An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind’s classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man’s indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder. In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors … the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille’s genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the “ultimate perfume”—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.
Translated from the German by John E. Woods.
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A short novel that takes you to a world. Guided by senses. Don’t be wrongly discouraged by the historical atmosphere. It is an ageless story of the desire to be loved, accepted and fit in
I still have the original hardcover copy of Perfume that I bought when it first came out. This is a strange and unique historical tale of a very odd man with an uncanny sense of smell. He becomes apprentice to a perfumer and creates the most exquisite perfumes but isn’t satisfied. What he truly wants to bottle is the scent and purity of a virgin.
It was difficult living inside the mind of a serial killer. By the end, I didn’t understand Jean-Baptiste any more than he understood himself. The author consumes you so utterly with his thoughts and beliefs, and his tragic and disturbing life, that I pitied him, eventually. He seemed consumed and confused by his own insanity, unable to function because of his supernatural gifts, obsessed and unable to live a normal life. By the end, his life’s motivations were meaningless. I loved the way this story was told, like a hero’s journey or a fairy tale, and the grotesque details lent it a very strong flavor of horror. This one will stick with me.
Perfume is an AWESOME book. The atmosphere of the book is unique and compelling. It is beautifully written and the descriptions take you exactly where this is happening. I usually don’t like books with an historical setting but this one is like no other. The main character had it rough, you feel for him although he’s a deranged individual. But when he smells something, you smell it took. His enhanced sense gives him a talent that he chooses to use the wrong way. It’s evil, it’s sensual, it’s the perfect mix. And when I was reading the book, taking the subway (for example), the smell were so present, it bothered me. Intriguing. Grab it, read it, don’t miss it!
One of the most brilliant, mesmerising books I have ever read.
The book tells the tale of an orphan and lost soul, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, who’s living down and out in 18th Century Paris. The reader is told two quasi-fantastical facts about Grenouille: that he has an exceptional sense of smell (…imagine a bloodhound in human form…) but that he himself has no odour of his own. The reader is further told that this strange trait renders him peculiarly disgusting to his fellow humans. They can’t quite place why they loathe him, but they do.
Baptiste, however, fully understands the reason.
Thus begins his quest to develop a perfume that not only gives him an odour, but one that renders him irresistible to other people. Not a perfume in the sense of an eau de cologne – but a perfume that is exquisite and irresistible, while being of human origin. Where is he to acquire such a perfume? To reveal that would be too big a spoiler…
I read this novel while studying in Germany many years ago. I had to thumb and thumb a dictionary to bottom out the crazy rich vocabulary that is deployed through the book. It was worth the investment. The author paints scents with words in a way that I have never found elsewhere in literature. The disgusting, fetid smells of 18th century Parisian street life, the alluring scent of a young woman.
Reaching the end of the book was, however, only the beginning of my journey with it. Like many other readers, I sensed intuitively it couldn’t just be about a man with an extraordinary sense of smell, fascinating as that is. It took me ages to figure out what the book is really about. Even now I’m not sure. For other much smarter people, this was doubtless obvious from their first reading, but the novel is (…I think…) a study in psychopathy. Baptiste is a psychopath (albeit a humble and self-effacing one), and his lack of odour seems to work as a metaphor for a psychopath’s lack of a core personality. The disgust people feel with his lack of odour is the unease people feel in the presence of a person (psychopath) without the core traits of empathy and reciprocity that we expect in others. I think…
Outrageously original and evocative, this book must surely rank as a masterpiece of 20th century literature. I cannot recommend a book more highly than this one.
I loved this book. Fiction that digs in and doesn’t let you go.
Hear my thoughts here: https://youtu.be/gC_IoLDm0ug
Wonderful
Though dark, fans of erotic Romance will love the evocative descriptions of sensory experiences in this book. A must-read for Romance readers & writers.
Very powerful book.
This book by Patrick Süskind was the one that made me interested in books and writing. The way he took something so mundane as the frangrances we apply every day to smell nice to others, and creates a fantastic story in which you can’t help to feel for the main character while he commits his crimes, is something that was very inspirational to me.
A must read, especially for young adults wanting to find that “trigger” to start reading more.
Eerie, entertaining, sometimes funny, sometimes horrible and some of the best writing I’ve seen lately. I loved this book.
Weird
This book is certainly atmospherically and eloquently written, it creates a clear picture of the stench and olfactory world of the period. The perfume descriptions, perfume ingredients, perfume processes, and characterisations are very good, as the plot moves along taking some strange turns along the way.
The main character, Grenouille, is certainly very dark and hideous with no regard for anything or anyone; human life, including his own, means nothing to him (he feels more like some sort of dark creature, rather than human) in his quest to create the perfect perfume. There is a murder early in the story but as the book progresses it becomes much more gruesome as more murders begin to occur.
Although imaginative, and eloquently written, the perfume descriptions and obsessions of the main character are all very well done, however, I feel this book relies too much on the idea of the magic allure and power of perfume as the basis for a novel. It needed a little more to create a gripping and cohesive story. For me, at least, even in the period, the ending stretches the realms of the power of perfume and fantasy just a little too far.
“He was not particular about it. He did not differentiate between what was good and a bad smell, not yet. He was greedy. The goal of the hunt was simply to possess everything the world could offer in the way odors, and his only condition was that the odors be new ones.”
Giuseppe Baldini wants to be known as the greatest perfumer of all time. When he finds his dream going up in smoke,—or should I say evaporating?—he hires Grenouille, someone so disgusting he is kept away from the public, but who has such a discernable nose, he is immediately considered a treasure.
Grenouille overrides Baldini as the greatest perfumer, but Grenouille doesn’t stop there. His obsession for new scents will cause him to stop at nothing, including murder. Wonderfully written. Page Turning. Historical. Mystery. Literary
Review can be found on Le Coeur de l’Artiste http://www.djadamson.com/le-coeur-de-lartiste
This book is a very different story told by a wonderful writer. It is a page turner. I highly recommend.
This is an incredibly dark story mostly told in scent. Beautifully written, but not for the faint of heart.
This is the best book I have ever read in my entire life and I consider myself to be well read. I simply wish I could have read it in german.
Weird. Just weird. This sad, gifted man spends most of his life trying to replicate the smell of a girl he murdered — whom he murdered, so that he could smell her with abandon.
ick.
A character born with an overdeveloped sense of smell. A sensory explosion on every page. If you judge the world by how it smells, you’ll love this book.