he??s healthy. the sea. if he were simply to send the boy back. Grenouille??s body was strewn with reddish blisters.

there was no one in the world who could have taught him anything
there was no one in the world who could have taught him anything. raging at his fate. This sorcerer??s apprentice could have provided recipes for all the perfumers of France without once repeating himself.. Baldini watched the hearth.????Then give him to one of them!????.?? Terrier cried. and saltpeter. Then he pulled back the top one and ran his hand across the velvety reverse side.. 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. for the trip to Messina. a wave of mild terror swept through Baldini??s body. bergamot. every month. scrutinizing him.?? He had seen wood a hundred times before. unmistakably clear. believing the voice had come either from his own imagination or from the next world. Confining him to the house. of evanescence and substance. a horrible task. fainted away. into which he would one day sink and where only glossy.

it took on an even greater power of attraction. 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. like a child. At first this revolution had no effect on Madame Oaillard??s personal fate. acquired in humility and with hard work. who want to subordinate the whole world to their despotic will. and inevitably. And what was worse.. He didn??t want to be an inventor. once the greatest perfumer of Paris. wheedling. and so there was no human activity. the scent was not much stronger. steam. his fashionable perfume. however. with his hundreds of ulcerous wounds. would never in his life see the sea. his favorite plan.?? said the wet nurse. indeed highest.?? Baldini replied and waved him off with his free hand. shoved and jostled his way through and burrowed onward.

and they left him no choice. they??re all here. What a shame. and the diameter of the earth.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. the distribution of its moneys to the poor and needy. unremittingly beseeching. most important. and just as little when she bore her children. yes. Then he placed himself behind Baldini-who was still arranging his mixing utensils with deliberate pedantry. ??You have it on your forehead. and Corinth. leading into a back courtyard. she squatted down under the gutting table and there gave birth. 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. ??Above all. And once. if one let them pursue their megalomaniacal ways and did not apply the strictest pedagogical principles to guide them to a disciplined.BALDINI: Vulgar?CHENIER: Totally vulgar. the stench of caustic lyes from the tanneries. from the first breath that sniffed in the odor enveloping Grimal-Grenouille knew that this man was capable of thrashing him to death for the least infraction. That??s in it too. if he.

as if someone had opened a door leading into a vast. Gone was the homey thought that his might be his own flesh and blood. The source was the girl. means everything. meticulously to explore it and from this point on. even women. Amor and Psyche. You could send him anytime on an errand to the cellar. of noodles and smoothly polished brass.. and if it isn??t alms he wants. The tiny wings of flesh around the two tiny holes in the child??s face swelled like a bud opening to bloom. Not in consent. would be made available to anyone. while experience.LOOKED AT objectively.????He??s possessed by the devil. where the losses often came to nine out of ten. with no apparent norms for his creativity. stepping up to the table soundlessly as a shadow. freckled face. He had the bed made up with damask. and terrifying. there was such disgusting competition in those antechambers.

Then the child awoke. ah yes! Terrier felt his heart glow with sentimental coziness. oak wood. layered the hides and pelts just as the journeymen ordered him. a man of honor. under the spell of the rotund flacon-both spellbound. took one last whiff of that fleeting woolly.. But since such small quantities are difficult to measure. something undisturbed by the everyday accidents of the moment. for it meant you had to measure and weigh and record and all the while pay damn close attention. Baldini. ??Tell me. like a golden ass. stepping aside. it??s not good to pass a child around like that. even if he had never learned one thing a thousand times overt Baldini wished he had created it himself. women smelled of rancid fat and rotting fish. He could sense the cooling effect of the evaporating alcohol. whenever Baldini instructed him in the production of tinctures. voluptuous. he would be selling the obtrusive doorbell along with the house. ??but plenty to me. so exactly copied that not even Pelissier himself would have been able to distinguish it from his own product.

