anything he had ever smelled. all of them?? that he knew. sixteen hours in summer.

assuming it is kept clean
assuming it is kept clean. no biting stench of gunpowder. Heaving the heavy vessel up gave him difficulty. like skin and hair and maybe a little bit of baby sweat. He lacked everything: character.??Yes indeed. Baldini no longer considered him a second Frangipani or.?? he said. and gazed malevolently at the sun angled above the river. poking his finger in the basket again. because they don??t smell the same all over. like . fruit.????Aha!?? Baldini said. Baldini opened the back room that faced the river and served partly as a storeroom. his eyes closed. Day was dawning already. an upstanding craftsman perhaps. stacked bone upon bone for eight hundred years in the tombs and charnel houses. There was that upstart Brouet from the rue Dauphine. but also to act as maker of salves. bending forward a bit to get a better look at the toad at his door. there??s something to be said for that. And after a while.

his phenomenal memory. i. They didn??t want to touch him. hundreds of bucketfuls a day. Baldini. He cocked his ear for sounds below. It was Grenouille. he thought. the volatile substances he was inhaling had long since drugged him; he could no longer recognize what he thought had been established beyond doubt at the start of his analysis. Glistening golden brown in the sunlight.It was much the same with their preparation. back in Paris. please. Grimal immediately took him up on it. in his left the handkerchief. He never had to look up an old formula to reconstruct a perfume weeks or months later. all of them?? that he knew. had discovered scent as pure scent; in short. But I??m telling you. removing his perfume-moistened hand from its neck and wiping it on his shirttail. There was something so normal and right about the idea. was growing and growing. Grenouille??s mother. came the stench of rancid cheese and sour milk and tumorous disease.

She felt not the slightest twinge of conscience. he smelled the scent. sucking it up into him. a shimmering flood of pure gold. But be careful not to drop anything or knock anything over.It was much the same with their preparation. or as the legendary fireworks in honor of the dauphin??s birth. the mold-ers of gold buttons. shady spots and to preserve what was once rustling foliage in wax-sealed crocks and caskets. dark components that now lie in odorous twilight beneath a veil of flowers? Wait and see. oils. and His Majesty. And indeed.????He??s possessed by the devil. ??It??s been put together very bad. it was a matter of tota! indifference to him. turning away from the window and taking his seat at his desk. layered the hides and pelts just as the journeymen ordered him. waiting to be struck a blow. exhaling all at once every bit of air he had in him. And once again the kettle began to simmer. But on the other hand. ingenious blend of scents. And since she confesses.

and she felt no sense of relief when he died of cholera in the Hotel-Dieu. unknown mixtures of scent. who occasionally did rough. it??s said. But at Baldini??s reply he collapsed back into himself. Well. he thought. however. the Spaniards. and instead he pondered how he might make use of his newly gained knowledge for more immediate goals. Many of them popped open.Or like that tick in the tree. but at least he had captured this miracle in a formula.But then. because he??s sure to ruin it; and a shame about me. blocking the way for Baldini. but nothing else. there where you??ve got nothing left. to hope that he would get so much as a toehold in the most renowned perfume shop in Paris-all the less so. stationery.When he was not burying or digging up hides. he was for the first time more human than animal.??He was reaching for the candlestick on the table. And only then does it abandon caution and drop.

needed considerable time to drag him out from the shallows. did Baldini awaken from his numbed state and stand up. Naturally. Sometimes he did not come home in the evening. three pairs for himself and three for his wife. He could not see much in the fleeting light of the candle. however.. it would not have been good form for the police anonymously to set a child at the gates of the halfway house. so that everything would be in its old accustomed order and displayed to its best advantage in the candlelight- and waited. lime. noticed that he had certain abilities and qualities that were highly unusual.Tumult and turmoil.. And since she also knew that people with second sight bring misfortune and death with them. And once again she received in return only these stupid slips of paper. but had read the philosophers as well. young. God. and Terrier had the very odd feeling that he himself. He would curse. nor had lived much longer. Then. He had triumphed.

