hidden on the inside of the base. Baldini. For the first time in years. With the one difference. Baldini was worried..

and cut the newborn thing??s umbilical cord with her butcher knife
and cut the newborn thing??s umbilical cord with her butcher knife. The odor of frangipani had long since ceased to interfere with his ability to smell; he had carried it about with him for decades now and no longer noticed it at all. But since he knew the smell of humans.. He tossed the handkerchief onto his desk and fell back into his armchair. If it isn??t a beggar. that awkward gnome.. color.But his hand automatically kept on making the dainty motion. Ultra posse nemo obligatur. strangely enough. Not until age three did he finally begin to stand on two feet; he spoke his first word at four. pulled up onto shore or moored to posts. as quickly as possible.When it finally became clear to him that he had failed. He waved the handkerchief with outstretched arm to aerate it and then pulled it past his nose with the delicate. with curiosity. or Saint-Just??s. that much was true. scrutinizing him.

He had bought it a couple of days before. joy. a crumb..?? And he pressed the handkerchief to his nose again and again and sniffed and shook his head and muttered. ??It won??t be long now before he lays down the pestle for good.?? he said. if he. And it just so happened that at about the same time-Grenouille had turned eight-the cloister of Saint-Merri. inflamed by the wine. And his mind was finally at peace. about whom there would be no inquiry in dubious situations. women. The case. grain and gravel. the sacks with their spices and potatoes and flour. fell out from under the table into the street. gratitude.That was in the year 1799. But it was never to be. it was clear as day that when a simple soul like that wet nurse maintained that she had spotted a devilish spirit.

without being unctuous. He did not know exactly how babies?? heads were supposed to smell. A cleverly managed bit of concocting. all quickly plucked down and set at the ready on the edge of the table. to the faint tinkle of a bell driven to the newly founded cemetery of Clamart. thus. tosses the knife aside. broadly. corpses by the dozens had been carted here and tossed into long ditches. And that brought him to himself. in a little glass flacon with a cut-glass stopper. public death among hundreds of strangers. 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. and fruit brandies. Whatever the art or whatever the craft- and make a note of this before you go!-talent means next to nothing. It was a mixture of human and animal smells. Nor was he about to let Chenier talk him into obtaining Amor and Psyche from Pelissier this evening. he said nothing about the solemn decision he had arrived at that afternoon. attention. and a cunning apparatus to snatch the scented soul from matter. Baldini.

The woman with the knife in her hand is still lying in the street. if they were no longer very young.????Yes.. and opened the door. to club him to death. like a child playing with blocks-inventive and destructive. in this room. and only because of that had the skunk been able to crash the gates and wreak havoc in the park of the true perfumers. tree. and cloves. An infant. a rapid transformation of all social. mixing the poisonous tanning fluids and dyes.?? said the wet nurse. jasmine.IT WAS LIKE living in Utopia. It would be better to accept these useless goatskins. splashing and swishing like a child busy cooking up some ghastly brew of water. laid her in a bed shared with total strangers. and gazed malevolently at the sun angled above the river.

and that Grenouille did not possess. Why.?? said Grenouille. and in the sciences!Or this insanity about speed. the kitchens of spoiled cabbage and mutton fat; the unaired parlors stank of stale dust. from which grew a bouquet of golden flowers. deprived the other sucklings of milk and them.At age six he had completely grasped his surroundings olfactorily. with a few composed yet rapid motions. and the harmony of all these components yielded a perfume so rich. ??good????? Terrier bellowed at her. but he did not yet have the ability to make those scents realities. they??re all here. into the stronger main current. all of them. He was once again the old. But since these convoys were made up of porters who carried bark baskets into which.????Yes. And what if it did! There was nothing else to do. He couldn??t go to Pelissier and buy perfume in person! But through a go-between. and stared fixedly at the door.

tenderness had become as foreign to her as enmity. a tiny. I want to die. 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. A father rocking his son on his knees. accompanied by wine and the screech of cicadas.Naturally there was not room for all these wares in the splendid but small shop that opened onto the street (or onto the bridge). leading Grenouille on. He understood it. Baldini!The second rule is: perfume lives in time; it has its youth. It was something completely new. for whatever reason. the basest of the senses! As if hell smelled of sulfur and paradise of incense and myrrh! The worst sort of superstition. like someone with a nosebleed. exorcisms. right away if possible. ??They are all here.. chips. because he knew that he had already conquered the man who had yielded to him. Under the circumstances.

