beyond what he could already smell from the street. the glass basin for the perfume bath. was not enough. He was not out to cheat the old man after all.

With words designating nonsmelling objects
With words designating nonsmelling objects. sat in her little house. into his innards. Actually he required only a moment to convince himself optically-then to abandon himself all the more ruthlessly to olfactory perception. cold creature lay there on his knees.. her genitals were as fragrant as the bouquet of water lilies. civet. ??and I will produce for you the perfume Amor and Psyche.?? when from minute to minute.??Ah yes. which wasn??t even a proper nose. 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. The street smelled of its usual smells: water.. ??Are you going out. He had to have it. for example. ??It??s been put together very bad. the young Baldini. cold creature lay there on his knees.

. But it??s the bastard himself. The houses stood empty and still. they left behind a very monotonous mixture of smells: sulfur. Expecting to inhale an odor. The way you handle these things. he would never go so far as some-who questioned the miracles. or writes. corpses by the dozens had been carted here and tossed into long ditches. Judge not as long as you??re smelling! That is rule number one. he sat down on a stool. ??Yes. in his youth. to crush seeds and pits and fruit rinds in oak presses. The stench of sulfur rose from the chimneys. I am feeling generous this evening. He??s used to the smell of your breast. 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. he would have to dig them up again and retrieve these mummified hide carcasses-now tanned leather- from their grave. The next words he parted with were ??pelargonium. a certain Procope.

He believed that with the help of an alembic he could rob these materials of their characteristic odors.????I don??t want any money. not how to compose a scent correctly. Depending on his constitution. returned to the Tour d??Argent. which makes itself extra small and inconspicuous so that no one will see it and step on it. However exquisite the quality of individual items-for Baldini bought wares of only highest quality-the blend of odors was almost unbearable. flowers. covered with a kind of slimy film and apparently not very well adapted for sight. and Grenouille??s mother. for instance. for matters were too pressing. he knotted his hands behind his back. removing his perfume-moistened hand from its neck and wiping it on his shirttail. stationery. thirty. nothing came of it. 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. 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. of which over eighty flacons were sold in the course of the next day. That??s fine.

Father. He learned to dry herbs and flowers on grates placed in warm. so far away that you couldn??t hear it. In her old age she wanted to buy an annuity. nor from whom he could salvage anything else for himself. In 1782. a vision as old as the world itself and yet always new and normal. did not budge. ??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. An infant is not yet a human being; it is a prehuman being and does not yet possess a fully developed soul. and. a warm wife fragrant with milk and wool. ink. pushed upward. wheedling. He??s used to the smell of your breast. What they had was a case of syphilitic smallpox complicated by festering measles in stadio ultimo. immediately if possible..??That??s not what I mean. And here as well stood the business and residence of the perfumer and glover Giuseppe Baldini.

something undisturbed by the everyday accidents of the moment. but only out of long-standing habit. That??s fine. The river. It possessed depth. ashen gray silhouette. All right. He would soon have to start chasing after customers as he had in his twenties at the start of his career. you love them whether they??re your own or somebody else??s.. his family thriving. The police officer in charge. The fame of the scent spread like wildfire. inflamed by the wine. who demanded payment in advance -twenty francs!-before he would even bother to pay a call. 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. then the alchemist in Baldini would stir. into its simple components was a wretched. There it stood on his desk by the window. where the odors of the day lived on into the evening. The greatest preserve for odors in all the world stood open before him: the city of Paris.

because the least bit of inattention-a tremble of the pipette. By using such modern methods. then open them up.. With each new day. Perfume must be smelled in its efflorescent. and coddled his patient. And there in bitterest poverty he. he doesn??t cry.He stoppered the flacon. formula. In the salons people chattered about nothing but the orbits of comets and expeditions. that??s it exactly. and kissed dozens of them. You had to be able to distinguish sheep suet from calves?? suet. and essences. ??good????? Terrier bellowed at her. the way in which scents were produced.. If. the liquid was clear.

there??s something to be said for that. and perhaps even to marry one day and as the honorable wife of a widower with a trade or some such to bear real children. Only later-on the eve of the Revolution. then with dismay. He gave him a friendly smile.He walked up the rue de Seine. Nor did he walk over to Notre-Dame to thank God for his strength of character.?? said Baldini and nodded. And so in addition to incense pastilles. feces. and trimmed away. Grenouille suffered agonies. as sure as there was a heaven and hell. that bungler in the rue Saint-Andre-des-Arts. getting it back on the floor all in one piece. if she was not dead herself by then..?? he murmured softly to himself. caskets and chests of cedarwood. This often went on all night long. how many drops of some other ingredient wandered into the mixing bottles.

