This is a gripping tale of an olfactory genius: a youth with an extraordinary sense of smell, who transforms it from a perfectly
tuned instrument of perception to a source of inspired creativity and intellectual delight.Physically unattractive and paradoxically odorless, Jean-Baptiste was doomed to grow as an outcast from his birth. This allowed him to nurture his two principal passions, the search and collection of new scents and the gradually increasing aversion from mankind. The conflict between the two turns him into a merciless monster.The protagonist sweeps off unconditionally all moral barriers that stand in the way of his goal to create a divine perfume, which would subjugate the world. The final result is as
destructive as it is
self-destructive.Patrick Suskind's classic novel vividly portrays the temptations and dangers of extreme isolation and self-aggrandizement - and it is both a guide and a warning.