Author: Patrick Suskind
Year of book publication: 1985
Patrick Suskind's novel "Perfume" became the debut and currently only novel of the famous German writer and screenwriter. It has been translated into 49 languages of the world, and its total circulation has exceeded 20 million copies. Immediately after its publication, the book won several literary awards and prizes, but the author did not appear at their presentation. He transferred the rights to film the novel only in 2001, and then to his friend, who in 2006 released the most expensive and one of the most successful films in the history of German cinema. The premiere of the film and the subsequent presentation of numerous awards took place without the author, and the writer himself has not commented on the film adaptation to this day.
The plot of the book “Perfume” briefly
In Patrick Suskind's book "Perfume" you can read about the events that unfolded in France around the middle of the 18th century.
On July 17, 1738, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was born. One of the first cries of this baby leads to the execution of the boy's mother, who wanted to get rid of the unwanted child. His further life passes in orphanages, where this ugly, crippled and “feeble-minded child” never had friends. But thanks to his innate ability, he was very good at capturing the slightest odors, sometimes even inaccessible to the nose of an ordinary person. He was attracted by any smells, which he gladly analyzed into their components. And therefore, it is not at all surprising that he ultimately decided to become a perfumer. His first teacher was the Parisian perfumer Giuseppe Baldini, who shamelessly appropriated all the smells invented by the boy, but taught him the language of formulas and various ways of “selecting” smells. The next stage in the life of the protagonist is the city of Grasse, where he becomes an apprentice to Madame Arnulfi. But flowers and chemical formulas are no longer able to satisfy the growing desires of Jean-Baptiste. After all, he has already smelled a smell that can become the height of perfection. It was exuded by the young beauty Laura Rishi. And now no obstacles will stop him from creating his ideal scent formula.
As for the reviews of Suskind’s book “Perfume”, they are exclusively positive. A very dynamic, focused and atmospheric book that grabs you from the first pages. At the same time, the general gloomy atmosphere of the novel and the everydayness of the terrible actions of the main character evoke outright rejection, which, as in the books of Chuck Palahniuk, nevertheless forces one to read further. This is a book about a monster with God's gift, raised among people, which causes a storm of emotions. And even if these emotions are not always positive, the plot of the book will not leave you indifferent. That is why Patrick Suskind’s novel “Perfume” can be downloaded and recommended to all fans of good foreign literature, which was considered a classic during the writer’s lifetime.
“Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” summary by chapter
“Perfume: The Story of a Murderer”
is a novel by German playwright and prose writer Patrick Suskind.
"Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" read briefly in parts
Part One
In Paris, at a stinking fish shop, next to the Cemetery of the Innocents, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born.
His mother wants to get rid of the unwanted child, but her plan is discovered, she is accused of infanticide and executed, and the baby is transferred to the care of a monastery and assigned a wet nurse. A woman refuses to care for her baby because, she says, he “doesn’t smell like other babies” and is possessed by the devil. The priest, Father Terrier, defends the rights of the baby, but fearing that he is “shamelessly sniffing him,” he arranges Grenouille away from his parish - to Madame Gaillard’s shelter.
Here the child lives until he is eight years old, other children shun him, the boy is considered weak-minded, and besides, he is ugly and crippled. But amazing actions are noticed behind him - thanks to his hidden abilities, he is not afraid to walk in the dark, he knows how to predict rain. No one realizes that Grenouille is a unique person, a person with an acute sense of smell that can detect even odors that have no name. When Grenouille, thanks to his nose, finds money hidden by the owner of the orphanage, she decides to get rid of him and hands him over to a tanner as a laborer.
Grenouille works in difficult conditions, enduring beatings and illnesses; his only joy is learning new smells. Both perfume and the stench of garbage are equally interesting to him. One day on the street he smells an extraordinary fragrance, its source is a young girl who smells like “beauty itself.” Grenouille, wanting to take possession of him, strangles the girl, enjoys her scent and hides unnoticed. His conscience does not torment him; on the contrary, he is happy that he possessed the most precious aroma in the world. After this incident, Grenouille realizes that he has learned everything about smells, and his calling is to be their creator, a great perfumer.
To learn this craft, he becomes an apprentice to Master Baldini, making wonderful perfumes for him, although without any rules.
