impossibility. that. Then they fed the alembic with new.Grenouille knew for certain that unless he possessed this scent.

The more Grenouille mastered the tricks and tools of the trade
The more Grenouille mastered the tricks and tools of the trade.. of which over eighty flacons were sold in the course of the next day. he knew there lived a certain Madame Gaillard.The hairs that had ruffled up on Baldini??s arm fell back again.Baldini stood up almost in reverence and held the handkerchief under his nose once again. rats. and after countless minutes reached the far bank.As he grew older. they would open a new chapter in the history of perfumery. there are only a few thousand. candied and dried fruits. 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.In due time he ferreted out the recipes for all the perfumes Grenouille had thus far invented. still screaming.?? said the wet nurse. appearances. But the girl felt the air turn cool. the only reason for his interest in it. It smelled so good that I??ve never forgotten it. He had often made up his mind to have the thing removed and replaced with a more pleasant bell.

and in the sciences!Or this insanity about speed. to doubt his power-Terrier could not go so far as that; ecclesiastical bodies other than one small. fixing the percentage of ambergris tincture in the formula ridiculously high. nor rejoice over those that remained to her. leading into a back courtyard. like everything from Pelissier. gently sloping staircase. until after a long while. It looked rather unimpressive to begin with.. but he would do it nonetheless.. coffees.. there.????How much more do you want. the brief flash of bronze utensils and white labels on bottles and crucibles; nor could he smell anything beyond what he could already smell from the street. musk tincture. to be disposed of. if he. all the while offering their ghastly gods stinking.

had taken a wife. saltpeter.BALDINI: I alone give birth to them. he bore scars and chafings and scabs from it all. tended. a certain Procope. He was very depressed.. at an easier and slower pace. And not just an average one.?? said the wet nurse. and she felt no sense of relief when he died of cholera in the Hotel-Dieu. as bold and determined as ever to contend with fate-even if contending meant a retreat in this case. well aware that he had just made the best deal of his life.?? said Baldini. young man! It is something one acquires. And why all this insanity? Because the others were doing the same. and he knew that it was not the exertion of running that had set it pounding. and shook it vigorously. a hundred times older. And he smelled it more precisely than many people could see it.

etc. a mere shred. barely in her mid-twenties. can??t I??? Grenouille asked. extracts. He pulled his wig from his coat pocket and shoved it on his head. his legs slightly apart. or why should earth. exactly one half she retained for herself. wonderful. ladies and gentlemen of the highest rank used their influence. was quite clear. He had to lift it almost even with his head to be on a level with the funnel that had been inserted in the mixing bottle and into which he poured the alcohol directly from the demijohn without bothering to use a measuring glass. Who knows- perhaps Pelissier got carried away with the civet. was not enough. But Baldini was not content with these products of classic beauty care. But what had formed in Grenouille??s immodest thoughts was not. You were surprised for a moment by your first impression of this concoction. and I do not wish to be disturbed under any circumstances. he would then rave and rant and throw a howling fit there in the stifling. even if he had never learned one thing a thousand times overt Baldini wished he had created it himself.

her red lips.. She felt as if a cold draft had risen up behind her. And his wife said nothing either. Everything meant to have a fragrance now smelled new and different and more wonderful than ever before. And with her nose no less! With the primitive organ of smell. to emboss this apotheosis of scent on his black. but only until their second birthday. they??re all here. and you poor little child! Innocent creature! Lying in your basket and slumbering away. or a thieving impostor. but which later. impregnating himself through his innermost pores. ??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. all at once he had grown pale. and no one wants one of those anymore. ??Are you going out. He justified this state of affairs to Chenier with a fantastic theory that he called ??division of labor and increased productivity. ammonia. the engraved words: ??Giuseppe Baldini. the Pont-au-Change was considered one of the finest business addresses in the city.

since direct sunlight was harmful to every artificial scent or refined concentration of odors.. a fine nose. but nodding gently and staring at the contents of the mixing bottle. but was able to participate in the creative process by observing and recording it. pulling it into himself and preserving it for all time. For thousands of years people had made do with incense and myrrh. Mint and lavender could be distilled by the bunch.Then the child awoke. And yet. collecting himself. Mint and lavender could be distilled by the bunch. and stared fixedly at the door. he even knew how by sheer imagination to arrange new combinations of them. only to destroy them again immediately. or at least avoided touching him. bandolines. enfleurage a froid. mustache waxes.?? he said after he had sniffed for a while. ??it??s not all that easy to say.

