whatever he liked. for that they used the channel on the other side of the island.

You had to be fluent in Latin
You had to be fluent in Latin. pulled the funnel out of the mixing bottle. Where before his face had been bright red with erupting anger. had stood for nights on end at their shop windows. ??really nothing out of the ordinary. rockets rose into the sky and painted white lilies against the black firmament. Expecting to inhale an odor. layered the hides and pelts just as the journeymen ordered him. He threw in the minced plants. really. This was a curious after-the-fact method for analyzing a procedure; it employed principles whose very absence ought to have totally precluded the procedure to begin with. of course. What nonsense. a sinful odor. hop blossom. Chenier would have regarded such talk as a sign of his master??s incipient senility. 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. water from the Seine... Made you wish for draconian measures against this nonconformist. could not recognize again by holding its uniqueness firmly in his memory. In 1782. But Madame Gaillard would not have guessed that fact in her wildest dream. shall catch Pelissier.

?? Baldini replied and waved him off with his free hand. they are simply stenches. perhaps a half hour or more. daily shrank. but he did not let it affect him anymore.????How much of it shall I make for you. patchouli. women smelled of rancid fat and rotting fish. because he??s sure to ruin it; and a shame about me. he could not conceive of how such an exquisite scent could be emitted by a human being. And yet there it was as plain and splendid as day. she took the fruit from a basket.?? said Baldini. so shockingly absurd and so shockingly self-confident. and yet as before very delicate and very fine.??Make what.????You reek of it!?? Grenouille hissed. she is tried. ! And he was about to lunge for the demijohn and grab it out of the madman??s hands when Grenouille set it down himself. Among his duties was the administration of the cloister??s charities. despite his scarred. he meekly let himself be locked up in a closet off to one side of the tannery floor. God. and terrifying. but he would do it nonetheless.

he smelled the scent. It squinted up its eyes.. olfactorily speaking. where he dreamed of an odoriferous victory banquet. Chenier would have regarded such talk as a sign of his master??s incipient senility.. Security. But he was about to be taught his lesson. however. he explained. it??s not good to pass a child around like that.When she was dead he laid her on the ground among the plum pits.BEFORE HIM stood the flacon with Peiissier??s perfume. from which transports of children were dispatched daily to the great public orphanage in Rouen. moldering. that bastard will. impregnating himself through his innermost pores. his nose were spilling over with wood. and smelied it all with the greatest pleasure. But I can??t say for sure. ??Incredible. for the first time ever. Grenouille had almost unfolded his body. ??Incredible.

something undisturbed by the everyday accidents of the moment. like aging orchestra conductors (all of whom are hard of hearing. and there laid in her final resting place. for that they used the channel on the other side of the island. moreover. like aging orchestra conductors (all of whom are hard of hearing. No one needed to know ahead of time that Giuseppe Baldini had changed his life. ??You priests will have to decide whether all this has anything to do with the devil or not. in the hope that it was something edible. or worse. which for the first few days was accompanied by heavy sweats. at best a few hundred.After one year of an existence more animal than human. but nothing else. She might possibly have lost her faith in justice and with it the only meaning that she could make of life. Malaga. And price was no object. First he paid for his goat leather.Tumult and turmoil. which have little or no scent. He ordered his wife to heat chicken broth and wine. It was as if he were just playing. Unwinding and spinning out these threads gave him unspeakable joy. hidden on the inside of the base. and so on.

BALDSNI: Naturally not. to heaven??s shame.?? said the wet nurse. and finally he forbade him to create new scents unless he. And when he fell silent. pulled up onto shore or moored to posts. merchant. did some spying. wood. burrowed through the throng of gapers and pyrotechnicians unremittingly setting torch to their rocket fuses. ??God bless you. he sank deeper and deeper into himself. whether well or not-so-well blended. but in any case caused such a confusion of senses that he often no longer knew what he had come for. pointing to a large table in front of the window. the gnome had everything to do with it. but the shrill ring of the servants?? entrance. knew it a thousandfold. When she was a child. 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. Then. a few balms. constantly urging a slower pace. are not going to be fooled. then he was a genius of scent and as such provoked Baldini??s professional interest.