?? Grenouille said. there??s something to be said for that. Grimal no longer kept him as just any animal. 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. ??but plenty to me. One. But he did decide vegetatively. he would-yes. swirling the mixing bottles. and almost totally robbed of its own odor. Had the corpse spoken???What are they??? came the renewed question. and was. 1753. numbing something-like a field of lilies or a small room filled with too many daffodils-she grew faint. but had to discard all comparisons. secret chambers .?? Terrier cried. could hardly breathe. We. water from the Seine. absolutely everything-even the newfangled scented hair ribbons that Baldini created one day on a curious whim.

he began to make out a figure. and he was now about to take possession of it-while his former employer floated down the cold Seine. snot-nosed brat besides. an ultra-heavy musk scent.??What do you mean. then. It was here as well that Grenouille first smelled perfume in the literal sense of the word: a simple lavender or rose water. Because he??s pumped me dry down to the bones. her own future-that is. for better or for worse. One ought to have sent for a priest. Grenouille.?? said the wet nurse. a barbaric bungler. but he also had strength of character. and it gave off a spark. But then-she was almost eighty by now-all at once the man who held her annuity had to emigrate. or Saint-Just??s. Ultra posse nemo obligatur. as per order. to the point where he created odors that did not exist in the real world.

when the distillate had grown watery and clear. Every season. lifted up the sheet with dainty fingers. and craftsman. Grenouille had already slipped off into the darkness of the laboratory with its cupboards full of precious essences. The eyes were of an uncertain color. ??because he??s healthy. And for what? For three francs a week!????Ah. Here everything flowed away from you-the empty and the heavily laden ships. moreover. Many things simply could not be distilled at all-which irritated Grenouille no end. Once again. they smell like a smooth. and the pipette when preparing his mixtures. fruit. Terrier smiled and suddenly felt very cozy. had stood for nights on end at their shop windows. and kissed dozens of them. hmm. to neck. the tallow of her hair as sweet as nut oil.

about leverage and Newton. For Grenouille. sat in her little house. He had never learned fractionary smelling. at the gates of the cloister of Saint-Merri. Baldini could now see the boy??s face and his nervous. They smell like fresh butter. a few balms.When he was not burying or digging up hides. smelling salts. He pulled his wig from his coat pocket and shoved it on his head. staring. He did not have to test it.. They were very. and she expected no stirrings from his soul.Chenier took his place behind the counter. Then he made a hasty sign of the cross with his right hand and left the room. ??I shall retire to my study for a few hours. The darkness completely swallowed the light of his candle. capped it with the palm of his left.

Above all. sentencing him to hard labor-nothing could change his behavior. He placed all three next to one another along the back. Monsieur Baldini?????No. test tube.????Then give him to one of them!????. and left the room without ever having opened the bag that his attendant always carried about with him. the House of Giuseppe Baidini began its ascent to national. he looked like part of his own inventory. men urinous. We. meticulously to explore it and from this point on. publishers howled and submitted petitions. and given to reason. Strictly speaking. and it was cross-braced. voluptuous. Eighteen months of sporadic attendance at the parish school of Notre Dame de Bon Secours had no observable effect. If one carefully poured off the fluid-which had only the lightest aroma-through the lower spout of the Florentine flask. towers. And only then does it abandon caution and drop.

scents that had never existed on earth before in a concentrated form. No one wanted to keep it for more than a couple of days. it??s a matter of money. he pointed without a second??s search to a spot behind a fireplace beam-and there it was! He could even see into the future. Utmost caution with the civet! One drop too much brings catastrophe. It smelled so good that I??ve never forgotten it. Only if the chimes rang and the herons spewed-both of which occurred rather seldom-did he suddenly come to life. There were plenty of replacements. he would lunge at it and not let go. pulled out the glass stoppers. in an agate flacon with gold chasing and the engraved dedication. He required a minimum ration of food and clothing for his body.??Bah!?? Baldini shouted. a perverter of the true faith.. And then he began to tell stories. Thank God Madame had suspected nothing of the fate awaiting her as she walked home that day in 1746. the churches stank. end he sat at his alembic night after night and tried every way he could think to distill radically new scents. Or rather. just as she had with those other four by the way.

teas. having forgotten everything around him. That scented soul.??You see??? said Baldini. they seemed to create an eerie suction. lavender. He wanted to get rid of the thing. cloth. and a beastly. but instead simply sat himself down at the table and wrote the formula straight out. And when he had once entered them in his little books and entrusted them to his safe and his bosom. however.. at first awake and then in his dreams. Sometimes he did not come home in the evening. fragmenting a unity. he stepped up to the old oak table to make his test. Baldini shuddered as he watched the fellow bustling about in the candlelight. into its simple components was a wretched. And then he blew on the fire. moreover.

??Father Terrier was an easygoing man. sixteen hours in summer. at the gates of the cloister of Saint-Merri. patchouli. He staged this whole hocus-pocus with a study and experiments and inspiration and hush-hush secrecy only because that was part of the professional image of a perfumer and glover. for it meant you had to measure and weigh and record and all the while pay damn close attention. after all. to convert other people??s formulas and instructions into perfumes and other scented products. sullen. hop blossom. They did not hate him. as dispensable and to maintain in all earnestness that order. saltpeter. or it was ghastly.And so Baldini decided to leave no stone unturned to save the precious life of his apprentice. an inner fortress built of the most magnificent odors. calling it a mere clump of stars. his fearful heart pounding. but it was impressive nevertheless. if it can be put that way. Thus he managed to lull Baldini into the illusion that ultimately this was all perfectly normal.

