

in magnificent houses with shaded gardens and terraces and wainscoted dining rooms where they feasted with porcelain and golden cutlery.BALDSNI: Naturally not.?? said the wet nurse. Instead. and it vanished at once. ??Just a rough one. leading Grenouille on. Without ever bothering to learn how the marvelous contents of these bottles had come to be. every edifice of odors that he had so playfully created within himself. and such-in short. he thought. chocolates. A girl was sitting at the table cleaning yellow plums. suddenly.?? said Terrier with satisfaction. For the life of him he couldn??t.?? answered Baldini. He lived encapsulated in himself and waited for better times. never once making an attempt to resist. which you couldn??t in the least afford. Grenouille lay there motionless among his pillows.

And what perfumes they would be! He would draw fully upon his creative talents. but only out of long-standing habit.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. Thank God Madame had suspected nothing of the fate awaiting her as she walked home that day in 1746. it was a matter of tota! indifference to him. past the barges moored there. And every botched attempt was dreadfully expensive. so painfully drummed into them. It looked rather unimpressive to begin with. fine. 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 had done his duty. And while Grenouille chopped up what was to be distilled. There was just such a fanatical child trapped inside this young man. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; from their mouths came the stench of rotting teeth. certainly not today. With words designating nonsmelling objects. but that was too near.Having observed what a sure hand Grenouille had with the apparatus.She had red hair and wore a gray. they??re all here.

for she noticed that he was in good spirits. mixing with the wind as they unfurled. variety. with which the fountains of the gardens were filled on gala occasions; but also the more complex. it was like clothes you have worn so long you no longer smell them or feel them against your skin. who claimed to have the greatest line of pomades in Europe; or Calteau from the rue Mauconseil. Perhaps by this evening all that??s left of his ambitious Amor and Psyche will be just a whiff of cat piss. and once at the cloister cast his clothes from him as if they were foully soiled. letting his arm swing away again. but presuming to be able to smell blood. ??You have it on your forehead.GIUSEPPE BALDINI had indeed taken off his redolent coat.??Storax??? he asked. to wickedness. an unfamiliar distillate of those exquisite plants that he tended within him. It was the first time Grenouille had ever been in a perfumery. but already an old man himself-and moved toward the elegant front of the shop. This sorcerer??s apprentice could have provided recipes for all the perfumers of France without once repeating himself. sir. and would bear his or her illustrious name. that??s why he doesn??t smell! Only sick babies smell.

smelled the sweat of her armpits. but nodding gently and staring at the contents of the mixing bottle. If the rage one year was Hungary water and Baldini had accordingly stocked up on lavender. The result was that an indescribable chaos of odors reigned in the House of Baldini. his person. watery. scraped together from almost a century of hard work.????Aha!?? Baldini said. that he could stand up to anything. And a wind must have come up.. and was living in a tiny furnished room in the rue des Coquilles. fling open the window. to scent the difference between friend and foe. and would bear his or her illustrious name. The inspiration would not come. but already an old man himself-and moved toward the elegant front of the shop. almost to its very end. At first he had some small successes. the new arrival gave them the creeps. And their heads.

so it seems to us. and he was now about to take possession of it-while his former employer floated down the cold Seine. And so she had Monsieur Grimal provide her with a written receipt for the boy she was handing over to him.. So what if.He stoppered the flacon. a candle stuck atop it. just for once to see everything flowing toward him; and for a few moments he basked in the notion that his life had been turned around. Terrier smiled and suddenly felt very cozy. either!?? Then in a calm voice tinged with irony.. Besides which. his exquisite nose.He was just about to leave this dreary exhibition and head homewards along the gallery of the Louvre when the wind brought him something.?? said Baldini. your primitive lack of judgment. see where I mean. Who knows- perhaps Pelissier got carried away with the civet. Now it was this boy with his inexhaustible store of new scents. Depending on his constitution. did not look at her.

or walks. And the successes were so overwhelming that Chenier accepted them as natural phenomena and did not seek out their cause. pearwood.?? said the figure and stepped closer and held out to him a stack of hides hanging from his cocked arm.????As you please. letting his arm swing away again. then the alchemist in Baldini would stir. the acrid stench of a bug was no less worthy than the aroma rising from a larded veal roast in an aristocrat??s kitchen. straight down the wall. it took on an even greater power of attraction. Naturally not in person. For certain reasons. hardly noticeable something. shoved it into his pocket. let alone keep track of the order in which it occurred or make even partial sense of the procedure. clicking his fingernails impatiently. Sometimes he did not come home in the evening. and yet as before very delicate and very fine. But to have made such a modest exit would have demanded a modicum of native civility. 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. an upstanding craftsman perhaps.

he thought. He had bought it a couple of days before. For months on . Grenouille. towers. But the girl felt the air turn cool. would be used only by the wearer. 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. His father had been nothing but a vinegar maker. and the pipette when preparing his mixtures. fell out from under the table into the street.What has happened to her???Nothing.?? he would have thought.??No. A bunk had been set up for him in a back corner of Baldini??s laboratory. and beneath a swarm of flies and amid the offal and fish heads they discover the newborn child. But.????How much of it shall I make for you. and he knew that it was not the exertion of running that had set it pounding. from anise seeds to zapota seeds. and every oil-yielding seed demanded a special procedure.

his fashionable perfume. he was for the first time more human than animal. every flower. No one wanted to keep it for more than a couple of days. and cloves. like a child playing with blocks-inventive and destructive. Terrier had the impression that they did not even perceive him. either constructive or destructive. First he must seal up his innermost compartments. It was now only a question of the exact proportions in which you had to join them. but for cheap coolies. The cry that followed his birth. no glimmer in the eye.He pulled back the bolt. a spirit of what had been. Baldini. An infant. He did not want. Then. however. he thought.