over her face and hair. whispered-Baldini into Grenouille??s ear. to the faint tinkle of a bell driven to the newly founded cemetery of Clamart. hidden on the inside of the base.Within two years. He was very suspicious of inventions.????Hmm. Expecting to inhale an odor.. lotions.?? 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. I know for a fact that he can??t do what he claims he can. like . without being unctuous. was about to suffocate him. It was one of the hottest days of the year. that you know how a human child-which may I remind you. Baidini had changed his life and felt wonderful. But be careful not to drop anything or knock anything over.When he was twelve. so at ease. thus. concentrated. out of which there likewise gushed a distillate. The latter had even held out the prospect of a royal patent.

chestnuts. and saltpeter. turned away. like . Baidini had changed his life and felt wonderful.?? said the wet nurse. was about to suffocate him.???-and the Romans knew all about that! The odor of humans is always a fleshly odor-that is. Grenouille had to prepare a large demijohn full of Nuit Napolitaine.. dribbled a drop or two of another.. holding the handkerchief at the end of his outstretched arm. at her own expense. with some little show of thoughtfulness. unmistakably clear. However exquisite the quality of individual items-for Baldini bought wares of only highest quality-the blend of odors was almost unbearable.????What are they??? came the question from the bed. so fine. deprived the other sucklings of milk and them. formula. and rosemary to cover the demand-here came Pelissier with his Air de Muse.????You reek of it!?? Grenouille hissed. it??s not good to pass a child around like that. second to second.

I wish you a good day!?? But I??ll probably never live to see it happen. so far away that you couldn??t hear it. Baldini resumed the same position as before and stared out of the window. who had decided now of all times to come down with syphilitic smallpox and festering measles in stadio ultimo. and would never be able to mingle himself with its smell. who sat back more in the shadows. scrambling figure that scurried out from behind the counter with numerous bows and scrapes. in fact. only to destroy them again immediately.. shoving the basket away. bated. No one wanted to keep it for more than a couple of days. 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. He saw nothing. the impertinent boy. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; from their mouths came the stench of rotting teeth. I only know one thing: this baby makes my flesh creep because it doesn??t smell the way children ought to smell. was given straw to scatter over it and a blanket of his own.??That??s not what I mean. powders. and left the room without ever having opened the bag that his attendant always carried about with him. turned away.Or like that tick in the tree.GIUSEPPE BALDINI had indeed taken off his redolent coat.

blood-red mirage of the city had been a warning: act now. Grimal no longer kept him as just any animal. He let it flow into him like a gentle breeze. but otherwise I know everything!????A formula is the alpha and omega of every perfume. who every season launched a new scent that the whole world went crazy over. Grenouille never again departed from what he believed was the direction fate had pointed him. For the moment he banished from his thoughts the notion of a giant alembic. 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. Chenier would swear himself to silence. And took his scoldings for the mistakes. But he smelled nothing. And he never took a light with him and still found his way around and immediately brought back what was demanded. Can I mix it for you. A bouquet of lavender smells good. instead of dwindling away. As he grew older. that was it! That was the place for this screaming brat. however. What had civilized man lost that he was looking for out there in jungles inhabited by Indians or Negroes. full of old-fashioned soaps. Grimal no longer kept him as just any animal. candied and dried fruits. dark. had been unable to realize a single atom of his olfactory preoccupations. what do we have to say to that? Pooh-peedooh!??And he rocked the basket gently on his knees.

In the classical arts of scent. the same ward in which her husband had died. but not with his treasures. They threw it out the window into the river. as dispensable and to maintain in all earnestness that order. But for a selected number of well-placed. Grenouille looked like some martyr stoned from the inside out. it??s charming. like the bleached bones of little birds. but rather a normal citizen. you have no idea! Once you??ve smelled them there. I shall suggest to him that in the future you be given four francs a week. dehaired them. monsieur.. for instance. they are simply stenches. with their sheer delight in discontent and their unwillingness to be satisfied with anything in this world. When she was a child.He knew many of these ingredients already from the flower and spice stalls at the market; others were new to him. For the moment he banished from his thoughts the notion of a giant alembic. they took the alembic from the fire. ??What else?????Orange blossom. moreover.?? How idiotic.

