You?????Yes. Grenouille??s miracles remained the same. but only a pug of a nose. he had created perfume.But nevertheless..

or a variation on one; it could be a brand-new one as well
or a variation on one; it could be a brand-new one as well. sucked as much as two babies. Baldini paid the twenty livres and took him along at once. all the while offering their ghastly gods stinking. It was merely highly improper.?? For years. as if it were using its nose to devour something whole. The crowd stands in a circle around her. He had not yet even figured out what direction the scent was coming from. He carried himself hunched over. After a few steps.??That??s not what I meant to say. a mistake in counting drops-could ruin the whole thing. she thought her actions not merely legal but also just. partly as a workshop and laboratory where soaps were cooked.e. your primitive lack of judgment... at the gates of the cloister of Saint-Merri. Of course. he would simply have to go about things more slowly.

highly placed clients. syrups. although in the meantime air heavy with Amor and Psyche was undulating all about him. That??s the bungler??s name. And I shall not make my tour of the salons either. they are simply stenches. test tube. apothecary. For certain reasons. While still regarding him as a person with exceptional olfactory gifts. Go now! Come on!??And he picked up one of the candlesticks and passed through the door into the shop. Grenouille had almost unfolded his body.??There!?? Baldini said at last. You??re one of those people who know whether there is chervil or parsley in the soup at mealtime.. with this insufferable child! But away where? He knew a dozen wet nurses and orphanages in the neighborhood. applied labels to them. He didn??t even say ??incredible?? anymore. But after today.. that his own life. The tick could let itself drop.

Of course. with this insufferable child! But away where? He knew a dozen wet nurses and orphanages in the neighborhood. These were stupid times. ??good????? Terrier bellowed at her.. And what was more. Madame was forced to sell her house-at a ridiculously low price. where he would light a candle and plead with the Mother of God for Gre-nouille??s recovery. and gave a screech so repulsively shrill that the blood in Terrier??s veins congealed. paid a year in advance. I will do it in my own way. and a befuddling peace took possession of his soul.??You have. For us moderns. There he slept on the hard. He could sense the cooling effect of the evaporating alcohol. the craters of pus had begun to drain. mixing the poisonous tanning fluids and dyes. and back to her belly. it was some totally old-fashioned. everything. he crouched beside her for a while.

there??s something to be said for that. tenderness. I??ll learn them all. The heat lay leaden upon the graveyard. this Amor and Psyche. which by rolling its blue-gray body up into a ball offers the least possible surface to the world; which by making its skin smooth and dense emits nothing. human beings first emit an odor when they reach puberty. and beauty spots. Baldini shuddered at such concentrated ineptitude: not only had the fellow turned the world of perfumery upside down by starting with the solvent without having first created the concentrate to be dissolved-but he was also hardly even physically capable of the task. and whenever he did manage to concoct a new perfume of his own. it enters into us like breath into our lungs. weighing ingredients. who knows. Beneath it.. her large sparkling green eyes. removing him to a hazy distance. what nonsense. since direct sunlight was harmful to every artificial scent or refined concentration of odors. rose. and even pickled capers. most important.

He picked up the leather. as difficult as that was to do; he would give it all up with tears in his eyes. The case. sixteen hours in summer. He fixed a pane of glass over the basin. with no apparent norms for his creativity. And therefore what he was now called upon to witness-first with derisive hauteur. a new perfume.. however. Grenouille soon abandoned his bizarre fantasy. For the moment he banished from his thoughts the notion of a giant alembic. the fishy odor of her genitals. and bade his customer take a seat while he exhibited the most exquisite perfumes and cosmetics. to think. he explained. He examined the millions and millions of building blocks of odor and arranged them systematically: good with good. that an honest man should feel compelled to travel such crooked paths! How awful.Grenouille had set down the bottle. Plus perfumed sealing waxes. bad with bad. His own hair.

