A Book That Haunts Me - Perfume

Perfume (Hamish Hamilton: 1985) by Patrick Suskind

I cannot remember when I read Perfume, published in 1985 (1) and the best known work of the reclusive German author, Patrick Suskind, but it was long ago. However, the essence of it has stayed with me, and I feel no inclination to work my way through it again.

This is not to denigrate the power of what can be seen as a work of literary historical fantasy. Set in eighteenth-century France, it begins with the birth of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, while his mother is working at a Parisian fish stall – a stinking setting of utter squalor (2). The smells set the tone for Grenouille’s life. After his mother is executed as a murderer of children, he grows up as an orphan with peculiar characteristics: combining the most acute sense of smell with a complete lack of any personal odour himself.

The book follows Grenouille’s apprenticeship to a perfumer who later dies in an accident and his repellent fascination with the scent of a virgin girl, whom he kills in order to possess it (3). He develops a pathological hatred of humanity, but becomes obsessed with the scent of another young woman called Laure and decides to murder her to extract and preserve her ‘perfume’, first killing 24 other young women to help develop his technique. He eventually manages to create a unique scent for himself, which acts as a camouflage and attractant, even after he is convicted of murder. It drives the crowd present at his execution into a fawning mass of orgiastic adoration, preventing justice from being done.    

Combining fact and fiction so skilfully that it is difficult to work out where one dovetails with the other, this book is also larded with allusions to other literary works, many of them from writers of French and German origin. I recall finding it compelling, but became aware of a perception of uncleanliness gained through the experience of reading it.  An impression of the procedures Grenouille goes through to capture the scents of the bodies of the young girls he kills remains, with an aversion borne, I think, of the overtones of necrophilia suggested in the text.

Two things to observe related to this novel: firstly, that pheromones or ‘chemical cues emitted and detected by individuals of the same species that influence social and reproductive behaviour’ (4) form an underlying driver to its plot and are far more powerful than most of us would like to consider. Secondly, it is important not to underestimate the significance of smells in French history. The town of Grasse, where Suskind’s novel is mainly set, is also the home of the International Perfume Museum and was the ‘birthplace of luxury perfumes’ (5), which is surely no coincidence.

This book offers a memorable read, but you might emerge from it feeling slightly sticky, and not in a good way.

1. Burack, C. Germany’s most mysterious author?  Patrick Suskind at 70, 2019 March  https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-most-mysterious-author-patrick-s%C3%BCskind-at-70/a-48050838 

2. Cizmecioglu, A. Patrick Suskind: ‘Perfume’, 2018, August  https://www.dw.com/en/patrick-s%C3%BCskind-perfume-the-story-of-a-murderer/a-44783277

3. Wikipedia, Perfume (novel), 2017, January, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume_(novel) 

4. Stowers, L. and Marton, T.F. What is a pheromone?  Mammalian pheromones reconsidered, Neuron, 2005, June, 5 (2): 699-702 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627305003922

5. Musees de Grasse, Presentation of the museum, 2020 https://www.museesdegrasse.com/en/presentation-museum 

Janet Bayliss