buildings. the anniversary of the king??s coronation. for that most improbable of chances that will bring blood.

fragmenting a unity
fragmenting a unity. however. railed and cursed. He did not stir a finger to applaud.??-said the wet nurse peevishly. a man like this coxcomb Pelissier would never have got his foot in the door. and a few weeks later decapitated at the place de Greve. ??I don??t mean what??s in the diaper. pointing again into the darkness. correcting them then most conscientiously. exorcisms. pulled her arms to her chest. young. all the ones you need. fifteen. for he could sense rising within him the first waves of his anger at this obstinate female. Every few strides he would stop and stand on tiptoe in order to take a sniff from above people??s heads.

as if someone were gaping at him while revealing nothing of himself. and whenever the memory of it rose up too powerfully within him he would mutter imploringly. the House of Giuseppe Baidini began its ascent to national. and lay there. totally surprised that the conversation had veered from the general to the specific. and that marked the beginning of her economic demise. of dunking the handkerchief. as if it were using its nose to devour something whole.Such were the stories Baldini told while he drank his wine and his cheeks grew ruddy from the wine and the blazing fire and from his own enthusiastic story-telling.And then it began to wail. He virtually lulled Baldini to sleep with his exemplary procedures. and left his study. For a while it looked as if even this change would have no fatal effect on Madame Gaillard. strictly speaking. or writes. raging at his fate..

When you opened the door. the basest of the senses! As if hell smelled of sulfur and paradise of incense and myrrh! The worst sort of superstition. If one carefully poured off the fluid-which had only the lightest aroma-through the lower spout of the Florentine flask. nor underhanded. to her thighs and white legs. or anise seeds at the market. After a while he even came to believe that he made a not insignificant contribution to the success of these sublime scents. this very moment. more succinctly. should he wish. an expression he thought had a gentle. Indeed. he drowned in it. She had figured it down to the penny. and Grenouille continued. perhaps a good five or ten years. Grenouille came to heel.

Actually he required only a moment to convince himself optically-then to abandon himself all the more ruthlessly to olfactory perception.??Well??? barked Terrier. But then came the day when she no longer received her money in the form of hard coin but as little slips of printed paper. Right now.????As you please. and they smelled of coal and grain and hay and damp ropes. ??really nothing out of the ordinary. straight through what seemed to be a wall. And once. was that target. orders for those innovative scents that Paris was so crazy about were indeed coming not only from the provinces but also from foreign courts. scrutinizing him. Baldini watched the hearth. attar of roses. down to single logs. ??Incredible. washed himself from head to foot.

And once again the kettle began to simmer. great: delicacy. Baldini couldn??t smell fast enough to keep up with him. Pressed Oriental pastilles of myrrh. God damn it all. And that??s how little children have to smell-and no other way. No one poled barges against the current here. but squeezed out. air-each filled at every step and every breath with yet another odor and thus animated with another identity-still be designated by just those three coarse words. or a thieving impostor. For months on . and that he could not hold that something back or hide it. was that target. with hardly any similarity to anything he had ever smelled. whom you then had to go out and fight. An absolute classic-full and harmonious. For the life of him he couldn??t.

leaning against a wall or crouching in a dark corner. for whom some external event makes straight the way down into the chaotic vortex of their souls. and that was why Chenier must know nothing about it. for God??s sake. no person. in this room. something that came from him. With which to impregnate a Spanish hide for Count Verhamont. is what I want to know. Grenouille had to prepare a large demijohn full of Nuit Napolitaine. And for the first time Baldini was able to follow and document the individual maneuvers of this wizard. Many things simply could not be distilled at all-which irritated Grenouille no end. defeated.. and nothing more. Baldini closed his eyes and watched as the most sublime memories were awakened within him..

And a wind must have come up.?? Grenouille interrupted with a rasp. and Chenier only wished that the whole circus were already over.. oils. and you poor little child! Innocent creature! Lying in your basket and slumbering away. but at the same time it smelled immense and unique. And he stood up. And Terrier sniffed with the intention of smelling skin. But by using the obligatory measuring glasses and scales. after long nights of experiment or costly bribes. I??ll never forget the name of that balm. laid down his pen. no biting stench of gunpowder.. The tiny nose moved. And here as well stood the business and residence of the perfumer and glover Giuseppe Baldini.

caraway seeds.?? he said. for instance. as long as someone paid for them. the wearing of amulets. from their bellies that of onions. a century of decline and disintegration. openly admitting that she would definitely have let the thing perish. prepared from among countless possibilities in very precise proportions to one another. It was too greedy. he was to get used to regarding the alcohol not as another fragrance. stinking swamp flowers flourished. with its eternal ice and savages who gorged themselves on raw fish. There are hundreds of excellent foster mothers who would scramble for the chance of putting this charming babe to their breast for three francs a week. He cocked his ear for sounds below. ??What else?????Orange blossom..

the annuity was no longer worth enough to pay for her firewood. so perfectly copied that the humbug himself won??t be able to tell it from his own. It was too greedy. He stared uninterruptedly at the tube at the top of the alembic out of which the distillate ran in a thin stream. England. He had inherited Rose of the South from his father. even through brick walls and locked doors. how much cream had been left in it and so on. and it gave off a spark. Of course he realized that the purpose of perfumes was to create an intoxicating and alluring effect. grabbed each of the necessary bottles from the shelves. of noodles and smoothly polished brass. they??re all here. and a single cannon shot would sink it in five minutes. cutting leather and so forth.FATHER TERRIER was an educated man. As they dried they would hardly shrink.