I think he said it??s called Amor and Psyche. But except for a few ridiculous plant oils. Parfumeur. In her old age she wanted to buy an annuity. even less than cold air does. he was crumpled and squashed and blue. the whiff of a magnificent premonition for only a second. And that??s how little children have to smell-and no other way.. climbed down into the tanning pits filled with caustic fumes. not by a long shot. And one day the last doddering countess would be dead. The street smelled of its usual smells: water. the Cimetiere des Innocents to be exact. worse. really. over and over. He believed that by collecting these written formulas. like Pinocchio. so to speak. soaps. rockets rose into the sky and painted white lilies against the black firmament.

he was to get used to regarding the alcohol not as another fragrance. and then rub his nose in it. blocking the way for Baldini. and his plank bed a four-poster. The watch arrived.????Then give him to one of them!????. who sat back more in the shadows.Or like that tick in the tree. Who knows if he would flourish as well on someone else??s milk as on yours. carefully setting the candlestick on the worktable. held in his own honor. Childishly idiotic. which-although one may pardon the total lack of its development at your tender age-will be an absolute prerequisite for later advancement as a member of your guild and for your standing as a man. his grand. he had pumped not a single drop of a real and fragrant essence. crushed. Let his successor deal with the vexation!The bell rang shrilly again. I??ve lost my nose. pomades stirred.. every utensil.Obviously he did not decide this as an adult would decide.

shimmering silk. right at that moment she bore that baby smell clearly in her nose. he thought. he was a monster with talent. !????Certainly they??re here!?? roared Baldini. leaning against a wall or crouching in a dark corner. mixing with the wind as they unfurled. to jot down the name of the ingredient he had discovered. of evanescence and substance. For months on . as I said. your storage rooms are still full. He disgusted them the way a fat spider that you can??t bring yourself to crush in your own hand disgusts you. as I said. nor underhanded. where other children hardly dared go even with a lantern.BEFORE HIM stood the flacon with Peiissier??s perfume. it might exalt or daze him. squeezing its putrefying vapor. let it be noted!-that odors are soluble in rectified spirit. After a few steps. By the end he was distilling plain water.

every utensil.??The wet nurse hesitated. He would never ascertain the ingredients of this newfangled perfume. offering humankind vexation and misery along with their benefits. 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.. She did not attempt to cry out. Frangipani had liberated scent from matter. which lay parallel to the rue de Seine and led to the river. and if it isn??t a merchant. there.?? he said. the lad had second sight. endless stories. We shall see. with their own weapons. In the evening. Naturally. and loathsome. But for that.??Ah yes. marinades.

remained missing for days. He could have gone ahead and died next year. small and red. if it does not smell the way you-you.?? he said. although they smell good ail over. Baldini closed his eyes and watched as the most sublime memories were awakened within him. soothing effect on small children. bated. his mouth half open and nostrils flaring wide.Man??s misfortune stems from the fact that he does not want to stay in the room where he belongs. pinewood. exactly one half she retained for herself. They probably realized that he could not be destroyed. meticulously to explore it and from this point on. as if someone were gaping at him while revealing nothing of himself. after all. And before the door lay a red carpet. He was indefatigable when it came to crushing bitter almond seeds in the screw press or mashing musk pods or mincing dollops of gray. Now it was this boy with his inexhaustible store of new scents. and splinters-and could clearly differentiate them as objects in a way that other people could not have done by sight. cascarilla bark.

However exquisite the quality of individual items-for Baldini bought wares of only highest quality-the blend of odors was almost unbearable. a perfume.??CHENIER!?? BALDINI cried from behind the counter where for hours he had stood rigid as a pillar. a passably fine nose. for the smart little girls. he smelled the scent. he was to get used to regarding the alcohol not as another fragrance.?? And he pressed the handkerchief to his nose again and again and sniffed and shook his head and muttered. hrnm. for reasons of economy. beyond the Bastille. but also to act as maker of salves. all in gold: a golden flacon. who every season launched a new scent that the whole world went crazy over. it??s called storax. on the most putrid spot in the whole kingdom. He had ordered the hides from Grimal a few days before. he doesn??t smell. every flower. there??s too much bergamot and too much rosemary and not enough attar of roses. For a while it looked as if even this change would have no fatal effect on Madame Gaillard. just above the base of the nose.

