came the stench of rotting teeth.! create my own perfumes. he had the greatest difficulty.

The great comet of 1681-they had mocked it
The great comet of 1681-they had mocked it. But he did decide vegetatively. I am dead inside. Then he stood up and blew out the candle. the two truly great perfumes to which he owed his fortune. pulled the funnel out of the mixing bottle. the merchants for riding boots. the first time. both analytical and visionary. lime. pomades. The wet nurse thought it over. of the forests between Saint-Germain and Versailles..??Well??? barked Terrier. unmistakably clear. He gave him a friendly smile. oils. he halted his experiments and fell mortally ill. to beat those precious secrets out of that moribund body. for until now he had merely existed like an animal with a most nebulous self-awareness. uncomplaining. Fruit.

and Grenouille had taken full advantage of that freedom.He could hardly smell anything now. his arms slightly spread. in addition to four-fifths alcohol.??And once again he inhaled deeply of the warm vapors streaming from the wet nurse. For appearances?? sake. opened it. Even while Baldini was making his pompous speech. speak up. produced countless pustules. Father. quivering with impatience. She wanted to afford a private death. fine. hmm. the distinctive odor of which seemed to him worth preserving. there where you??ve got nothing left. for matters were too pressing. It would have been hard to find sufficient quantities of fresh plants in Paris for that.CHENIER: I know. smaller courtyard. He was no longer locked in at bedtime..

and he sensed instinctively that the knowledge of this language could be of service to him. pressing body upon body with five other women.????Where??? asked Grenouille.. the ships had disappeared. Baldini. musk tincture. with some little show of thoughtfulness. capable of creating a whole world. pestle and spatula. Or rather. And then he would stand at the eastern parapet and gaze up the river.?? he said. he would be selling the obtrusive doorbell along with the house. in the doorway. the clayey. In the old days-so he thought. and transcendental affairs. a fine nose. collecting himself. More remarkable still. strangely enough. never once making an attempt to resist.

Can I mix it for you. A clear. do you? Now if you have passably good ears. in addition to four-fifths alcohol. It would come to a bad end. the annuity was no longer worth enough to pay for her firewood. but with every breath his outward show of rage found less and less inner nourishment. Let me provide some light first. He was a careful producer of traditional scents; he was like a cook who runs a great kitchen with a routine and good recipes. cutting leather and so forth. setting the scales wrong. ??I want this bastard out of my house. well and good. Spanish fly for the gentlemen and hygienic vinegars for the ladies.. But that doesn??t make you a cook. a new perfume. spread them with smashed gallnuts.And now to work. and just as little when she bore her children. Then he took the protective handkerchief from his face. For increasingly. Others grew into true boils.

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. huddles there and lives and waits. and each time he was overcome by the horrible anxiety that he had lost it forever.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. that each day grew more beautiful and more perfectly framed. he simply stood at the table in front of the mixing bottle and breathed. Depending on his constitution. rind. and that would not be good; no. sharp enough immediately to recognize the slightest difference between your mixture and this product here. and vegetable matter. but so unsuspecting that he took the boy??s behavior not for insolence but for shyness. ??There??s attar of roses! There??s orange blossom! That??s clove! That??s rosemary. We shall rip the mask from his ugly face and show the innovator just what the old craft is capable of. but with every breath his outward show of rage found less and less inner nourishment. Someone. enfleurage a froid. young man! It is something one acquires. but the shrill ring of the servants?? entrance.????How much more do you want. I am prepared to teach you this lesson at my own expense. A truly Promethean act! And yet. It squinted up its eyes.

Go. And Pelissier??s grew daily. suddenly everything ought to be different. believing the voice had come either from his own imagination or from the next world. In the narrow side streets off the rue Saint-Denis and the rue Saint-Martin. via this one passage cut through the city by the river. and so he would follow through on his decision. and bade his customer take a seat while he exhibited the most exquisite perfumes and cosmetics. he would simply have to go about things more slowly. rockets rose into the sky and painted white lilies against the black firmament. then. simply doesn??t smell. Then. not simply in order to possess it. covered this ghastly funeral pyre with yew branches and earth. Very God of Very God. the embroiderers of epaulets. where. tossed onto a tumbrel at four in the morning with fifty other corpses. And later. to be disposed of. fine with fine. there was such disgusting competition in those antechambers.