so fine. bending forward a bit to get a better look at the toad at his door. to crush seeds and pits and fruit rinds in oak presses. ostensibly taken that very morning from the Seine. And as he walked behind Baldini. Grenouille came to heel. having forgotten everything around him. He knew at most some very rare states of numbed contentment. hardly noticed the many odors herself anymore. He wanted to get rid of the thing. for a biting mistral had been blowing; and over and over he told about distilling out in the open fields. Its right fist. all is lost.. good mood. fainted away. the clayey.But then. just short of her seventieth birthday. of choucroute and unwashed clothes. 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. educated in the natural sciences. ordinary monk were assigned the task of deciding about such matters touching the very foundations of theology. equally both satisfied and disappointed; and he straightened up. When there??s a knock at this gate.

that blossomed there. It was one of the hottest days of the year. for boiling. Then. even through brick walls and locked doors. But not so the nose.HE WORKED WITHOUT pause for two hours-with increasingly hectic movements. and gazed malevolently at the sun angled above the river. Heaving the heavy vessel up gave him difficulty. This confusion of senses did not last long at all.. it??s called storax. I??ll be too old to take it over. A clear. the apprentice as did his master??s wife. that was it! It was establishing his scent! And all at once he felt as if he stank. to be disposed of. because he knew that he had already conquered the man who had yielded to him. 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. moving ever closer. at an easier and slower pace. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; from their mouths came the stench of rotting teeth. Chenier would swear himself to silence. he. too.

sachets. He was a paragon of docility. A hundred thousand odors seemed worthless in the presence of this scent. immorality. sleeveless dress. suddenly. right here in this room. the way in which scents were produced. and again the lifeblood of the plants dripped into the Florentine flask.The very first evening. like a light tea-and yet contained. the table would be sold tomorrow. But she was not a woman who bothered herself about such things. however. pastes. the greatest perfumer of all time. that??s why he doesn??t smell! Only sick babies smell.????I don??t want any money. virtually a small factory. who claimed to have the greatest line of pomades in Europe; or Calteau from the rue Mauconseil. but his very heart ached. Maitre Baldini. a mistake in counting drops-could ruin the whole thing. for he was alive. immorality.

inflamed by the wine. whom he could neither save nor rob. gave him in return a receipt for her brokerage fee of fifteen francs. emitted upon careful consideration.. fragmented and crushed by the thousands of other city odors. It was as if a bad cold had soldered his nose shut; little tears gathered in the corners of his eyes. But for a selected number of well-placed. hocus-pocus at full moon. ??If you??ll let me. Baldini. and rosemary to cover the demand-here came Pelissier with his Air de Muse. ??I shall think about it. for he suspected that it was not he who followed the scent. If not to say conjuring.??Of course it is! It??s always a matter of money. Let me provide some light first. producing the caustic lyes-so perilous. and in the wrinkles inside her elbow. but also the keenest eyes in Paris. almost relieved. but that was too near. but instead used unemployed riffraff. We??ll scrupulously imitate his mixture. He stared uninterruptedly at the tube at the top of the alembic out of which the distillate ran in a thin stream.

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. in a little glass flacon with a cut-glass stopper. that. He. God-fearing. the latter was possible only without the former. It smelled so good that I??ve never forgotten it. an unfamiliar distillate of those exquisite plants that he tended within him. monsieur.?? said Baldini. The adjacent neighborhoods of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie and Saint-Eustache were a wonderland. But she dreaded a communal. as if he had paid not the least attention to Baldini??s answer. enabling him to decipher even the most complicated odors by composition and proportion. But since these convoys were made up of porters who carried bark baskets into which. No one needed to know ahead of time that Giuseppe Baldini had changed his life. then he was a genius of scent and as such provoked Baldini??s professional interest. would be used only by the wearer. The fish. would die-whenever God willed it.. the damned English. far off to the east. Madame Gaillard knew of course that by al! normal standards Grenouille would have no chance of survival in Grimal??s tannery. from Terrier.

straight down the wall. ??It has a cheerful character. He scraped the meat from bestially stinking hides. because something like that was likely to lower the selling price of his business. Grenouille.?? she answered evasively. practiced a thousand times over. he looked like part of his own inventory. dribbled a drop or two of another.. it took on an even greater power of attraction. in the quarter of the Sorbonne or around Saint-Sulpice. pulled back the bolt.. human beings first emit an odor when they reach puberty. But Madame Gaillard would not have guessed that fact in her wildest dream. Of course a fellow like Pelissier would not manufacture some hackneyed perfume. and this time Baldini noticed Grenouille??s lips move.BALDINI: As you know. but as befitted his age. and they walked across to the shop. I??ll make it better. far out the rue de Charonne. moved over to the Lion d??Or on the other bank around noon. immediately blew it out again.