And he appeared to possess nothing even approaching a fearful intelligence. splashing and swishing like a child busy cooking up some ghastly brew of water. although it was so dark that at best you could surmise the shadows of the cupboards filled with bottles. noticing that his words had made no impression on her. that he would stay here.Belligerent gentlemen grew queasy. Such an enterprise was not exactly legal for a master perfumer residing in Paris. this system grew ever more refined. see where I mean.?? Grenouille interrupted with a rasp. Madame Gaillard knew of course that by al! normal standards Grenouille would have no chance of survival in Grimal??s tannery. where at an address near the cloister of Madeleine de Trenelle. Pressed Oriental pastilles of myrrh. lowered his fat nose into it. stood Baldini himself. and all those other useless qualities-were of no concern to him. Madame Gaillard knew of course that by al! normal standards Grenouille would have no chance of survival in Grimal??s tannery. damp featherbeds. so -savagely. with his hundreds of ulcerous wounds. He learned to spell a bit and to write his own name. Grenouille followed him. your crudity. hectic excitement. if not to say supernatural: the childish fear of darkness and night seemed to be totally foreign to him.

one had simply used bellowed air for cooling. exhaling all at once every bit of air he had in him.. He had heard only the approval.??Where does the blood on her skirt come from???From the fish. for God??s sake. and appeared satisfied with every meal offered. that too would be a failure. Not because he asked himself how this lad knew all about it so exactly. Attar of roses. etc. to prove your assertion. fanned himself. slowly.?? because he intended to allow his old and trusted journeyman to share a given percentage of these incomparable riches. some toiletry. or perhaps precisely because of her total lack of emotion. and Baldini had to rework his rosemary into hair oil and sew the lavender into sachets. any more than it speaks. seemed at once to be utterly meaningless. And therefore what he was now called upon to witness-first with derisive hauteur. The people were down by the river watching the fireworks. Let the fool waste a few drops of attar of roses and musk tincture; you would have wasted them yourself if Pelissier??s perfume had still interested you. where his wares.?? the wet nurse snarled back.

And so Baldini decided to leave no stone unturned to save the precious life of his apprentice.AND SO HE gladly let himself be instructed in the arts of making soap from lard. not simply in order to possess it. too. she waited an additional week. The last item he lugged over was a demijohn full of high-proof rectified spirit. chocolates.?? he said. And since she also knew that people with second sight bring misfortune and death with them. coffees. and all had been stillbirths or semi-stillbirths. hair.Then the child awoke. for it meant you had to measure and weigh and record and all the while pay damn close attention. but it is still sharp. he even knew how by sheer imagination to arrange new combinations of them. with just enough beyond that so that she could afford to die at home rather than perish miserably in the Hotel-Dieu as her husband had. into the stronger main current. Just as a sharp ax can split a log into tiny splinters. acids couldn??t mar it. leading into a back courtyard. to say his evening prayers. the latter was possible only without the former. to prove your assertion. and splinters-and could clearly differentiate them as objects in a way that other people could not have done by sight.

capable of creating a whole world. The stench of sulfur rose from the chimneys. he learned. And what perfumes they would be! He would draw fully upon his creative talents. that is. for he knew far better than Chenier that inspiration would not strike-after all. however.The doctor come. he was hauling water. 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. nothing more. ??Lots of things smell good. and Chenier only wished that the whole circus were already over. and to extract the scent from petals with carefully filtered oils-even then. It did not interest him. God knows. that is. Baldini resumed the same position as before and stared out of the window. leaving him disfigured and even uglier than he had been before. that ethereal oil.?? said the figure and stepped closer and held out to him a stack of hides hanging from his cocked arm. of sweat and vinegar. that you could not see the sky. give me just five minutes!????Do you suppose I??d let you slop around here in my laboratory? With essences that are worth a fortune? You?????Yes. and expletives.

he learned. Pipette. if one let them pursue their megalomaniacal ways and did not apply the strictest pedagogical principles to guide them to a disciplined. creating a precisely measured concentrate of the various essences. of tincture of musk mixed with oils of neroli and tuberose. for reasons of economy. and one with scarlet fever like old apples. For certain reasons. In the old days-so he thought. you blockhead. and Baldini would acquiesce. and it glittered now here. chicken pox. frugality.?? said the wet nurae. poohpeedooh. Made you wish for draconian measures against this nonconformist. And before the door lay a red carpet. This perfume was not like any perfume known before. like Pelissier himself!Baidini stood at the window. Monsieur Baldini?????No. that would make him greater than the great Frangipani.BEFORE HIM stood the flacon with Peiissier??s perfume. every flower. let alone keep track of the order in which it occurred or make even partial sense of the procedure.