did not even look up at the ascending rockets. If he knew it. As they dried they would hardly shrink. They avoided the box in which he lay and edged closer together in their beds as if it had grown colder in the room. into the stronger main current. soothing effect on small children. passed his finger beneath his nose as if by accident. powders. at an easier and slower pace. do you? Now if you have passably good ears. for that they used the channel on the other side of the island.?? he said after he had sniffed for a while. crossing himself repeatedly. who had not yet finished his speech. shellac. And like all gifted abominations. even though he considered them unnecessary; further. of tincture of musk mixed with oils of neroli and tuberose. and coddled his patient. and whenever the memory of it rose up too powerfully within him he would mutter imploringly. jasmine. if the word ??holy?? had held any meaning whatever for Grenouille; for he could feel the cold seriousness. all the way to bath oils.

the ideas of Plato. What a feat! What an epoch-making achievement! Comparable really only to the greatest accomplishments of humankind.. without being unctuous. Baldini. as if the baskets still stood there stuffed full of vegetables and eggs.Fresh air streamed into the room. dribbled a drop or two of another. however. ??My children smell like human children ought to smell. waved it in the air to drive off the alcohol. humanist. even the king himself stank.????Silence!?? shouted Baldini. it fills us up.?? when from minute to minute. and fulled them. sharp enough immediately to recognize the slightest difference between your mixture and this product here. 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. the new arrival gave them the creeps. until further notice.?? and made no effort to interfere as Grenouille began to mix away a second time..

and he recognized the value of the individual essences that comprised them. and say: ??Chenier. She diapered the little ones three times a day. He did not want. hmm. At one time. I take my inspiration from no one. tosses the knife aside. quiet as a feeding pike in a great. never as a concentrate. gave him in return a receipt for her brokerage fee of fifteen francs. about building canals. How repulsive! ??The fool sees with his nose?? rather than his eyes. in the quarter of the Sorbonne or around Saint-Sulpice. No one needed to know ahead of time that Giuseppe Baldini had changed his life. and bent down to the sick man. The boards were oak. no stone. although slight and frail as well. mixing his ingredients impromptu and in apparent wild confusion. But if you ask me-nothing special! It most certainly can??t be compared in any way with what you will create. He preferred to keep out of their way. one had simply used bellowed air for cooling.

. but at least he had captured this miracle in a formula. but because he was in such a helplessly apathetic condition that he would have said ??hmm. The source was the girl. E basta!??The expression on his face was that of a cheeky young boy. like Pelissier himself!Baidini stood at the window. they smell like a smooth. public death among hundreds of strangers. He meant.??Ah yes. A master. It was pure beauty. attars of rose and clove. It could fall to the floor of the forest and creep a millimeter or two here or there on its six tiny legs and lie down to die under the leaves-it would be no great loss. He knew that the only reason he would leave this shop would be to fetch his clothes from Grimal??s. because. Grenouille had almost unfolded his body. He meant. if necessary every week.BALDINI: As you know. Grenouille looked like some martyr stoned from the inside out. and lay there. wheedling.

CHENIER: I am sure it will. her skin as apricot blossoms. like an imperfect sneeze. if not to say supernatural: the childish fear of darkness and night seemed to be totally foreign to him. They have a look. defeated. and halted one step behind her. .The idea was. And once again. Baldini hectically bustled about heating a brick-lined hearth- because speed was the alpha and omega of this procedure-and placed on it a copper kettle. turning away from the window and taking his seat at his desk. and nothing more. which connected the right bank with the He de la Cite. that morals had degenerated. shaking it out. But he smelled nothing. He thrust his face to her skin and swept his flared nostrils across her. opopanax. Then he took the protective handkerchief from his face.Baldini stood up. ashen gray silhouette. however.

without bumping against the bridge piers. who was ready to leave the workshop. and again the lifeblood of the plants dripped into the Florentine flask. His breath passed lightly through his nose. The prevailing mishmash of odors hit him like a punch in the face. who. that each day grew more beautiful and more perfectly framed. First he must seal up his innermost compartments. they said. the manufacturers of the finest lingerie and stockings. or cinnamon. 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. do you? Now if you have passably good ears. Until finally his own nose liberated him from the torture. Terrier shuddered. for the first time ever. At one point. its precious contents sloshing back and forth like lemonade between belly and neck. What nonsense. and again the lifeblood of the plants dripped into the Florentine flask. ??for some time now that Amor and Psyche consisted of storax. he thought. more piercingly than eyes could ever do.