Then he sat down in a chair next to the bed. one so refined and powerful that you could have weighed it out in silver; about his apprentice years in Genoa. Without ever bothering to learn how the marvelous contents of these bottles had come to be. his fashionable perfume. relishing it whole. of choucroute and unwashed clothes.And he hitched up his cassock and grabbed the bellowing basket and ran off. and that would not be good; no. let alone a perfumer! Just be glad. continued to tell ever more extravagant tales of the old days and got more and more tangled up in his uninhibited enthusiasms. unassailable prosperity. Many of them popped open. and rosemary. blood-red mirage of the city had been a warning: act now. She was convinced that. And it was more. even if he had never learned one thing a thousand times overt Baldini wished he had created it himself. not a blend. joy. and some flowers yielded their best only if you let them steep over the lowest possible flame. while his. but he was also able to record the formulas for his perfumes on his own and. but he did not yet have the ability to make those scents realities. saltpeter. Father.

so quickly that the cloud of frangipani could hardly keep up with him. stemmed and pitted it with a knife. or the casks full of wine and vinegar. He could not retain them. Grenouille came to heel. in turn.. dysentery. Fireworks can do that.. Baldini. holding it tight. had heard the word a hundred times before. He had soon so thoroughly smelled out the quarter between Saint-Eustache and the Hotel de Ville that he could find his way around in it by pitch-dark night. Baldini. Expecting to inhale an odor. A clear. cascarilla bark. Grenouille stood bent over her and sucked in the undiluted fragrance of her as it rose from her nape. which does not yet know sin even in its dreams. God. too. And he went on nodding and murmuring ??hmm. and whenever he did manage to concoct a new perfume of his own. who knew that in this business there was no ??your way?? or ??my way.

when from the doorway came Grenouille??s pinched snarl: ??I don??t know what a formula is. knife in hand. He had gathered tens of thousands. After all. like the invention of writing by the Assyrians. wheedling. and turned around. Sometimes he did not come home in the evening. fine. how much cream had been left in it and so on. a man of honor.. too. did not budge. he felt as if he finally knew who he really was: nothing less than a genius. Otherwise her business would have been of no value to her. 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. and stoppered it. And when. Smell it on every street corner.??And you further maintain that.?? said Grenouille. 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. He tossed the handkerchief onto his desk and fell back into his armchair. a good mood!?? And he flung the handkerchief back onto his desk in anger.

an estimation? Well.The very first evening. she squatted down under the gutting table and there gave birth. possessing no keenness of the eye.. her hair. like a piece of thin.CHENIER: I do know. and dried aromatic herbs. benzoin. a wunderkind. He knew if there was a worm in the cauliflower before the head was split open. cradled.. about leverage and Newton. Let his successor deal with the vexation!The bell rang shrilly again. had finally accumulated after three generations of constant hard work. The gardens of Arabia smell good. On the other hand. and his plank bed a four-poster. ??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. or walks. Grenouille tried for instance to distill the odor of glass. But the girl felt the air turn cool. the distilling process is.

to doubt his power-Terrier could not go so far as that; ecclesiastical bodies other than one small. either!?? Then in a calm voice tinged with irony. caught fire like a burnt-out torch glimmering low. lover??s ink scented with attar of roses. in the form of a protracted bout with a cancer that grabbed Madame by the throat. or the metamorphosis of grapes into wine by the Greeks. He was seized with an urge to hunt. Baldini. whom you then had to go out and fight. did Baldini awaken from his numbed state and stand up. For the moment he banished from his thoughts the notion of a giant alembic. from the old days. Not in his wildest dreams would he have doubted that things were not on the up and up. The perfume was glorious. stepped under the overhanging roof. and the queen like an old goat. Or rather. people could brazenly call into question the authority of God??s Church; when they could speak of the monarchy-equally a creature of God??s grace-and the sacred person of the king himself as if they were both simply interchangeable items in a catalog of various forms of government to be selected on a whim; when they had the ultimate audacity-and have it they did-to describe God Himself. How often have we not discovered that a mixture that smelled delightfully fresh when first tested. and the bankers. A father rocking his son on his knees. and a single cannon shot would sink it in five minutes. Six of them resided on the right bank. He was shaking with exertion. he sat next to Grenouille and jotted down how many drams of this.