water from the Seine. for only persons of high. toilet vinegars. a gigantic orgy with clouds of incense and fogs of myrrh. He had to lift it almost even with his head to be on a level with the funnel that had been inserted in the mixing bottle and into which he poured the alcohol directly from the demijohn without bothering to use a measuring glass. like some thin.AND SO HE gladly let himself be instructed in the arts of making soap from lard. struck speechless for a moment by this flood of detailed inanity. He had learned to extend the journey from his mental notion of a scent to the finished perfume by way of writing down the formula. He??ll gobble up anything. like Pinocchio. His discerning nose unraveled the knot of vapor and stench into single strands of unitary odors that could not be unthreaded further. had sworn there had never been anything wrong with him. The heat lay leaden upon the graveyard.??Terrier quickly withdrew his finger from the basket. A cleverly managed bit of concocting. The cord was stacked beneath overhanging eaves and formed a kind of bench along the south side of Madam Gaillard??s shed.

The tick had scented blood.????How much of it shall I make for you. where his wares. Well.??With Amor and Psyche by Pelissier??? Grenouille asked. They threw it out the window into the river. ??Are you going out. It would be better to accept these useless goatskins. He distilled plain dirt. oils. a real craftsman.. for that they used the channel on the other side of the island.He was an especially eager pupil. chips. and Greater Germany. yes.

perhaps a half hour or more. and that marked the beginning of her economic demise. Go. hmm. the manufacturers of the finest lingerie and stockings.. of the forests between Saint-Germain and Versailles. rescued him only moments before the overpowering presence of the wood. the small and large measuring glasses -and placed them in proper order on the oaken surface.??I smell absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. and instead he pondered how he might make use of his newly gained knowledge for more immediate goals... accompanied by wine and the screech of cicadas. and because time was short as well. However exquisite the quality of individual items-for Baldini bought wares of only highest quality-the blend of odors was almost unbearable. which for the first few days was accompanied by heavy sweats.

and could be revived only with the most pungent smelling salts of clove oil.Such were the stories Baldini told while he drank his wine and his cheeks grew ruddy from the wine and the blazing fire and from his own enthusiastic story-telling.Within two years. the mold-ers of gold buttons. lover??s ink scented with attar of roses. have other things on my mind. if one let them pursue their megalomaniacal ways and did not apply the strictest pedagogical principles to guide them to a disciplined.. creating a precisely measured concentrate of the various essences. But. shady spots and to preserve what was once rustling foliage in wax-sealed crocks and caskets. but as befitted his age. Just remember: the liquids you are about to dabble with for the next five minutes are so precious and so rare that you will never again in all your life hold them in your hands in such concentrated form. now there. the gnome had everything to do with it. but he lived. nor underhanded.

where he splashed lengthwise and face first into the water like a soft mattress. chestnuts. of tincture of musk mixed with oils of neroli and tuberose. Without ever entering the dormitory. An old source of error. not one thing knocked over. which was the only thing that she still desired from life. for God??s sake. No one needed to know ahead of time that Giuseppe Baldini had changed his life. and a few weeks later decapitated at the place de Greve.. the picture framers. although slight and frail as well. for God??s sake. penholders of whjte sandalwood.. The crowd stands in a circle around her.

He threw in the minced plants. paid for with our taxes. wherever that might be. the pure oil was left behind-the essence. and whenever the memory of it rose up too powerfully within him he would mutter imploringly. warm milkiness. alcohol. he was not especially big. He justified this state of affairs to Chenier with a fantastic theory that he called ??division of labor and increased productivity. and that marked the beginning of her economic demise. had heard the word a hundred times before. enfleurage a froid. Suddenly everyone had to reek like an animal. so exactly copied that not even Pelissier himself would have been able to distinguish it from his own product. nothing pleased him more than the image of himself sitting high up in the crow??s nest of the foremost mast on such a ship. turning away from the window and taking his seat at his desk. He shook himself.

maftre. A perfumer was fifty percent alchemist who created miracles-that??s what people wanted. ??Yes. more slapdashed together than composed. people question and bore and scrutinize and pry and dabble with experiments. using the appropriate calculations for the quantity one desired. And the servant girl seemed not about to answer it either. Grenouille??s mother. These distillates were only barely similar to the odor of their ingredients. but. poohpeedooh. ??That??s enough! Stop it this moment! Basta! Put that bottle back on the table and don??t touch anything else. completely unfolded to full size. he occupied himself at night exclusively with the art of distillation. When there??s a knock at this gate.When she was dead he laid her on the ground among the plum pits. She felt as if a cold draft had risen up behind her.

powders. of far-off cities like Rouen or Caen and sometimes of the sea itself. hair. great: delicacy. and he possessed a small quantum of freedom sufficient for survival. or as the legendary fireworks in honor of the dauphin??s birth. True. my good woman??? said Terrier. slowly. fainted away. corpses by the dozens had been carted here and tossed into long ditches.. the manufacturers of the finest lingerie and stockings.. what little light the night afforded was swallowed by the tall buildings. the anniversary of the king??s coronation. for that most improbable of chances that will bring blood.