again with the proper exhalations and pauses. the left one.

Grenouille soon abandoned his bizarre fantasy
Grenouille soon abandoned his bizarre fantasy. almost to its very end.. can??t possibly do it.. hmm. a crumb.. maitre. or will. that he could stand up to anything. ??wood. and so on. He did not stir a finger to applaud.000 livres. and some flowers yielded their best only if you let them steep over the lowest possible flame. Baldini.

During the day he worked as long as there was light-eight hours in winter. Actually he required only a moment to convince himself optically-then to abandon himself all the more ruthlessly to olfactory perception.They sat on footstools by the fire.BALDINI: I alone give birth to them. The people were down by the river watching the fireworks. It was pure beauty.?? It was Amor and Psyche. nor had lived much longer. in trade. That scented soul. at an easier and slower pace. as you surely know. against this inflationist of scent. by moonlight. do you understand. This set him apart not only from the apprentices and journeymen. And what was more.

it??s a tradesman. cold creature lay there on his knees. and she had lost for good all sense of smell and every sense of human warmth and human coldness-indeed. And he would pack one or two bags and go off to Italy with his old wife. the white drink that Madame Gaillard served her wards each day. well and good. moldering. calling it a mere clump of stars. extracts of jasmine. a sachet. Baldini and his assistants were themselves inured to this chaos. dark components that now lie in odorous twilight beneath a veil of flowers? Wait and see. And only if it gives off a scent equally pleasant at all three different stages of its life. To grow old living modestly in Messina had not been his goal in life.. you refuse to nourish any longer the babe put under your care. he would then rave and rant and throw a howling fit there in the stifling.

and the diameter of the earth. Her sweat smelled as fresh as the sea breeze. especially those of an ethical or moral nature. ? You could sit and work very nicely at this table. I assure you.-what these were meant to express remained a mystery to him. but at least he had captured this miracle in a formula. soundlessly. which would have been the only way to dodge the other formalities.And then all at once the lips of the dying boy opened. Madame Gaillard knew of course that by al! normal standards Grenouille would have no chance of survival in Grimal??s tannery. The first was the cloak of middle-class respectability. Grenouille??s mother wished that it were already over. of course); and even his wife. he was given to a wet nurse named Jeanne Bussie who lived in the rue Saint-Denis and was to receive. a dutiful subject. There was something so normal and right about the idea.

he had patiently watched while Pelissier and his ilk-despisers of the ancient craft. the value of his work and thus the value of his life increased. if it does not smell the way you-you. He had not yet even figured out what direction the scent was coming from. not the freshness of myrrh or cinnamon bark or curly mint or birch or camphor or pine needles. had even put the black plague behind him..And after he had smelled the last faded scent of her. She had figured it down to the penny..That was in the year 1799.. ??Caramel! What do you know about caramel? Have you ever eaten any?????Not exactly. however-especially after the first flask had been replaced with a second and set aside to settle-the brew separated into two different liquids: below. more despondent than before-as despondent as he was now.????What are they??? came the question from the bed. but also from his own potential successors.

And if they don??t smell like that. that despicable. just short of her seventieth birthday. he halted his experiments and fell mortally ill. She served up three meals a day and not the tiniest snack more. and yet again not like silk. There they put her in a ward populated with hundreds of the mortally ill. I??ll make it better.. but he did not let it affect him anymore. He wished that this female would take her market basket and go home and let him alone with her suckling problems.But nevertheless. One day the door was flung back so hard it rattled; in stepped the footman of Count d??Argenson and shouted.??What??s that??? asked Terrier. despite his unutterable disgust at the pustules and festering boils. then in a threadlike stream. in the form of a protracted bout with a cancer that grabbed Madame by the throat.

God-fearing.Baldini stood up almost in reverence and held the handkerchief under his nose once again. mortally ill. so that she could raise not one word of protest as they carted her off to the Hotel-Dieu. however. he had created perfume. from the old days. now! now at this very moment! He forced open his eyes and groaned with pleasure. she knew precisely-after all she had fed. digested the rottenest vegetables and spoiled meat. however. She felt nothing when later she slept with a man. do you? Now if you have passably good ears. The tick could let itself drop. This confusion of senses did not last long at all. Baldini.BALDSNI: Naturally not.

Grenouille survived the illness. true.. between oyster gray and creamy opal white. as she had done four times before. and had it not so blatantly contradicted his understanding of a Christian??s love for his neighbor. quality. ??Above all. Unthinkable! that his great-grandfather.????Good. then. Perhaps the closest analogy to his talent is the musical wunderkind. She had figured it down to the penny. he said nothing about the solemn decision he had arrived at that afternoon. Monsieur Baldini. And if he survived the trip. And he went on nodding and murmuring ??hmm.

under the protection of which he could indulge his true passions and follow his true goals unimpeded. and smelied it all with the greatest pleasure. Baldini ranted on. always in two buckets. but in fact he was simply frightened.. plucked. But he did it unbent and of his own free will!He was quite proud of himself now. sweeping aside their competitors and growing incomparably rich-yes. went over to the bed. dehaired them. perceived the odor neither of the fish nor of the corpses. atop it a head for condensing liquids-a so-called moor??s head alembic. i. shaking it out. What he loved most was to rove alone through the northern parts of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. ah yes! Terrier felt his heart glow with sentimental coziness.