From Baldini he learns the language of formulas and how to “rob” flowers of their scent using sublimation. Baldini appropriates all the fragrance formulas invented by Grenouille. The hero will be disappointed - not every scent can be enclosed in a glass bottle, like floral perfume. Grenouille is so unhappy that he even falls ill and comes to his senses only when he learns from the master that there are other ways to obtain smells from different bodies. Having handed over to the vain Baldini all the perfume formulas known to him and having received an apprentice's patent for this, Grenouille leaves him. Shortly afterwards, Baldini dies tragically when the Pont des Changes, on which his house was located, collapses into the Seine. Part two
Now the hero’s goal is the city of Grasse, whose perfumers own these secrets.
But on the way there, Grenouille finds himself in an uninhabited cave, where he enjoys solitude for several years. By chance, a terrible guess comes to him: he himself does not smell at all. He needs such spirits so that people stop shunning him and accept him as an ordinary person. From his refuge, Grenouille falls under the patronage of the Marquis Taillade-Espinasse, an adherent of the “fluidal theory”, following which, in his own opinion, he again made Grenouille a man from a cave beast. But in reality this was thanks to the good soap and perfume that Grenouille created from cat excrement and a piece of cheese. Part Three
Jean-Baptiste leaves the Marquis and gets to Grasse, where he becomes an apprentice to Madame Arnulfi, the widow of a perfumer. Here he learns the most subtle ways of mastering smells. Suddenly, next to someone’s garden, he again smells an aroma, even more luxurious than the aroma of the girl he once strangled. It is the scent of young Laura Richis playing in the garden, and Grenouille decides that he has found the pinnacle of his future perfume - his main creation in life: a scent of absolute beauty, instilling in everyone who breathes in a feeling of true love. Over the course of two years, he comprehends the science of collecting odors and becomes convinced that the smell of the skin and hair of a beautiful woman is best received by fabric treated with aromaless fat. But since Grenouille, in the eyes of others, is a dirty, ill-mannered, half-crazed tramp, he cannot obtain the smell in any other way except by killing its carrier. A wave of strange murders begins in the city - young girls become their victims. They belong to different strata of society, and it was established that they were not subjected to sexual violence - there is no connection between the murdered, the fact that this was the work of one killer is indicated only by the fact that all the victims were beautiful with the genuine beauty of a newly formed woman, and then that they were all found naked and shaved bald. The killer is Grenouille, but he acts so carefully, skillfully using his stealth, that no one can suspect him of being a killer. And Grenouille continues his terrible and ingenious work of collecting notes for his future perfumes.
Only one person in Grasse is so insightful that he begins to see the true motives of the killer. This is Laura's father, Consul Rishi. He sees that all the victims are a kind of collection of true beauty, and fear creeps into his heart: Rishi realizes that there is no one in the city who would surpass his daughter in this subtle, luxurious beauty, and sooner or later an unknown killer will want to kill and her. Rishi decides to stop this. He secretly takes Laura out of the city and hides with her on a remote island. There was only one thing he did not take into account: the killer finds his victims by scent, and all the precautions with which he and his daughter fled from the city were powerless against the main thing: as soon as Laura disappeared, her scent would disappear. And it is his disappearing trail that will reveal the direction of flight and the shelter where Laura is hidden. Grenouille receives the last note of his perfume.
But as soon as his work is finished, he is arrested.
Grenouille is exposed and sentenced to death. Rishi, distraught over the loss of his daughter, anticipates execution on the wheel. He visits Grenouille in prison and describes the torment ahead of him, without hiding that this will be a balm for his broken heart.
However, before going to execution, Grenouille retrieves a bottle of the completed fragrance, miraculously hidden from the guards.
One drop of this divine smell was enough for the guards to release Grenouille, and for the executioner to give up. The smell flies over the crowd of spectators gathered to admire the execution of the Grasse monster - and subjugates them. The aroma arouses in people the desire to love and awakens carnal passion. People are looking for satisfaction right there in the square, everything develops into a real passionate orgy. Grenouille stands among the crowd and enjoys the effect he has created. Antoine Richis rises to the platform and falls to Grenouille, recognizing him as his son.
Taking advantage of the general madness, Grenouille disappears.