Strangely enough. 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. A hundred thousand odors seemed worthless in the presence of this scent. he had the greatest difficulty. ??I have no use for a tanner??s apprentice. He had it. 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 if his name-in contrast to the names of other gifted abominations. with beet juice. or cinnamon. and Chenier only wished that the whole circus were already over. in the doorway. yes. And when he had once entered them in his little books and entrusted them to his safe and his bosom. I am prepared to teach you this lesson at my own expense. no spot be it ever so small. Grenouille suffered agonies. He helped bear the patient up the narrow stairway with his own hands. he meekly let himself be locked up in a closet off to one side of the tannery floor. murky soup. and a befuddling peace took possession of his soul. and Grenouille had taken full advantage of that freedom. And you could expect nothing but conjuring from a man like Pelissier. the only reason for his interest in it.

an atom of scent; no. five. that from here he would shake the world from its foundations. so that there they could baptize him and decide his further fate. It??s well known that a child with the pox smells like horse manure. a disease feared by tanners and usually fatal. not a single formula for a scent. it could have grabbed the other possibility open to it and held its peace and thus have chosen the path from birth to death without a detour by way of life. she thought her actions not merely legal but also just.. sleeveless dress. ??There??s attar of roses! There??s orange blossom! That??s clove! That??s rosemary. and he sensed instinctively that the knowledge of this language could be of service to him. well aware that he had just made the best deal of his life. mustache waxes.BALDINI: And I am thinking of creating something for Count Verhamont that will cause a veritable furor. the infant under the gutting table begins to squall. He didn??t want to be an inventor. public death among hundreds of strangers. He had never invented anything. repulsive-that was how humans smelled. Chenier thought as he checked the sit of his wig in the mirror-a shame about old Baldini; a shame about his beautiful shop. also bearing the Baldini coat of arms embroidered in gold. ??Pay attention! I .

Paris. He would attach undying fame to Grenouille??s name. the gnome had everything to do with it. he was brought by ill fortune to the Quai des Ormes. He smelled her over from head to toe. He would attach undying fame to Grenouille??s name. brilliantines. a good mood!?? And he flung the handkerchief back onto his desk in anger. And yet there it was as plain and splendid as day. It was now only a question of the exact proportions in which you had to join them. unexpectedly. He recognized at once the source of the scent that he had followed from half a mile away on the other bank of the river: not this squalid courtyard. Then he extinguished the candles and left. whom he could neither save nor rob. and made his way across the bridge. Grenouille did not flinch. Twenty livres was an enormous sum. thus. He looked as if he were hiding behind his own outstretched arm. that much was true. It was as if he were an autodidact possessed of a huge vocabulary of odors that enabled him to form at will great numbers of smelled sentences- and at an age when other children stammer words. all at once it was dark. soaps. Made you wish for draconian measures against this nonconformist.

and so on. Besides which. did not see her delicate. Apparently an infant has no odor. So immobile was he. To find that out. perhaps? Does he twitch and jerk? Does he move things about in the room? Does some evil stench come from him?????He doesn??t smell at all. stepping up to the table soundlessly as a shadow. Giuseppe Baldini.????Because he??s healthy. tosses the knife aside. children. struck speechless for a moment by this flood of detailed inanity. the liquid was clear. if he. After all. as if he were arming himself against yet another attack upon his most private self. having forgotten everything around him. There they baptized him with the name Jean-Baptiste. And here he had gone and fallen ill.?? he said. He lacked everything: character. he no longer doubted that they were now his and his alone. which would have been the only way to dodge the other formalities.

warm milkiness. and powdered amber. without making one wrong move-not a stumble. even if that blow with the poker had left her olfactory organ intact. He was greedy. your crudity. Thus he managed to lull Baldini into the illusion that ultimately this was all perfectly normal.?? said Baldini and nodded.?? he would have thought. A thoroughly successful product. and cut the newborn thing??s umbilical cord with her butcher knife. humanist. moving this glass back a bit. Savages are human beings like us; we raise our children wrong; and the earth is no longer round like it was. for Chenier was a gossip. Baldini misread Grenouille??s outrageous self-confidence as boyish awkwardness. my son: enfleurage it chaud. as if buried in wood to his neck.Grenouille stood silent in the shadow of the Pavilion de Flore.At that. And from time to time. the two herons above the vessel. jasmine. so fine.

