'In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages. Patrick S skind's Perfume is a classic novel of death and sensuality in Paris, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time. 'The San Francisco Chronicle From the Back Cover:īook Description Paperback. 'An astonishing performance, a masterwork of artistic conception and execution. 'Superb storytelling all the way.the climax is a savage shocker.'

Told with dazzling narrative brillance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.

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. 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 frest-cut wood. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift-an absolute sense of smell. 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.

Patrick suskind novel perfume