![]() ![]() As a French graduate, I always have HUGE respect for translators of novels, especially as I’m all too familiar with how frustratingly difficult it is to capture the tone of another writer in an entirely different language. It was originally published in 1985 in German and later translated into English by John E. Though it’s not a horror or a crime book as may be implied by the title, it certainly is a creepy read and one of the weirdest, if not THE weirdest book I have ever read. Perfume was a great, albeit very bizarre way to kick off my October. Little does he know that this will be the start of a rather perverse, disturbing journey. One day, just as Grenouille has grown used to Paris and the foul odours that infiltrate its streets, he smells something that he has never smelt before: a smell so enticing, so alluring that he absolutely must find out where it is coming from. ![]() He longs to know every scent there is to know and, eventually, become the greatest perfumer known to man. ![]() From a young age, Grenouille is able to use his nose to sniff out objects from afar and separate a scent into its various elements without any difficulty. And so begins the twisted tale of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an unloved orphan with, quite ironically, an exceptionally good sense of smell. ![]() Somewhat peculiarly, this baby doesn’t smell the way babies should. One day in eighteenth-century France, at a fish market in the most putrid-smelling spot in all of Paris, a Mother gives birth to her baby. ![]()
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