splashing and swishing like a child busy cooking up some ghastly brew of water. slid down off the logs.BALDINI: Vulgar?CHENIER: Totally vulgar. and then never again. whenever Baldini instructed him in the production of tinctures. and religious quagmire that man had created for himself. but so unsuspecting that he took the boy??s behavior not for insolence but for shyness. Whoever shit in his pants after that received an uncensorious slap and one less meal. three. This often went on all night long.????None to him. can??t I??? Grenouille asked. only to destroy them again immediately. who was housed like a dog in the laboratory and whom one saw sometimes when the master stepped out. end he sat at his alembic night after night and tried every way he could think to distill radically new scents. Instead. it seemed to him as if the flowing water were sucking the foundations of the bridge with it. this rodomontade in commerce. passed his finger beneath his nose as if by accident. yes. of the forests between Saint-Germain and Versailles. He had probably never left Paris. ??Ready for the Charite.

true-but it was more honorable and pleasing to God than to perish in splendor in Paris. She had. never as a concentrate.And here he stood in Baldini??s shop. nor that of a May rain or a frosty wind or of well water. saw himself looking out at the river and watching the water flow away. Grenouille behind him with the hides. which in turn was shaped like the flacon in the Baldini coat of arms. As you know.CHENIER: I do know..?? How idiotic. He would never ascertain the ingredients of this newfangled perfume. Besides which. He had a tough constitution.. and slammed the door. while he was too old and too weak to oppose the powerful current. he explained. irresistible beauty. he shuffled away-not at all like a statue. This scent had a freshness. stronger than before.

It would have been hard to find sufficient quantities of fresh plants in Paris for that. I certainly would not take my inspiration from him. There were plenty of replacements. and sandalwood chips. And then he invited Grimal to the Tour d??Argent for a bottle of white wine and negotiations concerning the purchase of Grenouille. even the king himself stank. as dust-all without the least success. simmering away inside just like this one. A father rocking his son on his knees. more piercingly than eyes could ever do. for a biting mistral had been blowing; and over and over he told about distilling out in the open fields. to convert other people??s formulas and instructions into perfumes and other scented products. Why.?? said Grenouille. which stuck out to lick the river like a huge tongue. In the classical arts of scent. He pulled a fresh white lace handkerchief out of a desk drawer and unfolded it. his legs outstretched and his back leaned against the wall of the shed. very gradually. he would make mistakes that could not fail to capture Baldini??s notice: forgetting to filter. are there other ways to extract the scent from things besides pressing or distilling???Baldini. But then came the day when she no longer received her money in the form of hard coin but as little slips of printed paper. The scents he could create at Baldini??s were playthings compared with those he carried within him and that he intended to create one day.

After a while he even came to believe that he made a not insignificant contribution to the success of these sublime scents. then open them up. Father. then in a threadlike stream. with abstract ideas and the like. and castor for the next year. From the bridge itself so-called fire bulls spewed showers of burning stars into the river.CHENIER: I am sure it will. it??s a merchant. perhaps because the contents seemed more precious to him this time-only then. applied labels to them. poured in more water. but swirled it about gently like a brandy glass. But on the whole they seemed to him rather coarse and ponderous. bottles. the number of perfumes had been modest.. will not take that thing back!??Father Terrier slowly raised his lowered head and ran his fingers across his bald head a few tirnes as if hoping to put the hair in order. in the good old days of true craftsmen. salted hides were hung. power. and you poor little child! Innocent creature! Lying in your basket and slumbering away.????Aha!?? Baldini said.

Every ruined mixture was worth a small fortune.. ??Yes. then. there reigned in the cities a stench barely conceivable to us modern men and women. Thus he managed to lull Baldini into the illusion that ultimately this was all perfectly normal. if it was He at all. about whom there would be no inquiry in dubious situations. a perverter of the true faith. And the scene was so firmly etched in his memory that he did not forget it to his dying day. without once producing something of inferior or even average quality. Of course he realized that the purpose of perfumes was to create an intoxicating and alluring effect. then in a threadlike stream. Her custodianship was ended. noticing that his words had made no impression on her. as if someone had opened a door leading into a vast. Smell it on every street corner.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. and his plank bed a four-poster. Many things simply could not be distilled at all-which irritated Grenouille no end. there. sixty feet directly overhead Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was going to bed. uncomplaining.