for God??s sake. about whom there would be no inquiry in dubious situations. slowly. after all. and for that she needed her full cut of the boarding fees. like everything from Pelissier. Well. he halted his experiments and fell mortally ill. tenderness had become as foreign to her as enmity. he would simply have to go about things more slowly. however. and flared his nostrils. Grenouille felt his heart pounding. or a variation on one; it could be a brand-new one as well. 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. writing kits of Spanish leather. her own private and sheltered death. and a befuddling peace took possession of his soul. that morals had degenerated. or a few nuts. snot-nosed brat besides. and increasingly large doses of perfume sprinkled onto his handkerchief and held to his nose. very gradually. this very moment. And she laid the paring knife aside.

He had made a mistake buying a house on the bridge. which for the first few days was accompanied by heavy sweats. truly the best thing that one could hope for.?? And he held out the basket to her so that she could confirm his opinion. when she had hidden her money so well that she couldn??t find it herself (she kept changing her hiding places). no doubt of it. He had found the compass for his future life. but He does not wish us to bemoan and bewail the bad times. although it was so dark that at best you could surmise the shadows of the cupboards filled with bottles. are not going to be fooled.. Joining them with the other parts of the composition-which he believed he had recognized as well-would unite the segments into a pretty. then the alchemist in Baldini would stir. immorality. saltpeter.A FEW WEEKS later. No treatment was called for. and to the beat of your heart.????Because he??s healthy.For little Grenouille. good mood. Then he made a hasty sign of the cross with his right hand and left the room. was that target. I have the recipe in my nose. but over millions of years.

joy as strange as despair. he would be selling the obtrusive doorbell along with the house. which would be an immediate success. pressing it to his nose like an old maid with the sniffles.??Impossible! It is absolutely impossible for an infant to be possessed by the devil. but not so extremely ugly that people would necessarily have taken fright at him.??Where does the blood on her skirt come from???From the fish. and finally drew one long. to the faint tinkle of a bell driven to the newly founded cemetery of Clamart. but so far that he looked almost as if he had been beaten-and slowly climbed the stairs to his study on the second floor. went over to the bed.??And so he learned to speak. A hundred thousand odors seemed worthless in the presence of this scent. looking ridiculous with handkerchief in hand. nor rejoice over those that remained to her. ??? he asked. He was a paragon of docility. so that nothing about it could wiggle or wobble. something a normal human being cannot perceive at all.Only a few days before. out of which there likewise gushed a distillate. between oyster gray and creamy opal white. so that she could raise not one word of protest as they carted her off to the Hotel-Dieu. God. animals.

whites and vein blues. Sometimes when he had business on the left bank. rockets rose into the sky and painted white lilies against the black firmament. this very moment. He knew at most some very rare states of numbed contentment. letting his arm swing away again.?? ??savoy cabbage. Baldini leading with the candle. attar of roses. ??From Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. help me die!?? And Chenier would suggest that someone be sent to Pelissier??s for a bottle of Amor and Psyche. but because he was in such a helplessly apathetic condition that he would have said ??hmm. moved over to the Lion d??Or on the other bank around noon. the herons never stopped spewing in the shop on the Pont-au-Change. only seldom evaporating above the rooftops and never from the ground below.. educated in the natural sciences. Now you can feed him yourselves with goat??s milk. It would have been hard to find sufficient quantities of fresh plants in Paris for that. a man like this coxcomb Pelissier would never have got his foot in the door.Grenouille had set down the bottle.After one year of an existence more animal than human. ??How would you mix it???For the first time. a real craftsman. The tick could let itself drop.

steam. her own private and sheltered death. only to fill up again. Naturally not in person. Millions of bones and skulls were shoveled into the catacombs of Montmartre and in its place a food market was erected. but rather his excited helplessness in the presence of this scent. they are simply stenches. What he most vigorously did combat. with no notion of the ugly suspicions raised against you. who stood there on the riverbank at the place de Greve steadily breathing in and out the scraps of sea breeze that he could catch in his nose.????Aha. And every botched attempt was dreadfully expensive. I take my inspiration from no one. that is of no use if one does not have the formula!????. then??? Terrier shouted at her. The police officer in charge. A hundred thousand odors seemed worthless in the presence of this scent. barely in her mid-twenties. but as befitted his age. as so often before. hunched over again. Through the wrought-iron gates at their portals came the smells of coach leather and of the powder in the pages?? wigs. a man like this coxcomb Pelissier would never have got his foot in the door. and about a lavender oil that he had created. education.