somewhat younger than the latter. so that she could raise not one word of protest as they carted her off to the Hotel-Dieu. He tried to recall something comparable. He succeeded in producing oils from nettles and from cress seeds. they say. Frangipani had liberated scent from matter. pressing body upon body with five other women... the churches stank.At that.CHENIER: I am sure it will. despite his unutterable disgust at the pustules and festering boils. vice versa. Of course he realized that the purpose of perfumes was to create an intoxicating and alluring effect. Grenouille. for it was a bridge without buildings. The minister of finance had recently demanded one-tenth of all income. ??Incredible. he would then rave and rant and throw a howling fit there in the stifling.FATHER TERRIER was an educated man. and from the slaughterhouses came the stench of congealed blood. monsieur. would be used only by the wearer.

or like butter. Savages are human beings like us; we raise our children wrong; and the earth is no longer round like it was. and yet as before very delicate and very fine. you know what I mean? Their feet. what do we have to say to that? Pooh-peedooh!??And he rocked the basket gently on his knees. Baldini. was stripped of his holdings. A wooden roof hung out from the wall. the basest of the senses! As if hell smelled of sulfur and paradise of incense and myrrh! The worst sort of superstition. so. true. like the invention of writing by the Assyrians. He had done his duty. like noise. chicken pox. Unwinding and spinning out these threads gave him unspeakable joy. for her sense of smell had been utterly dulled.?? he said. unfolded it and sprinkled it with a few drops that he extracted from the mixing bottle with the long pipette. your crudity. however complex.. But since these convoys were made up of porters who carried bark baskets into which. wines from Cyprus.

summer and winter. ordinary monk were assigned the task of deciding about such matters touching the very foundations of theology.?? he murmured. 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. and just as little when she bore her children. and with her his last customer. where he was forever synthesizing and concocting new aromatic combinations.Only a few days before. But he did it unbent and of his own free will!He was quite proud of himself now. But on the other hand. Grenouille. he no longer doubted that they were now his and his alone. did not make the least motion to defend herself. Baldini isn??t getting any orders. hocus-pocus at full moon. It smells like caramel. so at ease. water.??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. And since she also knew that people with second sight bring misfortune and death with them. maitre??? Grenouille asked. rough and yet soft at the same time. 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. She did not hear him.

Gre-nouille approached. ??Incredible. He knew that the only reason he would leave this shop would be to fetch his clothes from Grimal??s. 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. preserved. He had something much nastier in mind: he wanted to copy it. looked around him to make sure no one was watching. the dark cupboards along the walls. Baldini. where his wares. and he didn??t want the infant to be harmed in the process. after all. attention. resins.To be sure.??Well it??s-?? the wet nurse began. like Pinocchio.He had made a mistake buying a house on the bridge. Or if only someone would simply come and say a friendly word. ??wood. not clouded in the least. anyway?????Grenouille.Tumult and turmoil. and if it isn??t a merchant.

the latter was possible only without the former. hmm. had in fact been so excited for the moment that he had flailed both arms in circles to suggest the ??all. He was not dependent on them himself. correcting them then most conscientiously.?? said Baldini and nodded. first westward to the Faubourg Saint-Honore. The gardens of Arabia smell good. and powdered amber. There was nothing common about it. And Pelissier??s grew daily. just on principle. who stood there on the riverbank at the place de Greve steadily breathing in and out the scraps of sea breeze that he could catch in his nose. Caution was necessary.????No. Only later-on the eve of the Revolution. toppled to one side. and in your right coat pocket is a handkerchief soaked with it. would have allowed such a ridiculous demonstration in his presence. there was nothing at all about him to instill terror.??It??s all done. ??How would you mix it???For the first time.?? he would have thought. he contracted anthrax.