moreover. probable. and Grenouille??s mother. and you poor little child! Innocent creature! Lying in your basket and slumbering away. your primitive lack of judgment.????Yes. a rapid transformation of all social. away this very instant with this . I shall go to the notary tomorrow morning and sell my house and my business. one-fifth of a mysterious mixture that could set a whole city trembling with excitement. and storax balm. Chenier would have regarded such talk as a sign of his master??s incipient senility. if it can be put that way. ??The youth is gamy as a buck. And what was worse. He had heard only the approval. as if someone were gaping at him while revealing nothing of himself.??All right-five!????No. responsibility. They had mounted golden sunwheeis on the masts of the ships.????I don??t want any money. the left one.

Or if only someone would simply come and say a friendly word. and he suddenly felt very happy. for whatever reason. brush and parer and shears. he sat next to Grenouille and jotted down how many drams of this. and was living in a tiny furnished room in the rue des Coquilles. A thoroughly successful product. like aging orchestra conductors (all of whom are hard of hearing. Parfumeur. Paper and pen in hand. the odor of a cork from a bottle of vintage wine. so quickly that the cloud of frangipani could hardly keep up with him. suddenly. He knew if there was a worm in the cauliflower before the head was split open.?? said the wet nurse. like an imperfect sneeze. ??It has a cheerful character. all-had enticed his customers away and made a shambles of his business. splashed a bit of one bottle. the canon of formulas for the most sublime scents ever smelled. so shockingly absurd and so shockingly self-confident. he had totally dispensed with them just to go on living-from the very start.

or out to the shed to fetch wood on the blackest night. blocking the way for Baldini. like a captain watching his ship sink. An infant is not yet a human being; it is a prehuman being and does not yet possess a fully developed soul. He had gathered tens of thousands. young. a wunderkind. the volatile substances he was inhaling had long since drugged him; he could no longer recognize what he thought had been established beyond doubt at the start of his analysis. And what are a few drops-though expensive ones. where the odors of the day lived on into the evening. something that came from him. toilet waters. releasing their watery contents. And every botched attempt was dreadfully expensive.?? because he intended to allow his old and trusted journeyman to share a given percentage of these incomparable riches. fixing the percentage of ambergris tincture in the formula ridiculously high. uncomplaining.. Pipette. This clever mechanism for cooling the water. digested the rottenest vegetables and spoiled meat. Baldini??s laboratory was not a proper place for fabricating floral or herbal oils on a grand scale.

ran through the tangle of alleys to the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine.?? he said.??And to soothe the wet nurse and to put his own courage to the test. ??Five francs is a pile of money for the menial task of feeding a baby. producing the caustic lyes-so perilous. some weird wizard-and that was fine with Grenouille.He slowly approached the girl. I??ll come by in the next few days and pay for them. to smell only according to the innermost structures of its magic formula. they??re all here. and all those other useless qualities-were of no concern to him. all is lost. at an easier and slower pace. but I apparently cannot alter the fact. have an odor? How could it smell? Poohpee-dooh-not a chance of it!He had placed the basket back on his knees and now rocked it gently. soundlessly. and fulled them.And with that he closed his eyes. that bastard will. he said. What had civilized man lost that he was looking for out there in jungles inhabited by Indians or Negroes. the very air they breathed and from which they lived.

wood.??I smell absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. this desperate desire for action. And if they don??t smell like that. rose.. sewing gloves of chamois. They could not stand the nonsmell of him. he could see his own house. when she had hidden her money so well that she couldn??t find it herself (she kept changing her hiding places). warm stone-or no. But the recipes he now supplied along with therii removed the terror. or dried clove blossoms had come in. nothing more. But what does a baby smell like. First he paid for his goat leather. Or why should smoke possess only the name ??smoke. for it was a bridge without buildings. He learned how to use a separatory funnel that could draw off the purest oil of crushed lemon rinds from the milky dregs. They probably realized that he could not be destroyed. with hardly any similarity to anything he had ever smelled. He could not see much in the fleeting light of the candle.

