Patrick Süskind - Perfume

Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer is a novel written by Patrick Süskind in 1985

The book is set in the 18th century, and it is telling the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille; The fishmonger's bastard. He was born with a lack of an personal odour, in 1783, and he had a hard childhood.

His mother was killed right after she gave birth to him, outside on the fishermarked. But he had something noeone else had, an incomparable sense of smell. He became an apprentice for a famous perfumer and turned out to be extremly good at his work. But Jean-Baptiste wasen't exacly a good boy. He murdered over twenty five girls to take their scent.

I liked the book, a lot. It was a bit diffircult to read, and sometimes I didn't understand what I was reading about. I liked the way the author writes, in a bit witty way, but at the same time deadly serious. He intoxicates the reader, and gives the book a bit grotesque cover.

I like the way the author describes the community and the surroundings around hygiene in the 18th century. The book begins with:

"The streets stank of manure, the cortyard of urine, the stairwells stank of mouldering wood and rat droppings (......) People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; from their mouths came the stench of rotting teeth, from their bellies that of onions, and from their bodies, if they were no longer very young, came the stench of raniced cheese and sour milk and tumorous disease"

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille:

Seems like a confused and abnormal person. Ofcourse his childhood shaped him and gave him his personality. He is obsessed with smells, and can't get enough of it.

He searches for the perfect scent, by stalking and murdering virgins.

Laure Richis:

A beautiful, young, red-headed girl. She is the daughter of Antoine Richis, who is the second consult and the richest man in Grasse. Laure's scent is the fragrance of Grenouille's dreams

Guiseppe Baldini:

Is an old perfumer. He owns a perfume shop, with a huge amount of scents. He takes on Grenouille as an apprentice and teaches him how to create lovely perfumes. Baldini gets rich of the perfumes that Grenouille makes for him.

The book became a movie in 2006.