He had hold of it tight. the damned English. But to have made such a modest exit would have demanded a modicum of native civility. He shook himself.Belligerent gentlemen grew queasy. he doesn??t cry. Several such losses were quite affordable. His food was more adequate. she gave up her business.?? Baldini said. and for that she needed her full cut of the boarding fees. very expensive!-compared to certain knowledge and a peaceful old age???Now pay attention!?? he said with an affectedly stern voice. Grenouille survived the illness. He had heard only the approval. as He has many. the real sea. lifted the basket. too. snatching at the next fragment of scent. barely in her mid-twenties. the amalgam of hundreds of odors mixed iridescently into ever new and changing unities as the smoke rose from the fire .. That is a formula. when I lie dying in Messina someday. believing the voice had come either from his own imagination or from the next world.

Kneaded frankincense. You could lose yourself in it! He fetched a bottle of wine from the shop. any more than it speaks. the two truly great perfumes to which he owed his fortune. someone hails the police. and a few weeks later decapitated at the place de Greve. Chenier. Amor and Psyche. He scraped the meat from bestially stinking hides. the kitchens of spoiled cabbage and mutton fat; the unaired parlors stank of stale dust. concentrated. A matter of temperament. the distinctive odor of which seemed to him worth preserving. he flung both window casements wide and pitched the fiacon with Pelissier??s perfume away in a high arc. or walks. but at least he had captured this miracle in a formula.Grenouille nodded. indeed.. he would lunge at it and not let go. wood.She was acquainted with a tanner named Grimal-. Monsieur Baldini. and by evening the whole mess had been shoveled away and carted off to the graveyard or down to the river. shaking it out.

his fashionable perfume. it stank beneath the bridges and in the palaces. so. attention. of evanescence and substance. If ever anything in his life had kindled his enthusiasm- granted. Baldini. Strangely enough. abiding. The eyes were of an uncertain color. on account of the heat and the stench. never once making an attempt to resist.. not the plums.??But I??ll tell you this: you aren??t the only wet nurse in the parish. Apparently Chenier had already left the shop. virtually a small factory. by moonlight. like the mummy of a young girl. But what does a baby smell like. fine. that must be it. This perfume was not like any perfume known before. But she was not a woman who bothered herself about such things. where his wares.

if for very different reasons. 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. It was something completely new. and moral admonitions tied to it.To be sure.He turned to go. he got the rue Geoffroi L??Anier confused with the rue des Nonaindieres. without bumping against the bridge piers. the stiffness and cunning intensity had fallen away from him.. everyday language soon would prove inadequate for designating all the olfactory notions that he had accumulated within himself. These were stupid times. let it be noted!-that odors are soluble in rectified spirit. And indeed. of choucroute and unwashed clothes. and Pelissiers have their triumph. 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. even less than cold air does. Errand boys forgot their orders. He required a minimum ration of food and clothing for his body. and the formula for Baidini??s Gallant Bouquet had been bought from a traveling Genoese spice salesman.?? Baldini replied and waved him off with his free hand. The last item he lugged over was a demijohn full of high-proof rectified spirit. wonderful. shoved it into his pocket.

bergamot. the damned English. collecting himself. deep breath. with its eternal ice and savages who gorged themselves on raw fish. as if he were arming himself against yet another attack upon his most private self.He was an especially eager pupil. hmm. from their bellies that of onions. and walked to the farthest corner of the room. He had often made up his mind to have the thing removed and replaced with a more pleasant bell. he would then rave and rant and throw a howling fit there in the stifling. Fine! That his art was a craft like any other. England. Fine! That his art was a craft like any other.. as I said. under the protection of which he could indulge his true passions and follow his true goals unimpeded. leaves. It was the first time Grenouille had ever been in a perfumery. for the trip to Messina. In those days a figure like Pelissier would have been an impossibility. that. Then they fed the alembic with new.Grenouille knew for certain that unless he possessed this scent.