After the intoxication of the aroma of love wears off, people find themselves naked in each other's arms.
Dressing embarrassedly, everyone secretly decides to “forget” about what happened. An innocent man will be executed instead of Grenouille, just to put an end to this story. Part four
Grenouille is free, he leaves the city. Now he knows the power of his power: thanks to the spirits, he can become a god if he wants. But he understands that among those who blindly worship him there will not be a single person who can appreciate the real beauty of his aroma. He returns to Paris and heads to the Cemetery of the Innocents - the place where he was born. Here thieves and tramps gathered around the fire. Grenouille sprays himself with perfume from head to toe, and people, blinded by attraction to him, tear him apart and devour the remains of the great perfumer.
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Perfumer
“Perfume” is a book by Patrick Suskind, based on which a cool film was made. The book itself is no less interesting. For those who are too lazy to read, watch a video review of the novel:
The novel was first published in Switzerland in 1985. To date, it is recognized as the most famous novel written in German since Remarque and has gone through many editions with a total circulation of more than 12 million copies. The book has been translated into 45 languages, including Latin.
Heroes and victims of Perfumer:
1. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is the protagonist, he has an incredibly subtle and strong sense of smell along with a complete absence of his own smell.
2. Grenouille's mother - accused of infanticide.
3. Jeanne Bussy is a simple-minded nurse.
4. Father Terrier is an expert in church dogma.
5. Madame Gaillard is the owner of the orphanage. Treats children only as a way to earn money.
6. Grimal - tanner. A very rude and cruel person
7. The girl from the Marais street is Grenouille’s first victim.
8. Giuseppe Baldini - Parisian perfumer. Although she does not have any creative talents in perfumery, she has enormous knowledge in the production technology itself and the preservation of fragrances.
9. Chenier - Baldini's apprentice.
10. Pelissier is a competitor of Baldini, the most popular perfumer. Only mentioned, does not appear in person.
11. The Marquis de la Taillade-Espinasse is the eccentric creator of the “fluidic theory.”
12. Madame Arnulfi is the widow of a perfumer from Grasse.
13. Dominique Druot - master perfumer from Grasse and lover of Madame Arnulfi.
14. Antoine Richis - Second Consul of Grasse, an astute man.
15. Laura Rishi - his daughter, a red-haired beauty. Grenouille's last victim.
Summary of the novel “Perfume” from Wikipedia
Part One In Paris, at a stinking fish shop, next to the Cemetery of the Innocents, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born. His mother wants to get rid of the unwanted child, but the plan is revealed. She is accused of infanticide and executed, and the baby is transferred to the care of the monastery and assigned a wet nurse. A woman refuses to care for her baby because, she says, he “doesn’t smell like other babies” and is possessed by the devil. The priest, Father Terrier, defends the rights of the baby, but fearing that he is “shamelessly sniffing him,” he arranges Grenouille away from his parish - to Madame Gaillard’s shelter.
Here the child lives until he is eight years old. Other children avoid him, considering him weak-minded, and besides, he is ugly and crippled. But Grenouille’s amazing actions are noticed: thanks to his hidden abilities, he is not afraid to walk in the dark and knows how to predict rain. No one realizes that Grenouille is a unique person, a person with an extremely acute sense of smell, which can even detect odors that have no name. When Grenouille, thanks to his nose, finds money hidden by the owner of the orphanage, she decides to get rid of him and hands him over to a tanner as a laborer.
Grenouille works in difficult conditions, enduring beatings and illnesses; his only joy is learning new smells. Both perfume and the stench of garbage are equally interesting to him. One day on the street he smells an extraordinary fragrance, its source is a young girl who smells like “beauty itself.” Grenouille, wanting to take possession of the scent, strangles the girl, enjoys her scent and hides unnoticed. His conscience does not torment him; on the contrary, he is happy that he possessed the most precious aroma in the world. After this incident, Grenouille realizes that he has learned everything about smells, and his calling is to be their creator, a great perfumer.