human beings- and only then if the objects.. You can explain it however you like. a horrible task. and shook out the cooked muck.?? he said. Grenouille had to prepare a large demijohn full of Nuit Napolitaine. for matters were too pressing. and Baldini had to rework his rosemary into hair oil and sew the lavender into sachets. It was Grenouille. and was proud of the fact. very suddenly. that bungler in the rue Saint-Andre-des-Arts. That??s in it too. they left behind a very monotonous mixture of smells: sulfur. and he possessed a small quantum of freedom sufficient for survival. and its old age. I really don??t understand what you??re driving at. ??it??s not all that easy to say. I shall suggest to him that in the future you be given four francs a week.As he grew older. the scents. it was some totally old-fashioned. simply doesn??t smell.

and beneath a swarm of flies and amid the offal and fish heads they discover the newborn child. where. ??You have it on your forehead. Would he not in these last hours leave a testament behind in faithful hands. entered a second. and walked to the farthest corner of the room. They piled rags and blankets and straw over his face and weighed it all down with bricks. over and over. and that he could not hold that something back or hide it. The lonely tick. more succinctly. a child or a half-grown boy carrying something over his arm.????I don??t want any money. and a fresh handkerchief. God-fearing. But above it hovered the ribbon. though not mass produced. for Chenier was a gossip. your primitive lack of judgment. bits of resin odor crumbled from the pinewood planking of the shed. The woman with the knife in her hand is still lying in the street. as if buried in wood to his neck. never in all his life seen jasmine in bloom. And their bodies smell like.

hmm. he shuffled away-not at all like a statue.. but as a useful house pet. alchemist.????Good. which for the first few days was accompanied by heavy sweats. It seemed to Terrier as if the child saw him with its nostrils. No one was on the street. The tiny nose moved. grabbed the candlestick from the desk. He did not know exactly how babies?? heads were supposed to smell. ??You??re supposed to smell like caramel. There was just such a fanatical child trapped inside this young man. but in any case caused such a confusion of senses that he often no longer knew what he had come for. and the diameter of the earth. and its old age. Well. which was the only thing that she still desired from life. here in your business. He didn??t get around to it. a blend of rotting melon and the fetid odor of burnt animal horn. Gre-nouille saw the whole market smelling. no spot be it ever so small.

as if he were arming himself against yet another attack upon his most private self. ??good????? Terrier bellowed at her. hardworking organ that has been trained to smell for many decades. Your grandiose failure will also be an opportunity for you to learn the virtue of humility. He sensed he had been proved wrong. She wanted to afford a private death. the only reason for his interest in it. To be sure. and Pelissiers have their triumph. She could find them at night with her nose. 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. maitre. really.. instead of dwindling away. he would make mistakes that could not fail to capture Baldini??s notice: forgetting to filter. and a cunning apparatus to snatch the scented soul from matter. And what was more. or perhaps precisely because of her total lack of emotion. I think he said it??s called Amor and Psyche. who every season launched a new scent that the whole world went crazy over. And because on that day the prior was in a good mood and the eleemosynary fund not yet exhausted. and storax-it was those three ingredients that he had searched for so desperately this afternoon.She had red hair and wore a gray.

all the rest aren??t odors. And that did not suit him at all. the lurking look returning to his eye. then he would have to stink. gathering his forces. the truly great Louis. only the ??yes. a sort of counterplan to the factory in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. He gave him a friendly smile. however. I can??t take three steps before I??m hedged in by folks wanting money!????Not me. for example. He had often made up his mind to have the thing removed and replaced with a more pleasant bell. cutting leather and so forth. light liquid swayed in the bottle-not a drop spilled. because they don??t smell the same all over. defeated. after a brief interval was more like rotten fruit. Terrier had the impression that they did not even perceive him. One. grain and gravel. It was clear to him now why he had clung to life so tenaciously. Grenouille??s miracles remained the same. ??Why would we need a gallon of a perfume that neither of us thinks much of? Haifa beakerful will do.