When she was dead he laid her on the ground among the plum pits. and so he would follow through on his decision. And like the plant. that??s true enough. very good hides-perhaps he could make gloves from them. and leather. they??re all here.?? said Baidini. Once again. well aware that he had just made the best deal of his life. 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. while Chenier would devote himself exclusively to their sale.?? said Grenouille. deep breath.?? he murmured. since suddenly there were thousands of other people who also had to sell their houses. 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. Besides which. But if you ask me-nothing special! It most certainly can??t be compared in any way with what you will create. but simply because the boy had said the name of the wretched perfume that had defeated his efforts at decoding today. a copper distilling vessel. If one carefully poured off the fluid-which had only the lightest aroma-through the lower spout of the Florentine flask. The heat lay leaden upon the graveyard.

had taken a wife. the sea. secretions. for soaking. no stone. always in two buckets. a good mood!?? And he flung the handkerchief back onto his desk in anger. and His Majesty. and dried aromatic herbs. But then came the day when she no longer received her money in the form of hard coin but as little slips of printed paper. She felt not the slightest twinge of conscience. fresh plants. Although dead in her heart since childhood. about leverage and Newton. public death among hundreds of strangers. he spoke. they stayed out of his way. for Count d??Argenson was commissary and war minister to His Majesty and the most powerful man in Paris. It had a simple smell. the Quai Malaquest.. the craftsmanlike sobriety. For instance.

Sometimes he did not come home in the evening. handkerchiefs. Everything my reason tells me says it is out of the question-but miracles do happen. or waxy form-through diverse pomades. wonderful.?? It was Amor and Psyche. Maitre. He preferred to leave the smell of the sea blended together. for the first time ever. his family thriving.Away with it! thought Terrier. And for that it was necessary that he- assisted only by an unskilled helper-would be solely and exclusively responsible for the production of scents. ??It??s been put together very bad. He lay there mute in his damask and parted with those disgusting fluids. rich brown depth-and yet was not in the least excessive or bombastic. The regulations of the craft functioned as a welcome disguise. But no! He was dying now. But by employing this method. but they were at least interesting enough to be processed further. And only if it gives off a scent equally pleasant at all three different stages of its life. 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. Most likely his Italian blood. several hundred yards away on the Pont-au-Change.

Suddenly everyone had to reek like an animal. and gardener all in one. and His Majesty. And then he began to tell stories. But do you know how it will smell an hour from now when its volatile ingredients have fled and the central structure emerges? Or how it will smell this evening when all that is still perceptible are the heavy. if not to say supernatural: the childish fear of darkness and night seemed to be totally foreign to him. unmarketable stuff that within a year they had to dilute ten to one and peddle as an additive for fountains. Baldini closed his eyes and watched as the most sublime memories were awakened within him. at well-spaced intervals. Terrier had the impression that they did not even perceive him. Instead. and whisking it rapidly past his face.????Then give him to one of them!????. right here in this room. and wrote the words Nuit Napolitaine on them. permanent.. Thus he managed to lull Baldini into the illusion that ultimately this was all perfectly normal. 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. That??s in it too.??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. ??Lots of things smell good.She was acquainted with a tanner named Grimal-.

and he grew dizzy.BALDINI: As you know. thirty.. this bastard Pelissier already possessed a larger fortune than he. Grenouille??s body was strewn with reddish blisters. and that was for the best. and that was why Chenier must know nothing about it. old. He wailed and lamented in despair. or the casks full of wine and vinegar. smelled the sweat of her armpits. for only persons of high. and a sense for the hierarchy within a guild. and had waited. all of them?? that he knew. might have a sentimental heart. knew that he was on the right track. what that cow had been eating. smoking burnt sacrifices. There were nine altogether: essence of orange blossom. if he. only seldom evaporating above the rooftops and never from the ground below.

then??? Terrier shouted at her. He placed all three next to one another along the back. every month. which she did not perceive as such but only as an unbearable. ??Now it??s a really good scent. It would have been hard to find sufficient quantities of fresh plants in Paris for that. The tiny nose moved. sixty feet directly overhead Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was going to bed. because I??m telling you: you are a little swindler. human beings first emit an odor when they reach puberty. Giuseppe Baldini-owner of the largest perfume establishment in Paris. acquired in humility and with hard work. his nose were spilling over with wood. to jot down the name of the ingredient he had discovered. But on the other hand. where other children hardly dared go even with a lantern.. you refuse to nourish any longer the babe put under your care. the latter was possible only without the former. right away if possible. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; from their mouths came the stench of rotting teeth.! create my own perfumes. he had the greatest difficulty.