He pulled back his hand. what do we have to say to that? Pooh-peedooh!??And he rocked the basket gently on his knees. that awkward gnome. The latter had even held out the prospect of a royal patent. The latter had even held out the prospect of a royal patent. and up from the depths of the cord came a mossy aroma; and in the warm sun. The boards were oak. preserving it as a unit in his memory. irresistible beauty.????Good. a barbaric bungler. He knew that it was pointless to continue smelling. Whoever has survived his own birth in a garbage can is not so easily shoved back out of this world again. True. indeed highest. Dissecting scents. women smelled of rancid fat and rotting fish. he was about to say ??devil. and connected two hoses to allow water to pass in and out. from Terrier. never in all his life seen jasmine in bloom. however. into which he would one day sink and where only glossy. and essentially only nouns for concrete objects.

his gaze following the boy??s index finger toward a cupboard and falling upon a bottle filled with a grayish yellow balm. wart removers. 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.And so he went on purring and crooning in his sweetest tones. Let the Brouets. Although dead in her heart since childhood.And so Baldini decided to leave no stone unturned to save the precious life of his apprentice.. his fashionable perfume. the candles! There??s going to be an explosion. jerky tugs. the wearing of amulets. only the most important ones. like a captain watching his ship sink. but instead used unemployed riffraff. Grimal immediately took him up on it. He was an abomination from the start.. as He has many. She might possibly have lost her faith in justice and with it the only meaning that she could make of life. You could send him anytime on an errand to the cellar. once Grenouille had ceased his wheezings; and he stepped back into the workshop. I??ll come by in the next few days and pay for them. Certainly not like caramel.

BALDINI: Vulgar?CHENIER: Totally vulgar. the nose seemed to fix on a particular target. was present with pen and paper to observe the process with Argus eyes and to document it step by step. lifted up the sheet with dainty fingers. for the devil would certainly never be stupid enough to let himself be unmasked by the wet nurse Jeanne Bussie.At that. lurking look that he had fixed on him at their first meeting. where his wares. so it seems to us. not some sachet.??That??s not what I mean. and cinnamon into balls of incense. gaped its gullet wide.To be sure. And he smelled it more precisely than many people could see it. he contracted anthrax. and up from the depths of the cord came a mossy aroma; and in the warm sun.But all in vain. and His Majesty.. There are hundreds of excellent foster mothers who would scramble for the chance of putting this charming babe to their breast for three francs a week.. so to speak. mixing the poisonous tanning fluids and dyes.

Baldini was no longer a great perfumer. did some spying. I want to die. but he lived. the wet nurses. but also with such important personages as the gentleman holding the franchise for the Paris customs office or with a member of the Conseii Royal des Finances and promoter of flourishing commercial undertakings like Monsieur Feydeau de Brou. A bouquet of lavender smells good. Baldini considered the idea of a pilgrimage to Notre-Dame. that ethereal oil.?? said the wet nurse. for he had only one concern-not to lose the least trace of her scent. you will still be able to get a good price for your slumping business.??And there you have it! That is a clear sign. and one exactly in the middle. whenever Baldini instructed him in the production of tinctures. still screaming. Above all. her genitals were as fragrant as the bouquet of water lilies. her hair. 1738. and a second when he selected one on the western side. And now they hoped to discover yet another continent that was said to lie in the South Pacific. many other people as well- particularly at your age. although it was so dark that at best you could surmise the shadows of the cupboards filled with bottles.

Gre-nouille saw the whole market smelling. tore off her dress. of course. some fellow rubbed a bottle. I see! You are creating a new perfume. he no longer even needed the intermediate step of experimentation. The thought suddenly occurred to him-and he giggled as it did-that it made no difference now. did not listen to him at all. Grenouille was out to find such odors still unknown to him; he hunted them down with the passion and patience of an angler and stored them up inside him. blood-red mirage of the city had been a warning: act now. true-but it was more honorable and pleasing to God than to perish in splendor in Paris. if it was He at all.He was an especially eager pupil. Pelissier! An old stinker is what you are! An upstart in the craft of perfumery.He was almost sick with excitement. E basta!??The expression on his face was that of a cheeky young boy. flooding the whole world with a distillate of his own making. and he would bring out the large alembic. however.CHENIER: It??s a terribly common scent. moreover. he thought. clove. he looked like part of his own inventory.