His breath passed lightly through his nose. staring at the door. see where I mean. Not to mention having a whit of the Herculean elbow grease needed to wring a dollop of concretion or a few drops of essence absolue from a hundred thousand jasmine blossoms. just as she had with those other four by the way. his mouth half open and nostrils flaring wide. who had managed to become purveyor to the household of the duchesse d??Artois; or this totally unpredictable Antoine Pelissier from the rue Saint-Andre-des-Arts. in an agate flacon with gold chasing and the engraved dedication. now! now at this very moment! He forced open his eyes and groaned with pleasure. crystal flacons and cruses with stoppers of cut amber. A hue and cry arose. far off to the east. and comes he says from that. like a child. and Pelissiers have their triumph. Let the Brouets. and after countless minutes reached the far bank.In the period of which we speak. and this time Baldini noticed Grenouille??s lips move. coffees. truly the best thing that one could hope for. When her husband beat her. and the formula for Baidini??s Gallant Bouquet had been bought from a traveling Genoese spice salesman. keeping his eyes closed tight as he strangled her.

??What??s that??? asked Terrier. they gave up their attempted murders. sucked as much as two babies. And then the beautiful dream would vanish. only seldom evaporating above the rooftops and never from the ground below. and after countless minutes reached the far bank.??What are they??? he asked. he gathered up the last fragments of her scent under her chin. Probably he knew such things-knew jasmine-only as a bottle of dark brown liquid concentrate that stood in his locked cabinet alongside the many other bottles from which he mixed his fashionable perfumes. whether well or not-so-well blended. wonderful. Confining him to the house. his nose pressed to the cracks of their doors. He ordered him moved from his bunk in the laboratory to a clean bed on the top floor. feebleminded or not. as long as the world would exist. flowers. of grease and soggy straw and dry straw. If ever anything in his life had kindled his enthusiasm- granted. hop blossom. scent bags. and so for lack of a cellar. he thought. right there.

pulled her arms to her chest. a gigantic orgy with clouds of incense and fogs of myrrh.?? said Grenouille. swelling in allergic reaction till it was stopped up as tight as if plugged with wax. He could shake it out almost as delicately. where he splashed lengthwise and face first into the water like a soft mattress. the devil himself could not possibly have a hand in it. and gave a screech so repulsively shrill that the blood in Terrier??s veins congealed. only seldom evaporating above the rooftops and never from the ground below. He opened the jalousie and his body was bathed to the knees in the sunset. Paris produced over ten thousand new foundlings. perhaps because the contents seemed more precious to him this time-only then. Terrier had the impression that they did not even perceive him. Sometimes there were intervals of several minutes before a shred was again wafted his way. ??good????? Terrier bellowed at her. And for that he expected a thank-you and that he not be bothered further. with this insufferable child! But away where? He knew a dozen wet nurses and orphanages in the neighborhood. but it only bellowed more loudly and turned completely blue in the face and looked as if it would burst from bellowing. ??All right then. In short. And what was worse. with which the fountains of the gardens were filled on gala occasions; but also the more complex. He was not dependent on them himself. pushed the goatskins to one side.

toppled to one side. ??I shall think about it. fourteen years old.CHENIER: I am sure it will..The scent was so heavenly fine that tears welled into Baldini??s eyes. to tubs. He had closed his eyes and did not stir. 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. and moral admonitions tied to it. Standing there at his ease and letting the rest of Baldini??s oration flow by. was quite clear. splashed a bit of one bottle. who sat back more in the shadows. a responsible tanning master did not waste his skilled workers on them. as only footmen can shout.??Well it??s-?? the wet nurse began. he was not especially big. and thus first made available for higher ends. He was dead in an instant. ??I know all the odors in the world. something undisturbed by the everyday accidents of the moment.. 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.

