A novel of ideas, Perfume isthe story of Grenouille, gifted with anincredible sense of smell andobsessed with creating the
ultimateperfume. In order to achievethis,he concocts an ingenious and cruelplan involving the murder oftwo dozen women. At first shunned byothers, because he lacks a smellof his own, he finally becomes a masterof the false image, bendingothers to his will.The story is reminiscentof Les Miserables ornovels by Charles Dickens- it is a grimy, pitilessworld where childlabour is common. We are shown the low life in Parisin the year 1738and are presented with the unhygienic conditions andnasty smells thatreigned there. In that year Jean-Baptiste Grenouilleis born in themost stinking place imaginable. His mother, an unmarriedfishmonger,tries to kill him, but is arrested and condemned to death.Amonastery pays for his upkeep. However, his wet nurses want to getridof him, horrified at the fact that he has no smell atall.Grenouille isbrought up by a woman with no sense of smell.Hispeers fear him and tryseveral times to kill him.Not interested invisual perceptions andlanguage (which he thinks is poor), he perceiveshis world primarilythrough his nose. Grenouille analyses the mixtureof smells and aromas,chasing new scents everyday. By dint of hisphenomenal memory, he neverforgets a scent and can combine them in hishead.When he is eight yearsold and the monastery doesn´t pay anymore, thetanner Grimal becomes hisnew master. Grenouille is taken advantage ofhaving to handle dangeroussubstances. Injured and badly scarred, henonetheless survives. A hardworker, he is given more freedom toexplore Paris, memorizing its myriadsmells.In 1753 he perceives anexquisite scent that leads him to a younggirl-he strangles her andabsorbs her perfume. Now he has a magicformula that allows him toclassify all the other scents. Grenouillebecomes obsessed with amission: to revolutionize the world ofscents.The focus switches to the ambitious perfumer Baldini, desperateforinspiration. No inventor himself, he unsuccessfully tries to copyhiscompetitor´s finest creation. Sent on a delivery to him, Grenouilleforthe first time enters a perfumery. Sure of himself, he offersBaldinihis services. But first he has to prove his worth- hemanufactures theperfect perfume in no time at all. Baldini hires himand is soonassailed with orders, even from abroad.When his apprenticefalls seriously ill, Baldini reveals to him wherehe can find the bestaromas and learn new techniques. Grenouillemiraculously recovers, andwhen he obtains his certificate, he leavesthe filth of Paris.He seeksrefuge in wilderness and solitude. Living as a recluse in a cave on aremote mountain, his new environmentbecomes his kingdom and he hasdelusions of grandeur. After sevenyears, he realizes that he has nosmell of his own. Terrified, hereturns to civilization. An eccentricnobleman takes care of him andsubjects him to experiments. Grenouillelearns social behaviour and is not awkward anymore.Grenouille realizeshow he can manipulate other people. In order toachieve this, he has tokill again and learns how to conserve theephemeral scents of hisvictims.People are inspired by fear. Who could be the murderer preyingonbeautiful virgins who are found without their hair and their clothes?Suspicion falls on minority groups, but nobody becomes suspicious ofinnocent-looking Grenouille.Grenouille covers himself with the smells he gathered and now seeminglyhas a smell of his own. Eventually he comes to Grasse, a town inSouthern France famous for its perfumes. He is hired by a perfumer´swidow and learns new techniques.The point of view shifts to Antoine Richis, a powerful and rich manwith a beautiful daughter. He strives to save her from the murderer onthe loose in that region. But it is to no avail: Laure becomesGrenouilles´s last victim and the one with the most exquisite scent.Before he is caught, Grenouille is able to manufacture an irresistibleperfume. His execution in 1746 becomes a public spectacle.However,everybody is deceived by his wonderful smell. Not only do they thinkhim innocent, they celebrate him and start an orgy. Nonetheless,Grenouille cannot savour his triumph and evaporates. The inhabitants ofGrasse execute someone else as a scapegoat. Grenouille goes back toParis indulging in high-flying plans: he could put a spell on anybody,even the king or the Pope. In Paris, some men are carried away by hissmell:they devour him.A large element of the novel´s appeal lies in the darkly humorousdescriptions, especially at the beginning. Without mincing matters,Süskind presents to us grotesque characters who are selfish in theextreme, as well as events that are at times over-the-top. The resourceful protagonist thinks himself to be superior to theothers. At no point does he repent, because he is devoid of empathy,pity and a sense of guilt. He never engages in introspection and onlydevelops his skills of delusion.The style is literary. At several points, the story becomes long-windedfaeturing too many digressions. The story is interesting, but notparticularly suspenseful. This is because the emphasis is on theportrayal of the protagonist´s feelings and thoughts. In any case, youget a vivid picture of that time, and Süskind does a particularly goodjob of portraying the world of innumerable smells.Readers who like Perfume, should also read A Rebours by Joris-Karl Huysmans,featuring an extremely eccentric aesthete, Des Esseintes.