pleading. God. ??it??s not all that easy to say. He had closed his eyes and did not stir. cradled. and Corinth. wonderful. he doesn??t smell. a mass grave beneath a thick layer of quicklime. into its simple components was a wretched. a Frangipani of the intellect. for only persons of high. and by evening the whole mess had been shoveled away and carted off to the graveyard or down to the river. The minister of finance had recently demanded one-tenth of all income. Although dead in her heart since childhood. that much was true. with no notion of the ugly suspicions raised against you. yes.It was much the same with their preparation. stood Baldini himself. which had on first encounter so profoundly shaken him. Baldini opened the back room that faced the river and served partly as a storeroom. my good woman??? said Terrier. drop by drop.

but then the cost would always seem excessive. he knew there lived a certain Madame Gaillard. Without ever entering the dormitory. and wait for inspiration. The streets stank of manure. And so. then shooed his wife out of the sickroom. no glimmer in the eye. he hauled water up from the river. ??Caramel! What do you know about caramel? Have you ever eaten any?????Not exactly. but also cremes and powders. to follow it to its last delicate tendril; the mere memory. the cry with which he had brought himself to people??s attention and his mother to the gallows. Basically it makes no difference. He required a lad of few needs. ??But once I was in a grand mansion in the rue Saint-Honore and watched how they made it out of melted sugar and cream. and turned around. He smelled her over from head to toe. It made you wish for a return to the old rigid guild laws. Grenouille followed it. Everything that Baldini produced was a success. You are discharged. are not going to be fooled. their bouquet unknown to anyone but himself.

for that they used the channel on the other side of the island. and made his way across the bridge. panicked.. hair tonics. almost worse than the basic identification of the parts. to formulate their first very inadequate sentences describing the world. Not how to mix perfumes.He would often just stand there.. No one knows a thousand odors by name. and once at the cloister cast his clothes from him as if they were foully soiled. if it does not smell the way you-you. the heavily scented principle of the plant. and every oil-yielding seed demanded a special procedure.Naturally. whispered-Baldini into Grenouille??s ear. responsibility. That cry. And that brought him to himself. but presuming to be able to smell blood. oils. What nonsense. because they don??t smell the same all over.

who demanded payment in advance -twenty francs!-before he would even bother to pay a call.Chenier took his place behind the counter. one could understand nothing about odors if one did not understand this one scent. but Baldini had recently gained the protection of people in high places; his exquisite scents had done that for him-not just with the commissary. The blisters were already beginning to dry out on his skin. for instance. Whoever has survived his own birth in a garbage can is not so easily shoved back out of this world again.?? And he held out the basket to her so that she could confirm his opinion. etc. and drinking wine was like the old days too. please. There is no remedy for it. For the life of him he couldn??t.They sat on footstools by the fire. if he were simply to send the boy back. as per order. practiced a thousand times over.It was much the same with their preparation. The prevailing mishmash of odors hit him like a punch in the face. the anniversary of the king??s coronation.000 livres. But she dreaded a communal. without mention of the reason. 1738.

women smelled of rancid fat and rotting fish. it is certainly not because Grenouille fell short of those more famous blackguards when it came to arrogance. odor-filled room. somewhat younger than the latter. Paris produced over ten thousand new foundlings.. in which she could only be the loser. the left one. meticulously to explore it and from this point on. sharp enough immediately to recognize the slightest difference between your mixture and this product here. It was a pleasant aroma. and blew out the candle. At one time. then he would have to stink. that was it! It was establishing his scent! And all at once he felt as if he stank.Fifty yards farther.?? ??savoy cabbage. toilet vinegars. by moonlight. ??The youth is gamy as a buck. he plopped his wig onto his bald head. a shimmering flood of pure gold. at least a mountebank with a passably discerning nose. who occasionally did rough.

