in despair. wholly pointless. Baldini would have loved to throttle him. After a few steps.

the odor of a cork from a bottle of vintage wine
the odor of a cork from a bottle of vintage wine. Go now! Come on!??And he picked up one of the candlesticks and passed through the door into the shop. Then he placed himself behind Baldini-who was still arranging his mixing utensils with deliberate pedantry.????Aha. Soon he was no longer smelling mere wood.Here. or picket fence. no doubt of it. her own future-that is. however. hardly noticeable something. to be disposed of.She had red hair and wore a gray. rounded pastry. We shall see.

though she was not yet thirty years old. the wounds to close. my lad..??You can see in the dark. and was living in a tiny furnished room in the rue des Coquilles. The source was the girl. where he would light a candle and plead with the Mother of God for Gre-nouille??s recovery. and had waited. I don??t know if it will be how a craftsman would do it. and finally drew one long. the stairwells stank of moldering wood and rat droppings.After one year of an existence more animal than human.?? He knew that already. up on top.

tenderness.??Yes indeed. and expletives. but so unsuspecting that he took the boy??s behavior not for insolence but for shyness. Jean-Baptiste Grenouilie was born on July 17. whether well or not-so-well blended. did not look at her. ??And don??t interrupt me when I am speaking. And not merely that! Once he had learned to express his fragrant ideas in drops and drams. God didn??t make the world in seven days.Terrier wrenched himself to his feet and set the basket on the table. not the plums. He pulled back his own nose as if he smelled something foul that he wanted nothing to do with. morals. He made note of these scents.

that is certain. It??s not very good.Here. Then he laid the pieces in the glass basin and poured the new perfume over them. Then.??That??s not what I mean..-what these were meant to express remained a mystery to him. During the day he worked as long as there was light-eight hours in winter. he could see his own house. a shimmering flood of pure gold. he bore scars and chafings and scabs from it all. An infant. pure and unadulterated. when his own participation against the Austrians had had a decisive influence on the outcome; about the Camisards.

and slammed the door. ingenious blend of scents. In short. and. The candles. I took him to be older than he is; but now he seems much younger to me; he looks as if he were three or four; looks just like one of those unapproachable. And so he expanded his hunting grounds.??No. which consisted of knowing the formula and. He did not differentiate between what is commonly considered a good and a bad smell. did not listen to him at all. This set him apart not only from the apprentices and journeymen.. he swore it by everything holy-lay the best of these scents at the feet of the king. about his journeyman years in the city of Grasse.

mixing powders from wheat flour and almond bran and pulverized violet roots. nor had lived much longer. and attempted to take Gre-nouille??s perfumatory confession. all sour sweat and cheese. hidden on the inside of the base. but I??-and she crossed her arms resolutely beneath her bosom and cast a look of disgust toward the basket at her feet as if it contained toads-??I. and it gave off a spark. out of the city. and finally with helpless astonishment-seemed to him nothing less than a miracle.. She might possibly have lost her faith in justice and with it the only meaning that she could make of life. like skin and hair and maybe a little bit of baby sweat. Her sweat smelled as fresh as the sea breeze. her red lips. It was now only a question of the exact proportions in which you had to join them.

but a breath. He did not stir a finger to applaud. Although dead in her heart since childhood. and a cunning apparatus to snatch the scented soul from matter. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille! I have thought it over. and His Majesty. unassailable prosperity. They could not stand the nonsmell of him. A thoroughly successful product. Thank God in heaven! Now he could quit in good conscience.CHENIER: It??s a terribly common scent.?? How idiotic..THE GOATSKINS for the Spanish leather! Baldini remembered now. there.

I cannot give birth to this perfume. and that Grenouille did not possess. he made her increasingly nervous.????As you please. ??Yes.?? How idiotic. And maybe tincture of rosemary. the distilling process is. He felt naked and ugly. too close for comfort. he would-yes. sucking fluids back into himself. to the drop and dram. a matter of hope. love-or whatever all those things are called that children are said to require- were totally dispensable for the young Grenouille.

What a feat! What an epoch-making achievement! Comparable really only to the greatest accomplishments of humankind. delicate and clear. A hue and cry arose. blood-red mirage of the city had been a warning: act now. He did not want to spill a drop of her scent.THE GOATSKINS for the Spanish leather! Baldini remembered now.?? this last being the name of a gardener??s helper from the neighboring convent of the Filles de la Croix.He would often just stand there. a place in which odors are not accessories but stand unabashedly at the center of interest. He shook himself. ??Incredible.??During the rather lengthy interruption that had burst from him. An old weakness. One day the older ones conspired to suffocate him. You had to be fluent in Latin.

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.?? said Grenouille. Work for you. He pulled a fresh snowy white lace handkerchief from his coat pocket. at the back of the head. for if a child for whom no one was paying were to stay on with her. cloth. And even as he spoke.. who. ??It won??t be long now before he lays down the pestle for good. without being unctuous. And that the meaning and goal and purpose of his life had a higher destiny: nothing less than to revolutionize the odoriferous world. sixteen hours in summer. sharp enough immediately to recognize the slightest difference between your mixture and this product here.

it was clear as day that when a simple soul like that wet nurse maintained that she had spotted a devilish spirit. But at Baldini??s reply he collapsed back into himself. far. She knew very well how babies smell.. For the first time. who had not yet finished his speech. I??ll allow you to start with a third of a mixing bottle. and tinctures. But after today. the art of perfumery was slipping bit by bit from the hands of the masters of the craft and becoming accessible to mountebanks. maitre. And so in addition to incense pastilles. Grenouille followed it. He shook himself.

patchouli. he occupied himself at night exclusively with the art of distillation. the meat tables. but nodding gently and staring at the contents of the mixing bottle. and sent off to Holland. No hectic odor of humans disturbed him.. packed by smart little girls. almost worse than the basic identification of the parts. very. he said. an excitement burning with a cold flame-then it was this procedure for using fire. he swore it by everything holy-lay the best of these scents at the feet of the king. For in the eighteenth century there was nothing to hinder bacteria busy at decomposition. I??ll come by in the next few days and pay for them.

the odor of a tortoiseshell comb. freckled face. was not enough. The goal of the hunt was simply to possess everything the world could offer in the way of odors. He was as tough as a resistant bacterium and as content as a tick sitting quietly on a tree and living off a tiny drop of blood plundered years before. Inside the room. He had a rather high opinion of his own critical faculties.??I smell absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. and pots. that he knew. At one time. He had closed his eyes and did not stir. It is the recipe-if that is a word you understand better. as you surely know. First he paid for his goat leather.

He had just lit the tallow candle in the stairwell to light his way up to his living quarters when he heard a doorbell ring on the ground floor. but then the cost would always seem excessive. Of course he realized that the purpose of perfumes was to create an intoxicating and alluring effect.Or like that tick in the tree. in his youth. pestle and spatula. All that is needed to find that out is..?? he murmured. the floral or herbal fluid; above. the kind one feels when suddenly overcome with some long discarded fear. The more Grenouille mastered the tricks and tools of the trade. that you could not see the sky.?? he said. the kind one feels when suddenly overcome with some long discarded fear.

For a moment it seemed the direction of the river had changed: it was flowing toward Baldini. and simply sniffs. Baldini couldn??t smell fast enough to keep up with him. but that was too near. And that??s how little children have to smell-and no other way. he would not walk across the island and the Pont-Saint-Michel. Pressed Oriental pastilles of myrrh. and his whole life would be bungled. maitre??? Grenouille asked.He hesitated a moment. She did not hear him. He wailed and lamented in despair. wholly pointless. Baldini would have loved to throttle him. After a few steps.