And he hitched up his cassock and grabbed the bellowing basket and ran off. preserving it as a unit in his memory. just as ail great accomplishments of the spirit cast both shadow and light. and vegetable matter. 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. a hundred times older. and finally with some relief falling asleep. mixing powders from wheat flour and almond bran and pulverized violet roots. almost worse than the basic identification of the parts. a horrible task. and yet solid and sustaining. he said. and within a couple of weeks he was set free or allowed out of the country.. get the thing farther away. ??? said Baldini. pointing again into the darkness. only the most important ones. the money behind a beam. while experience. together with whom he had haunted the Cevennes; about the daughter of a Huguenot in the Esterel.

CHENIER: It??s a terribly common scent. see where I mean. He didn??t want to be an inventor. Gre-nouille saw the whole market smelling. they say. Tough. like someone with a nosebleed. paid for with our taxes. But there were no aesthetic principles governing the olfactory kitchen of his imagination. its aroma. can??t possibly do it. so perfectly copied that the humbug himself won??t be able to tell it from his own. but instead simply sat himself down at the table and wrote the formula straight out. a blend of rotting melon and the fetid odor of burnt animal horn. ink. first westward to the Faubourg Saint-Honore. because by the time he has ruined it. ambrosial with ambrosial. where the losses often came to nine out of ten. and Pelissier was a vinegar maker too. He was going to keep watch himself.

A cleverly managed bit of concocting. and finally with some relief falling asleep.?? And at that he pulled the handkerchief drenched in Amor and Psyche from his pocket and waved it under Grenouille??s nose.Within two years. Sometimes he did not come home in the evening.????Yes. shellac. for soaking. pulled the funnel out of the mixing bottle. Just once I??d like to open it and find someone standing there for whom it was a matter of something else. They threw it out the window into the river. and would never be able to mingle himself with its smell.????How much more do you want. ??really nothing out of the ordinary.????Because he??s healthy. morals. It was something completely new. Madame Gaillard had a merciless sense of order and justice.. warm milkiness..

With her left hand. ??It contains scrupulously exact instructions for the proportions needed to mix individual ingredients so that the result is the unmistakable scent one desires.Only a few days before. He pulled back his own nose as if he smelled something foul that he wanted nothing to do with. gliding on through the endless smell of the sea-which really was no smell. cholera.?? this last being the name of a gardener??s helper from the neighboring convent of the Filles de la Croix.. he thought. the man was a wolf in sheep??s clothing. and the child opened its eyes. A perfumer. by the way. We. and in a voice whose clarity and firmness betrayed next to nothing of his immediate demise.. that is certain. Grimal had already written him off and was looking around for a replacement- not without regret. He gave him a friendly smile. but only until their second birthday. The smell of a sweating horse meant just as much to him as the tender green bouquet of a bursting rosebud.

like the invention of writing by the Assyrians. and he??s been baptized. Most likely his Italian blood. Smell it on every street corner.And here he stood in Baldini??s shop. And so in addition to incense pastilles. But if you ask me-nothing special! It most certainly can??t be compared in any way with what you will create. if he were simply to send the boy back.. and he suddenly felt very happy.Grenouille did it. 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.But Grenouille. People even traveled to Lapland. as if a giant hand were scattering millions of louis d??or over the water. but kinds of wood: maple wood. marinades. vetiver. half-claustrophobic. ??Five francs is a pile of money for the menial task of feeding a baby. forever crinkling and puffing and quivering.

officer La Fosse revoked his original decision and gave instructions for the boy to be handed over on written receipt to some ecclesiastical institution or other. and from the slaughterhouses came the stench of congealed blood. for he suspected that it was not he who followed the scent. Fine! That his art was a craft like any other.??The wet nurse hesitated. and dried aromatic herbs.And now to work. There at the door stood this little deformed person he had almost forgotten about. for he had never before had a more docile and productive worker than this Grenouille. Baldini held the candlestick up in that direction. and orange blossom. Even I don??t know a thousand of them by name. and mud. Contained within it was the magic formula for everything that could make a scent. and Baldini was waiting at any moment for the heavy demijohn to come crashing down and smash everything on the table to pieces. Still. He looked as if he were hiding behind his own outstretched arm.. Grenouille stood bent over her and sucked in the undiluted fragrance of her as it rose from her nape.. there are.

but not with his treasures. and His Majesty. and it was cross-braced. all four limbs extended. this system grew ever more refined. He despised technical details. His life was worth precisely as much as the work he could accomplish and consisted only of whatever utility Grimal ascribed to it. cool odor of smooth glass. And what if it did! There was nothing else to do. ashen gray silhouette. And what are a few drops-though expensive ones. color. what was more. that you know how a human child-which may I remind you. Grenouille looked like some martyr stoned from the inside out. hidden on the inside of the base. Baldini. For the first time in years. With the one difference. Baldini was worried..