To learn this craft, he becomes an apprentice to Master Baldini, making for him wonderful perfumes beyond all rules. From Baldini he learns the language of formulas and how to “rob” flowers of their scent using sublimation. Baldini appropriates all the fragrance formulas invented by Grenouille. The hero will be disappointed - not every scent can be enclosed in a glass bottle, like floral perfume. Grenouille is so unhappy that he even falls ill and comes to his senses only when he learns from the master that there are other ways to obtain smells from different bodies. Having handed over to the vain Baldini all the perfume formulas known to him and having received an apprentice's patent for this, Grenouille leaves him. Shortly after this, Baldini tragically dies when the Changes Bridge, on which his house was located, collapses into the Seine.
Part two Now the hero’s goal is the city of Grasse, whose perfumers possess other secrets of mastery. But on the way, Grenouille ends up in an uninhabited cave, where he enjoys solitude for several years. By chance, a terrible guess comes to him: he himself does not smell at all. He needs such spirits so that people stop shunning him and accept him as an ordinary person. From his refuge, Grenouille falls under the patronage of the Marquis Taillade-Espinasse, an adherent of the “fluidal theory”, following which, in his own opinion, he again made Grenouille a man from a cave beast. But in reality this was thanks to the good soap and perfume that Grenouille created from cat excrement and a piece of cheese.
Part Three Jean-Baptiste leaves the Marquis and gets to Grasse, where he becomes an apprentice to Madame Arnulfi, the widow of a perfumer. Here he learns the most subtle ways of mastering smells. Suddenly, next to someone’s garden, he again smells an aroma, even more luxurious than the aroma of the girl he once strangled. It is the scent of young Laura Richis playing in the garden, and Grenouille decides that he has found the pinnacle of his future perfume - his main creation in life: a scent of absolute beauty, instilling in everyone who breathes in a feeling of true love. Over the course of two years, he comprehends the science of collecting odors and becomes convinced that the aroma of the skin and hair of a beautiful woman is best absorbed by fabric treated with odorless fat. But since Grenouille, in the eyes of others, is a dirty, ill-mannered, half-crazed tramp, he cannot obtain the smell in any other way except by killing its carrier. A wave of strange murders begins in the city - young girls become their victims. They belong to different strata of society, and it was established that they were not subjected to sexual violence - there is no connection between the murdered, the fact that this was the work of one killer is indicated only by the fact that all the victims were beautiful with the genuine beauty of a newly formed woman, and then that they were all found naked and shaved bald. The killer is Grenouille, but he acts so carefully, skillfully using his stealth, that no one can suspect him of being a killer. And Grenouille continues his terrible and ingenious work of collecting notes for his future perfumes.
Only one person in Grasse is so insightful that he begins to see the true motives of the killer. This is Laura's father, Consul Rishi. He sees that all the victims are a kind of collection of true beauty, and fear creeps into his heart: Rishi realizes that there is no one in the city who would surpass his daughter in this subtle, luxurious beauty, and sooner or later an unknown killer will want to kill and her.
Rishi decides to stop this. He secretly takes Laura out of the city and hides with her on a remote island. There was only one thing he did not take into account: the killer finds his victims by scent, and all the precautions with which he and his daughter fled from the city were powerless against the main thing: as soon as Laura disappeared, her scent would disappear. And it is his disappearing trail that gives away the direction of flight and the shelter where Laura is hidden.
Grenouille receives the last note of his perfume. But as soon as his work is finished, he is arrested.
Grenouille is exposed and sentenced to death. Rishi, distraught over the loss of his daughter, anticipates execution on the wheel. He visits Grenouille in prison and describes the torment ahead of him, without hiding that this will be a balm for his broken heart.
However, before going to execution, Grenouille retrieves a bottle of the completed fragrance, miraculously hidden from the guards.
One drop of this divine smell was enough for the guards to release Grenouille, and for the executioner to give up. The smell flies over the crowd of spectators gathered to admire the execution of the Grasse monster - and subjugates them. The aroma arouses in people the desire to love and awakens carnal passion. People are looking for satisfaction right there in the square, everything develops into a real passionate orgy. Grenouille stands among the crowd and enjoys the effect he has created. Antoine Richis rises to the platform and falls to Grenouille, recognizing him as his son.
Taking advantage of the general madness, Grenouille disappears.
After the intoxication of the aroma of love wears off, people find themselves naked in each other's arms. Dressing embarrassedly, everyone secretly decides to “forget” about what happened. An innocent man will be executed instead of Grenouille, just to put an end to this story.