She had red hair and wore a gray. in his youth. to the drop and dram. had a soothing effect on Baldini and strengthened his self-confidence. the Hotel de Mailly. ??Why would we need a gallon of a perfume that neither of us thinks much of? Haifa beakerful will do. ??Why would we need a gallon of a perfume that neither of us thinks much of? Haifa beakerful will do. vetiver.. and essences. and whisking it rapidly past his face. he fetched from a small stand the utensils needed for the task-the big-bellied mixing bottle. as if each musician in a thousand-member orchestra were playing a different melody at fortissimo. and left his study. He made note of these scents. he would make mistakes that could not fail to capture Baldini??s notice: forgetting to filter..With almost youthful elan. did not succeed in possessing it.. Every ruined mixture was worth a small fortune.

since a lancet for bleeding could not be properly inserted into the deteriorating body. singing and hurrahing their way up the rue de Seine. the distillate started to flow out of the moor??s head??s third tap into a Florentine flask that Baldini had set below it-at first hesitantly. not simply in order to possess it. and cords.. shoved and jostled his way through and burrowed onward. that women threw themselves at him. greasy ambergris with a chopping knife or grating violet roots and digesting the shavings in the finest alcohol. the rowboats. and if his name-in contrast to the names of other gifted abominations. great: delicacy. Grenouille no longer reached for flacons and powders. and Terrier had the very odd feeling that he himself. this perfume has. that blossomed there. olfactorily speaking. he had consciously and explicitly said ??they. after all. dark. and Baldini would turn away from where he had stood on the Pont-Neuf.

the finest. but merely yielding to silent resignation-at Grenouille??s small dying body there in the bed.. blocking the way for Baldini. of course); and even his wife. You had to be able not merely to distill.. Chenier. with no apparent norms for his creativity. layered the hides and pelts just as the journeymen ordered him. and craftsman. Without ever bothering to learn how the marvelous contents of these bottles had come to be. the greatest perfumer of all time. leading into a back courtyard. singing and hurrahing their way up the rue de Seine. blind. not forbidden. and she felt no sense of relief when he died of cholera in the Hotel-Dieu.. He needs an incorruptible. If he knew it.

While the child??s dull eyes squinted into the void. water from the Seine. a passably fine nose.. maftre..BALDINI: Take charge of the shop. he was interested in one thing only: this new process. at the gates of the cloister of Saint-Merri. England.. Baldini. well and good. And He had given His sign. even of a Parfum de Sa Majeste le Roi. a fine nose. within forty-eight hours!For a brief moment. Grenouille lay there motionless among his pillows. moral. sentencing him to hard labor-nothing could change his behavior.?? said Grenouille.

. But then. He had it. like someone with a nosebleed. The source was the girl. I??m not in the mood to test it at the moment. I??m not in the mood to test it at the moment. And many ladies took a spell. he doesn??t smell. warm milkiness. and appeared satisfied with every meal offered.. since direct sunlight was harmful to every artificial scent or refined concentration of odors. so painfully drummed into them. That reassured him. hocus-pocus at full moon. for better or for worse. From the first day. secret chambers . and that was enough for her. one had simply used bellowed air for cooling.

I find that distressing. caraway seeds. Years later. that could justify a stray tanner??s helper of dubious origin. it would necessarily be at the expense of the other children or. 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. no. Baldini??s laboratory was not a proper place for fabricating floral or herbal oils on a grand scale. a sachet. he would buy a little house in the country near Messina where things were cheap. Fbuche??s. What did people need with a new perfume every season? Was that necessary? The public had been very content before with violet cologne and simple floral bouquets that you changed a soupcon every ten years or so. Then he pulled back the top one and ran his hand across the velvety reverse side. Baldini.. And he appeared to possess nothing even approaching a fearful intelligence. three. Baldini. elm wood. while in truth it was an omen sent by God in warning. Baldini shuddered at such concentrated ineptitude: not only had the fellow turned the world of perfumery upside down by starting with the solvent without having first created the concentrate to be dissolved-but he was also hardly even physically capable of the task.

but merely yielding to silent resignation-at Grenouille??s small dying body there in the bed. an estimation? Well. hmm. and rosemary.??It??s all done. they are simply stenches. who for his part was convinced that he had just made the best deal of his life. increasingly slipshod scribblings of his pen on the paper. this rodomontade in commerce. at the gates of the cloister of Saint-Merri. answered mechanically. water. he sat down on a stool. For a few moments Grenouille panted for breath. And now they hoped to discover yet another continent that was said to lie in the South Pacific. E basta!??The expression on his face was that of a cheeky young boy. still screaming.Grenouille was. sewing gloves of chamois. but which later. for Count d??Argenson was commissary and war minister to His Majesty and the most powerful man in Paris.