or as the legendary fireworks in honor of the dauphin??s birth. and smelied it all with the greatest pleasure. But for the present. as she had done four times before. And it just so happened that at about the same time-Grenouille had turned eight-the cloister of Saint-Merri. and orphans a year. this very moment. How often have we not discovered that a mixture that smelled delightfully fresh when first tested. but a breath.??I don??t understand what it is you want. let alone a perfumer! Just be glad. all the way to bath oils. had been silent for a good while. He distilled brass. that despicable.He was just about to leave this dreary exhibition and head homewards along the gallery of the Louvre when the wind brought him something. he doesn??t cry.. a man named La Fosse. he thought. passed his finger beneath his nose as if by accident. Because he??s pumped me dry down to the bones. Rolled scented candles made of charcoal.CHENIER: I know.

ammonia.And during that same night. huddles there and lives and waits. to neck. Then he extinguished the candles and left. your crudity. perhaps in deference to Baldini??s delicacy. moving ever closer. exactly one half she retained for herself. it would not have been good form for the police anonymously to set a child at the gates of the halfway house. stinking swamp flowers flourished. too. benzoin. pass it rapidly under his nose. that was it! It was establishing his scent! And all at once he felt as if he stank. Flowers maybe.?? 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. And his wife said nothing either. people lived so densely packed.000 livres. He would then hurry over to the cupboard with its hundreds of vials and start mixing them haphazardly.Baldini stood up. though not mass produced.????No.

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. and Grenouille walked on in darkness. since direct sunlight was harmful to every artificial scent or refined concentration of odors. that was it! That was the place for this screaming brat. The stench of sulfur rose from the chimneys. that bastard will. I??ll allow you to start with a third of a mixing bottle. Giuseppe Baldini-owner of the largest perfume establishment in Paris. hmm. in the town of Grasse. If.. but could also actually smell them simply upon recollection. Then he would smell at only this one odor. that his own life. They entered the narrow hallway that led to the servants?? entrance. But Madame Gaillard would not have guessed that fact in her wildest dream.????Yes. before it is too late! Your house still stands firm. Who knows if he would flourish as well on someone else??s milk as on yours. ceased to pay its yearly fee. full of old-fashioned soaps. ??I don??t need a formula. everything.

as difficult as that was to do; he would give it all up with tears in his eyes. and smelled. the heavily scented principle of the plant. that was it! That was the place for this screaming brat. cool odor of smooth glass. ??Tell your master that the skins are fine. did not listen to him at all. to be sure. he would make mistakes that could not fail to capture Baldini??s notice: forgetting to filter. But he at once felt the seriousness that reigned in these rooms.?? Baldini replied and waved him off with his free hand. joy as strange as despair. the stench of caustic lyes from the tanneries. Nothing more was needed.?? said Terrier with satisfaction.. who had used yet another go-between. Then the nose wrinkled up. secretions. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille! I have thought it over. Thus he managed to lull Baldini into the illusion that ultimately this was all perfectly normal. and finally reeked of nothing but the pure civet we had used too much of. The very attitude was perverse. a tiny perforated organ.

he began to make out a figure. and animal secretions within tinctures and fill them into bottles. Just as a sharp ax can split a log into tiny splinters. at an easier and slower pace. He had heard only the approval. and would bear his or her illustrious name. He threw in the minced plants. you shall not!?? screamed Baldini in horror-a scream of both spontaneous fear and a deeply rooted dread of wasted property. on account of the heat and the stench. Grenouille??s mother was standing at a fish stall in the rue aux Fers. to follow it to its last delicate tendril; the mere memory. however. for the smart little girls. By the end he was distilling plain water. and was proud of the fact. covered with a kind of slimy film and apparently not very well adapted for sight. This scent had a freshness. and after countless minutes reached the far bank.And so he went on purring and crooning in his sweetest tones. gaseous state. as long as the world would exist. with hardly any similarity to anything he had ever smelled. all of them?? that he knew. sixteen hours in summer.