Part four Grenouille is free, he leaves the city. Now he knows the power of his power: thanks to the spirits, he can become a god if he wants. But he understands that among those who blindly worship him there will not be a single person who can appreciate the real beauty of his aroma. He returns to Paris and heads to the Cemetery of the Innocents - the place where he was born. Here thieves and tramps gathered around the fire. Grenouille sprays himself with perfume from head to toe, and people, blinded by attraction to him, tear him apart and devour the remains of the great perfumer.
The book turned out to be very interesting due to the descriptions of smells and the construction of the world through the prism of these descriptions. Jean-Baptiste himself “Perfume” is shown by the author very clearly and does not cause regrets. At the same time, his spiritual world and all the torments are subtly described. Yes, not Dostoevsky, but the murders here are more sophisticated...
“Perfumer, the story of a murderer”: reviews
There are books, after reading which I calmly lie down and fall asleep, and there are others that I mentally return to from time to time and continue to analyze. “Perfume” is not a very suitable read before bed, that’s for sure. There is no more disgusting and disgusting there than in any modern bestseller, especially those created by our compatriots. But the feelings that gripped me after reading this creation are very, very unusual, and completely new. It doesn’t cause as much depression as Hemingway’s works (sorry for the comparison), but in some ways it’s very similar. It seems to me that our dark side is being touched upon here or something. After all, almost everyone who read Perfumer, at least not for long, sympathized with him, seemed to be in his shoes... Maybe they even rejoiced at his success... Or is it just me that such metamorphoses are happening?! Even as a child, when I watched the cartoon “Well, wait a minute!” I somehow sympathized more with the wolf, he was such a loser...
Unfortunately, in Russian this work was not in its proper field, and this does not give readers the opportunity to appreciate it. An inaccurate translation of the name “Das Parfum” (the correct word would be “Smell” or “Aroma”) immediately leads the reader away from the author’s intentions into the section of maniacal literature. And no one is looking for hidden subtexts anymore (they start with the similarity of the names of the hero Jean-Baptiste Grenouille and the English director Peter Greenaway). For some reason, they often talk about the closeness of Suskind’s novel with Fowles’s “The Collector,” although, in my opinion, the similarities between them are no greater than between Mine Reid’s “The Headless Horseman” and Furmanov’s “Chapaev.” “Perfume” is an innovative novel in which the usual psychologism is replaced by the development of the idea of smell. The author decided to show how much smell, one of the five senses, means in our lives.
I think that over time, “Perfume” will take its rightful place among those works that changed European literature, such as “Towards Swann” by M. Proust or “Ulysses” by D. Joyce.
When you humiliate a pimply fellow student, remember that there are devils in still waters. It is quite possible that this downtrodden and unhappy student may turn out to be a maniac who will come up with a way to become a ruler for all time...
Another thought has not left me since reading the book with the strange title “Perfumer. The story of a murderer” by Patrick Suskind: everything in the world is ruled by chemistry. everything is based on sympathy. and beauty has a very specific scent. or rather not quite like that. Beauty smells special. Yes exactly. beautiful people have a very special scent. And for this reason, I believe that if such a perfumer actually existed, then the reaction of those who inhaled the aroma extracted from the bodies of beauties could well have caused general madness...
Aphrodisiacs are created according to the principle that the author of the work wanted to talk about.
"Perfumer. The Story of a Murderer” is quite easy to read. The style is light and accessible. The scenes are not for the faint of heart, but after reading there is no feeling of a disgusting aftertaste.
I recommend reading it to those who have seen the film of the same name. It's easier to visualize and imagine the characters.
The ending, of course, is stronger than in the film, but cinema is inferior in this; it’s always easier to write, it’s much more difficult to put it on film...
True, not everyone is delighted with all this:
After reading, I was left with a feeling of disgust and disgust for the hero, for the plot, for the book. The author “savors” too much every detail of the main character’s madness and manic passion. Too realistic and therefore disgusting. But for those who love stories like “The Silence of the Lambs,” I think it will be interesting. I wouldn't read it if I knew it would leave such a bad aftertaste. But I will watch the film, because I expect it to soften the impression. Still, the author’s word plus the reader’s imagination is sometimes stronger than the captured image.
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