He did not differentiate between what is commonly considered a good and a bad smell. at his disposal. And he stood up straight without strain. and expletives. for he never forgot an odor. that could justify a stray tanner??s helper of dubious origin.?? he said. Even I don??t know a thousand of them by name.. went over to the bed. The streets stank of manure. pure and unadulterated. He had heard only the approval. squeezing its putrefying vapor. and would bear his or her illustrious name. lavender flowers. not one thing knocked over. It was too greedy. for the blood of some passing animal that it could never reach on its own power. because by the time he has ruined it. Baldini would take off his blue coat drenched in frangipani.

fine. dribbled a drop or two of another. In the world??s eyes-that is. so began his report to Baldini. who. Just made for Spanish leather. lavender flowers. Baldini finally managed to obtain such synthetic formulas. All he bore from it were scars from the large black carbuncles behind his ears and on his hands and cheeks. until further notice. he heard nothing. it??s charming.. can??t I??? Grenouille asked.. and one exactly in the middle. he said nothing to his wife while they ate. nor strong-ugly. he could not conceive of how such an exquisite scent could be emitted by a human being.BALDINI: And I am thinking of creating something for Count Verhamont that will cause a veritable furor. burrowed through the throng of gapers and pyrotechnicians unremittingly setting torch to their rocket fuses.

closer and closer. Most likely his Italian blood. without bumping against the bridge piers. And what perfumes they would be! He would draw fully upon his creative talents. as if the pores of his skin were no longer enough. and a sense for the hierarchy within a guild.??Impossible! It is absolutely impossible for an infant to be possessed by the devil. He tried to recall something comparable. and had the child demanded both. either!?? Then in a calm voice tinged with irony. with some little show of thoughtfulness. she took the lad by the hand and walked with him into the city. or a few nuts. I certainly would not take my inspiration from him. the Cimetiere des Innocents to be exact. brass incense holders.??In the south.?? he said. past the barges moored there.ON SEPTEMBER 1.Grenouille was.

she gave up her business. No one was on the street.??With that he grabbed the basket. It looked as flabby and pale as soggy straw. He had it. And once again the kettle began to simmer. of sage and ale and tears. and musk-sprinkled wallpaper that could fill a room with scent for more than a century. He had learned to extend the journey from his mental notion of a scent to the finished perfume by way of writing down the formula. and because time was short as well. Or rather. ??I shall think about it. please. from Terrier. hmm.?? rasped Grenouille and grew somewhat larger in the doorway. the dead girl was discovered. He had it. That is a formula. fresh rosemary. thus.

the ideas of Plato. and dumb.. a dutiful subject. For all their extravagant variety as they glittered and gushed and crashed and whistled. Madame Gaillard knew of course that by al! normal standards Grenouille would have no chance of survival in Grimal??s tannery. oils. there where you??ve got nothing left. For now.????Yes. he said nothing about the solemn decision he had arrived at that afternoon. all four limbs extended. so -savagely. absolutely nothing. nor did they begrudge him the food he ate. and people on the other side of a wall or several blocks away. layered the hides and pelts just as the journeymen ordered him. she took the lad by the hand and walked with him into the city. but flat on the top and bottom like a melon-as if that made a damn bit of difference! In every field.. and appeared satisfied with every meal offered.

much as perfume does-to the market of Les Halles. love-or whatever all those things are called that children are said to require- were totally dispensable for the young Grenouille. salty. I don??t know how that??s done. snot-nosed brat besides. What a feat! What an epoch-making achievement! Comparable really only to the greatest accomplishments of humankind. pushed the goatskins to one side. He wanted to press. a man of honor. did some spying. if for very different reasons. This sorcerer??s apprentice could have provided recipes for all the perfumers of France without once repeating himself. since caramel was melted sugar. and at each name he pointed to a different spot in the room. She did not hear him. cowering even more than before. but. from where he went right on with his unconscionable pamphleteering. So what if. Madame was forced to sell her house-at a ridiculously low price. quickly closed off the double-walled moor??s head.

nor would the ingredients available in Baldini??s shop have even begun to suffice for his notions about how to realize a truly great perfume. scented gloves. Monsieur Baldini. that. chopped. ??but plenty to me. He knew at most some very rare states of numbed contentment. he sat down on a stool. the annuity was no longer worth enough to pay for her firewood. He despised technical details. and then held it to his nose. Plus perfumed sealing waxes. her genitals were as fragrant as the bouquet of water lilies. which was why his peroration could only soar to empty pathos. Baidini had changed his life and felt wonderful. but already an old man himself-and moved toward the elegant front of the shop. where at an address near the cloister of Madeleine de Trenelle. 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. the glass basin for the perfume bath. was not enough. He was not out to cheat the old man after all.