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Perfume: The Story of a Murderer By Patrick Suskind ( Vintage )
Release Date: 2001-02-13
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Product Description
An 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.
In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift-an absolute sense of smell. 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. 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. 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. Told with dazzling narrative brillance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.
Translated from the German by John E. Woods.
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 A disturbing and good read ( morbidromantic )
I loved the movie and decided that I wanted to try out the book. When my reading group selected this one, I was excited to open it up. Suffice to say, I was satisfied with the book. The main character, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, was definitely... a bad person. I spent so much of the book wondering what was going on in his head, trying to diagnose just what mental illness he suffered from to be so without emotion. Cruel, perhaps not, but definitely without moral judgment or really any sense of attachment to the people around him. I found myself disgusted, asking myself, "what is wrong with this guy?!" more times that I could possibly count. Ultimately, I found all of the characters repulsive in their own way, full of their own evil and vice. I think this was intended. Chilling of all is the plot, the decision of scentless Jean-Baptiste Grenouille to possess the sweetest smell of them all: the smell of beautiful young women. He is truly a man filled only with his own strange desires and hatred. His power to map any scent, to smell everything around him, is used to this end. It's a book about obsession, murder, mystery, mental illness, beauty... so many categories. It's definitely a good read, too, for anyone who likes historical fiction.
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 Fascinating, a page turner! ( peponsford )
The Perfume will take you back and submerge you into the 18th century with amazing ease. You will get a "sniff" of what the world looked like and how people lived. It is also the fascinating a compelling story of a lonely boy who was rejected by everyone from his birth, and who endured tremendous obstacles; however he possessed and incredible gift. This gift what was he lived for, what became his dark obsession and ultimately his destruction. A must read!
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 255 pages total, 155 being blah blah blah
I was inspired to read this after watching the movie over a year ago, thinking that the novel would be even better as movies tend to butcher novels and do them no justice. This novel needs butchering!!! Pages 33 to 37 nothing but a long list of what this fellow smells all over Paris. Pages 53 to 59 nothing but the bellyaching of a perfumer unhappy that the times are changing and advancing. And so on the book continues in this manner. Terrific story but could have been told in one hundred pages. I was appalled at all the lists and so on and so on.
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A scentillating examination of a murderer's mind!
Humans that are deprived of one or more of the senses naturally compensate by focusing and overdeveloping the remaining senses. Suskind brilliantly chose to deprive Grenouille of something other than senses, the ability to be recognized. I don't believe any human in history had a complete absence of a body scent, whether it's a pleasant or unpleasant one; we all associate places, loved ones, memories and incidents with special scents.
Jean Baptiste Grenouille was born a strange baby who lacked a body scent and emitted a freaky feeling to every body around him, so much so, that even his "mother" tried to get rid of him soon after his birth.
Surprisingly, baby Grenouille survives all the hardships associated with growing up poor in an orphanage, deprived of any human affection. The one thing that guided Jean Babtiste was his sense of smell; scents were burned in to his mind and could easily compare them with other scents he remembered and he could easily tell the source of a smell from a far distance. Through pure coincidence Grenouille landed a job with Baldini, a Parisian perfumer, where he was able to mix scents and experiment using his unique sense of smell to make great new scents. Grenouille's mind had no other focus but organizing and inventing perfumes.
One day, Grenouille was attracted to a lovely new scent that led him to a red headed virgin. He tried to capture the scent and accidentally killed her. The scent vanished shortly after the girl's death, and now Grenouille is on a mission to find a way to keep the lovely scents associated with beautiful pre-pubertal girls.
Grenouille embarks on scent focused research, fed like a monster by his desire to capture the perfect scent. Grenouille goes on a killing spree, capturing one scent after another and finally creates the perfect perfume that elicits all kind of affectionate and emotional reactions in people.
The shocking ending will take place when Grenouille finally gets the attention he wants.
Suskind created a work of great artistry, taking the reader to the 18th century streets of Paris. He painted a very vivid picture of the dirty Parisian streets, the lovely world of scents and the weird mind of a killer.
Still, Suskind's genius isn't in his descriptions of the chaotic corrupt life in France prior to the revolution, or in the detailed depiction of art of perfume manufacturing. Rather, Suskind managed to separate himself from the villain of his story in a way that even Dostoyevsky did not achieve in "Crime and Punishment".
From my personal research into the psychology of serial killers, I concluded that they are very focused on their own pleasure and don't actually feel the pain they inflict on others. A predator's mind is incapable of experiencing suffering or pain if it's separated from their body. Suskind brilliantly showed how Grenouille is totally focused on his pleasure and totally indifferent in his interaction with the dead body. The way Grenouille thought of the different scents and listed them was completely systematic and his actions were accordingly automaton like.
This novel got a lot of attention because of the shocking and strange nature of the story, but I predict more success and appreciation in the future due to the accurate psychological analysis of a murderer's mind, along with the artistic way in which the story is told.
Patrick Suskind created a brilliant masterpiece that will leave readers breathless, shocked, and possibly angry. I hope the reader will understand that this is the point; just because a villain's inner world is described doesn't mean it's a bad novel. Evil is one concept in life, and the job of great authors like Suskind is to present us with the naked truth. Perfume is simply a great work.
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Totally creepy - in a completely absorbing way . . . ( jmcdonough12 )
PERFUME reads like a grotesque fairy tale - but you can't put it down! If you have a taste for the bizarre AND a well-written novel, give it a try. But you've got to be able to stomach a little ickiness . . .
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Addiction
