Title: Perfume
Author: Patrick Süskind
Original language: German
Translation(s): 37 languages
Context: Perfume (1985) is a translated novel by the author Patrick Süskind. The classic novel is a story of a murderer. A frightening examination evokes about things that can occur when his sense of smell, his indulgence which is his biggest passion, ultimately leads to a murder. It is a completely ferociously absorbing and ingenious fantasy, stylish and witty novel by the author Patrick Süskind.
Synopsis: Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an infant is born in the slums of France during the eighteenth century. He is blessed with one exalted gift, a universal sense of smell, during an era which knew no lack of despicable and gifted luminaries.
When he is a young boy he lives in Paris deciphering odors and works as an apprentice at a well known perfumer. Here he learns the ancient art of mixing precious herbs and oils from the perfumer. However Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is such an extraordinary genius that he is captured with the obsession of smells of objects like fresh-cut wood and brass doorknobs.
One fine day he gets the hint of a particular exclusive scent which rives him to a quest that is even more terrifying. He is driven to creating the scent of a beautiful looking young virgin – the ‘ultimate perfume’. The narrative of this novel is dazzlingly brilliant. The novel is a hauntingly powerful story about bloodlust, and sensual perversion and obsession and finally the murder in Paris during the eighteenth century. The absorbing, worth reading, stylishly clever novel is about twisted eroticism and a murder tale controlled by a detestation of humanity. The novel is a meditation on the nature of desire, death and decay.
Other works by the Author:
1981 – The Double Bass
1988 – The Story of Mr. Sommer
1988 – The Pigeon
1996 – Three Stories and a Reflection
2006 – On Love and Death