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. Horrified! Aghast! (I blame that mostly on the ending which I won’t discuss lest I spoil it for you.)Īmazon has an excerpt of the book’s opening paragraphs which illustrate the exquisite writing (as translated from Suskind’s original German) and his ability to evoke powerful imagery in such a way that you are transported back to Paris in the mid-1700s: In contrast, the good Christian, conservative, elderly Texan ladies in my book club were horrified by it. Most of my friends who’ve read the book, even those who aren’t into perfume, adored it. It has garnered huge international praise from many, while others find it creepy, disturbing and truly revolting. 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. I find it difficult to adequately summarize the book (and we all know that brevity isn’t my forte!), so I’ll rely on Google books for a description that doesn’t give too much away:Īn 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. The book crosses and mixes several literary genres, from gothic to horror and the supernatural in the vein of Edgar Allen Poe. And, yet, Suskind manages brilliantly, re-creating the world of 18th-century France in all its horrors and fetid stink. As any perfume blogger can tell you, aroma is not an easy thing to convey.

Also known as Das Perfum or Le Parfum, the 1985 German novel is also one of the most beautifully written books I’ve read, a lyrical ode that explores the sense of smell in the most evocative, powerful way imaginable. One of my favorite books that I’ve read in the last decade is the international best-seller, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, by Patrick Suskind.

Il profumo by Patrick Süskind