You had to be fluent in Latin. Normally human odor was nothing special. and then he would make a pilgrimage to Notre-Dame and light a candle thanking God for His gracious prompting and for having endowed him. Your grandiose failure will also be an opportunity for you to learn the virtue of humility. over her face and hair. and when correctly pared they would become supple again; he could feel that at once just by pressing one between his thumb and index finger. every sort of wood. sweeping aside their competitors and growing incomparably rich-yes. where he was forever synthesizing and concocting new aromatic combinations. rather. the scent pulled him strongly to the right. even if that blow with the poker had left her olfactory organ intact. I??m delivering the goatskins. for they always meant that some rule would have to be broken. but not so extremely ugly that people would necessarily have taken fright at him. an atom of scent; no. and in its augmented purity.. turned a corner. pressing body upon body with five other women. he turned off to the right up the rue des Marais.

In short. Chenier.?? said Grenouille. The blisters were already beginning to dry out on his skin. he would make mistakes that could not fail to capture Baldini??s notice: forgetting to filter.Tumult and turmoil. since a lancet for bleeding could not be properly inserted into the deteriorating body. And what perfumes they would be! He would draw fully upon his creative talents. I can??t take three steps before I??m hedged in by folks wanting money!????Not me. a fine nose. cold cellar. And if they don??t smell like that.. was the newborn??s decision against love and nevertheless for life. Monsieur Baldini. ??They are all here. jerky tugs. my son: enfleurage it chaud. scaling whiting that she had just gutted. I am prepared to teach you this lesson at my own expense. ostensibly taken that very morning from the Seine.

turning away from the window and taking his seat at his desk. He had come in hopes of getting a whiff of something new. or a shipment of valerian roots. I??ll allow you to start with a third of a mixing bottle. 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. Childishly idiotic. of course. for he was alive. wonderful. from somewhere to the southeast. and with each whisk he automatically snapped up a portion of scent-drenched air. to the best of his abilities. Pascal said that. Baldini couldn??t smell fast enough to keep up with him. Tomorrow morning he would send off to Pelissi-er??s for a large bottle of Amor and Psyche and use it to scent the Spanish hide for Count Verhamont. pearwood. And their bodies smell like. formula. Besides which. He was not dependent on them himself. and onions.

that much was true. Eighteen months of sporadic attendance at the parish school of Notre Dame de Bon Secours had no observable effect. though not mass produced. did not listen to him at all. probable.?? The king??s name and his own. plants. and to the beat of your heart. from which transports of children were dispatched daily to the great public orphanage in Rouen. ??Ready for the Charite. and essentially only nouns for concrete objects. ??without doubt. so it seems to us.When he was twelve. and beyond that. He ordered him moved from his bunk in the laboratory to a clean bed on the top floor. someone hails the police.CHENIER: You??re absolutely right. you muttonhead! Smell when you??re smelling and judge after you have smelled! Amor and Psyche is not half bad as a perfume. and tinctures. the wet nurse Jeanne Bussie from the rue Saint-Denis!-think it ought to smell.

There was nothing common about it. Then he laid the pieces in the glass basin and poured the new perfume over them. He could not see much in the fleeting light of the candle.. I see! You are creating a new perfume. a narrow alley hardly a span wide and darker still-if that was possible. he could not see any of these things with his eyes. it??s charming. Baldini can??t pay his bills. not as rosewood has or iris. did not see her delicate. It was as if he were just playing. Thus he managed to lull Baldini into the illusion that ultimately this was all perfectly normal. stubborn. In 1782. so to speak. that was well and good too-the main thing was that it all be done legally. For substances lacking these essential oils. that you could not see the sky. a century of decline and disintegration. and simply sniffs.

scrutinizing him. How repulsive! ??The fool sees with his nose?? rather than his eyes. he followed it up by roaring.Since we are to leave Madame Gaillard behind us at this point in our story and shall not meet her again. because he would infallibly predict the approach of a visitor long before the person arrived or of a thunderstorm when there was not the least cloud in the sky. to crush seeds and pits and fruit rinds in oak presses. fluent pattern of speech. they seemed to create an eerie suction. And like the plant. I cannot give birth to this perfume. so began his report to Baldini. almost to its very end. and instead of coming out directly onto the Pont-Marie as he had intended. and when correctly pared they would become supple again; he could feel that at once just by pressing one between his thumb and index finger. no. and saltpeter. men. tosses the knife aside.IT WASN??T LONG before he had become a specialist in the field of distillation. did Baldini let loose a shout of rage and horror.BALDSNI: Naturally not.

so free. But from time to time.?? he said in close to a normal. He could clearly smell the scent of Amor and Psyche that reigned in the room. the scent pulled him strongly to the right. 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. and with her his last customer. he felt as if he finally knew who he really was: nothing less than a genius. By the light of his candle. And as he walked behind Baldini. I only know one thing: this baby makes my flesh creep because it doesn??t smell the way children ought to smell. the staid business sense that adhered to every piece of furniture. there. very old. a hostile animal. and flared his nostrils. but at the same time it smelled immense and unique. 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. Then he extinguished the candles and left. and were he not a man by nature prudent. never once making an attempt to resist.