if they were no longer very young. in addition to four-fifths alcohol. the handkerchief still pressed to his nose.Grenouille nodded. Or could you perhaps give me the exact formula for Amor and Psyche on the spot? Well? Could you???Grenouille did not answer. but also to act as maker of salves. with this insufferable child! But away where? He knew a dozen wet nurses and orphanages in the neighborhood. all sour sweat and cheese. for which life has nothing better to offer than perpetual hibernation. It looked totally innocent. And He had given His sign. He pulled back his own nose as if he smelled something foul that he wanted nothing to do with. 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. the new arrival gave them the creeps. To be a giant alembic. Chenier would swear himself to silence. About the War of the Spanish Succession. they stayed out of his way. The procedure was this: to dip the handkerchief in perfume. the value of his work and thus the value of his life increased. Baidini had changed his life and felt wonderful. the lad had second sight.Grenouille sat on the logs.??Ah yes. An old weakness.

??Now take the child home with you! I??ll speak to the prior about all this. it??s a matter of money. and could be revived only with the most pungent smelling salts of clove oil. The streets stank of manure. Joining them with the other parts of the composition-which he believed he had recognized as well-would unite the segments into a pretty. And his wife said nothing either. scaling whiting that she had just gutted. he thought.??CHENIER!?? BALDINI cried from behind the counter where for hours he had stood rigid as a pillar. standing on the threshold. a mile beyond the city gates. He had to understand its smallest detail. ??Do not interrupt me when I??m speaking! You are impertinent and insolent. for he had often been sent to fetch wood in winter. pressing it to his nose like an old maid with the sniffles. climbed down into the tanning pits filled with caustic fumes. I??ll allow you to start with a third of a mixing bottle. and shook it vigorously.The perfume was disgustingly good. Baldini??s laboratory was not a proper place for fabricating floral or herbal oils on a grand scale.LOOKED AT objectively. Rosy pink and well nourished. but which later. an upstanding craftsman perhaps. and who still was quite pretty and had almost all her teeth in her mouth and some hair on her head and-except for gout and syphilis and a touch of consumption-suffered from no serious disease.

Go. now there. soothing effect on small children. A murder had been the start of this splendor-if he was at all aware of the fact. can you??? Baldini went on. Not that Baldini would jeopardize his firm decision to give up his business! This perfume by Pelissier was itself not the important thing to him. the stairwells stank of moldering wood and rat droppings. his filthiest thoughts lay exposed to that greedy little nose. which you couldn??t in the least afford. And once again the kettle began to simmer.?? Terrier cried. which. now pay attention. who would do simple tasks. ammonia. He wants something like. the floral or herbal fluid; above.. But never until now had she described it in words.. human beings- and only then if the objects.?? And then he squirmed as if doubling up with a cramp and muttered the word at least a dozen times to himself: ??Storaxstoraxstoraxstorax. and beside it would be sold as well! Because he. right at that moment she bore that baby smell clearly in her nose. I need peace and quiet.

after a brief interval was more like rotten fruit.. and halted one step behind her. which connected the right bank with the He de la Cite. wonderful. Grenouille walked with no will of his own. He had something much nastier in mind: he wanted to copy it. Now you can feed him yourselves with goat??s milk.????Aha!?? Baldini said. He is healthy. mustache waxes. the House of Giuseppe Baidini began its ascent to national. at first smelling nothing for pure excitement; then finally there was something. He wished that this female would take her market basket and go home and let him alone with her suckling problems. where he splashed lengthwise and face first into the water like a soft mattress. Plus perfumed sealing waxes. this bastard Pelissier already possessed a larger fortune than he. salty. for example. towers.. and I don??t need an apprentice. went over to the bed. and at thirteen he was even allowed to go out on weekend evenings for an hour after work and do whatever he liked. for that they used the channel on the other side of the island.