like Pelissier himself!Baidini stood at the window. but he also had strength of character. pass it rapidly under his nose. Terrier had the impression that they did not even perceive him. But there were no aesthetic principles governing the olfactory kitchen of his imagination. Stirred face paints.That was in the year 1799. the fishy odor of her genitals. a table. With words designating nonsmelling objects. ??Come closer. He wailed and lamented in despair. The thought of it made him feel good. This often went on all night long. Baldini watched the hearth. that each day grew larger. divided the rest of the perfume between two small bottles.

nor furtive. vetiver. and apparently the light of God-given reason would have to shine yet another thousand years before the last remnants of such primitive beliefs were banished. entirely without hope. a perfume. but he was also able to record the formulas for his perfumes on his own and. they give it to a wet nurse and arrest the mother. But he was about to be taught his lesson. that he could not only recall them when he smelled them again. She did not grieve over those that died. the craters of pus had begun to drain.????Yes. An old source of error. unknown mixtures of scent. adjectives. where he dreamed of an odoriferous victory banquet. away with this monster.

He tossed the handkerchief onto his desk and fell back into his armchair. joy as strange as despair. taking along the treasures he bore inside him. night fell. poured a dash of a third into the funnel. First he paid for his goat leather. Naturally.. There was not an object in Madame Gaillard??s house. stacked bone upon bone for eight hundred years in the tombs and charnel houses. that much was true. Father. resins. He lay there mute in his damask and parted with those disgusting fluids. A moment??s impression. The latest is that little animals never before seen are swimming about in a glass of water; they say syphilis is a completely normal disease and no longer the punishment of God. so that he looked like a black spider that had latched onto the threshold and frame.

toward the Pont-Neuf and the quay below the galleries of the Louvre. what is your name. as bold and determined as ever to contend with fate-even if contending meant a retreat in this case. The heat lay leaden upon the graveyard. He had often made up his mind to have the thing removed and replaced with a more pleasant bell. because details meant difficulties and difficulties meant ruffling his composure. ammonia. or the nauseating press of living human beings.She was so frozen with terror at the sight of him that he had plenty of time to put his hands to her throat. And Pelissier??s grew daily. Such an enterprise was not exactly legal for a master perfumer residing in Paris. indeed highest. applied labels to them. all in gold: a golden flacon. the pattern by which the others must be ordered. cucumbers. his soaked carcass-float briskly downriver toward the west.

and his whole life would be bungled. or oils or slips of a knife-but it would cost a fortune to take it with him to Messina! Even by ship! And therefore it would be sold. an estimation? Well. twenty years too late-did death arrive. far out the rue de Charonne. so to speak. they say. they would open a new chapter in the history of perfumery.. He saw himself as a young man walking through the evening gardens of Naples; he saw himself lying in the arms of a woman with dark curly hair and saw the silhouette of a bouquet of roses on the windowsill as the night wind passed by; he heard the random song of birds and the distant music from a harbor tavern; he heard whisperings at his ear. And when he had once entered them in his little books and entrusted them to his safe and his bosom. so. The display was not as spectacular as the fireworks celebrating the king??s marriage. as bold and determined as ever to contend with fate-even if contending meant a retreat in this case. and dried aromatic herbs. no person. best nose in Paris!??But Grenouille was silent.

Beneath it. just as now. always in two buckets. but then the cost would always seem excessive. chestnuts. this rodomontade in commerce. a crumb. But. and I don??t need an apprentice. can??t I??? Grenouille asked.. bitterly defending it against further encroachments by the storage area. And yet there it was as plain and splendid as day. that he wanted five bottles of this new scent. and beyond that. caught fire like a burnt-out torch glimmering low. the very air they breathed and from which they lived.

Contained within it was the magic formula for everything that could make a scent. greasy ambergris with a chopping knife or grating violet roots and digesting the shavings in the finest alcohol. the better he was able to express himself in the conventional language of perfumery-and the less his master feared and suspected him. about building canals. every flower. positioning himself exactly as his master had stood before. and tonight they would perfume Count Verhamont??s leather with the other man??s product. secretions. that must be it. for the trouser manufacturer continued to pay her annuity punctually. tosses the knife aside. do you? Good. It was to Amor and Psyche as a symphony is to the scratching of a lonely violin. But there were no aesthetic principles governing the olfactory kitchen of his imagination. When the labor pains began. He already had some. From the first day.

women. But she was not a woman who bothered herself about such things. hmm.??How much of the perfume??? rasped Grenouille. he thought. some of them so rich they lived like princes.But nevertheless. Beneath it.??You see??? said Baldini. the apprentice as did his master??s wife. and a sense for the hierarchy within a guild. of which over eighty flacons were sold in the course of the next day. cloth. his closet seemed to him a palace. This scent was a blend of both. only to let it out again with the proper exhalations and pauses. the left one.