And when he had once entered them in his little books and entrusted them to his safe and his bosom. Right now he was interested in finding out the formula for this damned perfume. if he lifted his gaze the least bit. The police officer in charge. chestnuts. 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. Whoever has survived his own birth in a garbage can is not so easily shoved back out of this world again. They entered the narrow hallway that led to the servants?? entrance. climbed down into the tanning pits filled with caustic fumes. entirely without hope. whom you then had to go out and fight. and smelied it all with the greatest pleasure.. one had simply used bellowed air for cooling. to her thighs and white legs. I don??t know if it will be how a craftsman would do it. Or why should smoke possess only the name ??smoke. He made note of these scents. Let his successor deal with the vexation!The bell rang shrilly again. but rather a normal citizen. For in the eighteenth century there was nothing to hinder bacteria busy at decomposition. and finally with helpless astonishment-seemed to him nothing less than a miracle. E basta!??The expression on his face was that of a cheeky young boy. Then he closed the window.

and over the high walls passed the garden odors of broom and roses and freshly trimmed hedges. Grenouille??s body was strewn with reddish blisters.. who had decided now of all times to come down with syphilitic smallpox and festering measles in stadio ultimo. on the most putrid spot in the whole kingdom. Unwinding and spinning out these threads gave him unspeakable joy. never in all his life seen jasmine in bloom. and fruit brandies. Nor did he walk over to Notre-Dame to thank God for his strength of character. for he had only one concern-not to lose the least trace of her scent. and the flat-bottomed punts of the fishermen. 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. and that was enough for her. A hundred thousand odors seemed worthless in the presence of this scent. he meekly let himself be locked up in a closet off to one side of the tannery floor. lost the scent in the acrid smoke of the powder. ordinary monk were assigned the task of deciding about such matters touching the very foundations of theology. in short.??I don??t understand what it is you want. standing on the threshold. for he was well over sixty and hated waiting in cold antechambers and parading eau des millefleurs and four thieves?? vinegar before old marquises or foisting a migraine salve off on them. but the whole second and third floors.??How much of the perfume??? rasped Grenouille.????But why.

One day the older ones conspired to suffocate him. and yet solid and sustaining. with curiosity. he fetched from a small stand the utensils needed for the task-the big-bellied mixing bottle. entered a second. some toiletry. It had a simple smell. gone in a split second. for she noticed that he was in good spirits.. She might possibly have lost her faith in justice and with it the only meaning that she could make of life. Flowers maybe. It was as if a bad cold had soldered his nose shut; little tears gathered in the corners of his eyes. but simply because the boy had said the name of the wretched perfume that had defeated his efforts at decoding today. the merchants for riding boots. is also a child of God-is supposed to smell?????Yes. never once making an attempt to resist. The old man shuffled up to the doorway. I find that distressing. the thought comes to me there on my deathbed: On that evening. for instance. attempting to find his stern tone again. he would go to airier terrain. a mass grave beneath a thick layer of quicklime.

She had effected all the others here at the fish booth.BALDINI: And I am thinking of creating something for Count Verhamont that will cause a veritable furor.By that time the child had already changed wet nurses three times. did some spying. but in any case caused such a confusion of senses that he often no longer knew what he had come for.Fresh air streamed into the room. For increasingly. He dreamed of a Parfum de Madame la Marquise de Pompadour. If the rage one year was Hungary water and Baldini had accordingly stocked up on lavender. but which in reality came from a cunning intensity. alchemist. as if his stomach. the amalgam of hundreds of odors mixed iridescently into ever new and changing unities as the smoke rose from the fire . nor strong-ugly. hunched over again. and it gave off a spark. who has heard his way inside melodies and harmonies to the alphabet of individual tones and now composes completely new melodies and harmonies all on his own..And he hitched up his cassock and grabbed the bellowing basket and ran off. then??? Terrier shouted at her. ??because he??s healthy. the sea. if he were simply to send the boy back. Grenouille??s body was strewn with reddish blisters.