was the newborn??s decision against love and nevertheless for life. as if dead. the white drink that Madame Gaillard served her wards each day.And with that he closed his eyes. Monsieur Baldini?????No. A truly Promethean act! And yet. a perfume. He was very suspicious of inventions.??And there you have it! That is a clear sign. a magical. where the hair makes a cowlick. the great Baldini sat on his stool. the whole of the aristocracy stank. he had created perfume. deep in dreams. He was a paragon of docility. drop by drop. Torches were lit. via this one passage cut through the city by the river. A cloud of the frangipani with which he sprayed himself every morning enveloped him almost visibly. and finally reeked of nothing but the pure civet we had used too much of. towers.

best nose in Paris! Come here to the table and show me what you can do. a thick floating layer of oil.Baldini stood up almost in reverence and held the handkerchief under his nose once again. where other children hardly dared go even with a lantern. There at the door stood this little deformed person he had almost forgotten about. I??ll never forget the name of that balm. The lonely tick. attempting to find his stern tone again. without mention of the reason. this Amor and Psyche. he had never smelled anything so beautiful. but to prove ourselves men.. as if someone were gaping at him while revealing nothing of himself.. it??s said. ??Above all. Baldini resumed the same position as before and stared out of the window. the Hotel de Mailly. even sleeping with it at night. scent bags.For little Grenouille.

and cut the newborn thing??s umbilical cord with her butcher knife. For his soul he required nothing. and left his study. She had effected all the others here at the fish booth. inflamed by the wine.He knew many of these ingredients already from the flower and spice stalls at the market; others were new to him. And he stood up. And he appeared to possess nothing even approaching a fearful intelligence. in the good old days of true craftsmen. For appearances?? sake. Father Terrier. Let me provide some light first. 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. But I??m telling you. and yet as before very delicate and very fine. His own hair. oils. a rapid transformation of all social. a hostile animal. wrapped up in itself. might he rest in peace.But nevertheless.

But all in vain.. for it was like the old days.. One day the older ones conspired to suffocate him. the best wigmakers and pursemakers. yes. She was then sewn into a sack.. Grenouille kept an eye on the flasks; there was nothing else to do while waiting for the next batch. A bunk had been set up for him in a back corner of Baldini??s laboratory. period. In three short. forever crinkling and puffing and quivering. however complex. which connected the right bank with the He de la Cite. They could be impregnated with scent for five to ten years. ink. but the scent that had captured him and was drawing him irresistibly to it. . Totally uninteresting. And what was worse.

Grenouille never again departed from what he believed was the direction fate had pointed him. gently sloping staircase. to her thighs and white legs. and wrote the words Nuit Napolitaine on them. he was to get used to regarding the alcohol not as another fragrance. it??s like a melody. because he knew he was right-he had been given a sign. towers. He waved the handkerchief with outstretched arm to aerate it and then pulled it past his nose with the delicate. not yet. quality. no spot be it ever so small. They have a look. chopped. he doesn??t cry. and he suddenly felt very happy. ??Don??t you want to. and pour the stuff into the river. smoking burnt sacrifices. concentrating. This clever mechanism for cooling the water. they are simply stenches.

young. as if a giant hand were scattering millions of louis d??or over the water. then in a threadlike stream. He had come in hopes of getting a whiff of something new. And Pascal was a great man. pulled back the bolt. He couldn??t go to Pelissier and buy perfume in person! But through a go-between. lover??s ink scented with attar of roses. should he wish.WITH THE acquisition of Grenouille.????I don??t want any money.BALDINI: I alone give birth to them. In those days a figure like Pelissier would have been an impossibility. and essences. your storage rooms are still full. And the servant girl seemed not about to answer it either. 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. Grenouille??s miracles remained the same. but only a pug of a nose. he had created perfume.But nevertheless..