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Perfume: The Story of a Murderer [Paperback]

Patrick Suskind (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (429 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Penguin's unabridged production of this international best seller is a thoroughly captivating production. Suskind's demented protagonist, Jean-Baptist Grenouille, is a "gifted abomination" whose highly developed sense of smell could easily make him the greatest perfumer of all time. Given the general stench of 18th-century cities, good perfumers were held in high regard. However, Grenouille the misfit, scorned by society throughout his life, hasn't the heart to create pretty perfumes for society's elite. When he finally does earn the adoration of the masses through his twisted genius, he decides that he would much prefer to "exterminate all these stupid, stinking people from the earth." Reader Sean Barrett does not overdramatize the often sensational events here but instead relates them with a measured, detached air that perfectly captures Suskind's cool tone. Also, his reserved narrative style allows listeners to appreciate Suskind's expert use of language (passages from this novel can be found in dictionaries of similes). This extraordinary production is highly recommended for all serious fiction collections.?Beth Farrell, Portage Cty. Dist. Lib., Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Review

?Superb storytelling all the way?the climax is a savage shocker.??The Cleveland Plain Dealer -- Review
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 255 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage (February 13, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0375725849
  • ISBN-13: 978-0375725845
  • Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (429 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #28,713 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
    #84 in  Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery > Historical

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More About the Authors

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John Woods
John Woods
Sean Barrett
Sean Barrett
Patrick Suskind
Patrick Suskind

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In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
fluidum letale, greatest perfumer, journeyman tanner, mixing bottle, essence absolue, own odor, human odor
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Madame Gaillard, Giuseppe Baldini, Madame Arnulfi, Antoine Richis, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, Grenouille the Great, Count Verhamont, Father Terrier, Laure Richis, Faubourg Saint-Antoine, Jeanne Bussie, Plomb du Cantal, Porte du Cours, Pic du Canigou, Monsieur Baldini, Maitre Baldini, Second Consul
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Customer Reviews

429 Reviews
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200 of 213 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A HAUNTING AND MESMERIZING TOUR DE FORCE, March 12, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Perfume: Perfume (Paperback)
In 18th century France, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born with no scent of his own, but with with a supernatural ability to detect the scent of others is driven to murder in order to create the perfect perfume. This extraordinarily original premise encompasses the most elegant, aristocratic and erotic novel I have ever read. Flawlessly written and drenched in irony, Perfume tells a haunting tale of a man reminiscent of the Phantom of the Opera, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Beauty and the Beast (beast), and even Faust. Amd finally! A writer with enough talent to let us experience Grenouille's thoughts and emotions. Although, of course, identification with him is impossible, (Grenouille is the most chilling character in literature) I did manage to understand Grenouille's all-consuming passion, much to Suskind's credit. Suskind's prose is lush and evokative (the decadance of 18th century France simply comes alive) without spilling over into the purple prose of books like Violin or The English Patient. Perfume is a bizarre tale, but it is also lyrical and hypnotic--almost a fairy tale of terror. If you're looking for something different, something special, I highly recommend Perfume. The only other book I've found to equal it in originality is Jose Saramago's Blindness. Perfume, however, remains my alltime favorite.
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107 of 115 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, but not quite a Masterpiece, December 4, 2001
This review is from: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Paperback)
When the first english language version of "Perfume" was released in 1986, readers went crazy. Many placed it among the best books they'd ever read, myself included. A reread, fifteen years later yields a different, more muted, reaction. The book is good, very good. But it is not great.

"Perfume" succeeds so well because the premise is so startlingly novel. An olfactory genius in 18th-century Paris who can make a fortune creating perfumes more complicated and subtle than any ever made, is a sociopathic monster. Or as Suskind describes him, a "tick" who can roll up into a defensive ball or periodically drop himself into society. Grenouille is a compelling and disturbing character because Suskind has painted him in such realistic tones. Each effort to capture a new scent impels him farther, taking more chances and testing his limits, exploiting new techniques and his own criminal daring. This is true criminal pattern and makes Grenouille terrifyingly believable.

But the book can not be a great one, because Suskind's prose tends toward the overdone. Perhaps it reads better in the original German, but his maddening penchant for rephrasing and repeating the same notion and turning a sentence into a paragraph finally dulls the senses and sets the reader skimming along searching for the next important point.

The plot is so unique that it is brilliant. The execution is powerful, not only in Grenouille's characterization, but also because Suskind has done his homework and is smoothly at ease with 18th century mores and the science of perfume. But the squishy repetitive prose and unfocused paragraphs keep "Perfume" from joining the ranks of literary masterpieces.

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43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious and breath taking read, October 10, 2006
This review is from: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Paperback)

Upon hearing that this book was made into a movie that is to come out at the end of this year, I knew I had to read the story as I like to read the book first and see the movie after. Scent is something that people can't ignore, they can close their eyes and cover their ears, but a smell can reach them and intrude all private spaces.

Perfume is a tale of a period serial-killer, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille born in 18th century France of a woman who cut and cleaned fish. Born in the market, under her table he was to be left for dead, but miraculously as the people busied themselves with work they heard a powerful wail, a cry like no other. The mother caught at trying to dispose of her baby was punished by death, the little infant taken to a monastery but given away because his lack of scent frightened all around him. Taken by a woman who was battered by her husband when he was alive, who could not smell and feel, he was raised like any other orphan, as long as the church paid her yearly. Jean-Baptiste rouse suspicion from children who were scared of him, they couldn't get any feeling for what he was, for they knew he was not like all other humans. There was that lack of scent, the absolute nothingness and fear he spread, he preferred to be left alone, he worked hard and endured years of hard labor that would have any other human drop dead, but not Grenouille. He waited coiled up inside of his mind like a tick ready for fresh blood, he waited for an opportunity to conquer the world of scent and that he did.

As Grenouille jumps form job to job, landing a position with Baldini, a perfumer in Paris simply by chance he learns all that he can about proper extraction and perfume procedure, all of which are greatly described to the reader. Grenouille who lacks scent himself, has an immense library of scents which whiffs he only needed once in order to bottle and store them inside his own head. He can come up with the most exquisite combinations of scents and oil, pomades and cosmetics, bringing Baldini to the top of fame, letting him take all the credit. All that Grenouille wanted to learn was for his own knowledge, and as he traveled from town to town, people who helped him or who took him in meet with strange and sometimes gruesome deaths. Grenouille is a character who first omits great sympathy, with his cold soul, his strange manners and un-civilized at first behavior. I felt pity, I laughed and felt bad for him, but as time progressed his desire of scent capture moved form household objects to small animals and then humans. His indifference to pain and suffering quickly diffused any pity and made me read of him with a very weary mind.

Once he caught a scent of a ripening womanhood, he was transfixed. Among the 18th century Paris, that was crowded and stank of dirty people, food and excrements, he smelled a pure and beautiful scent, which he described as silk and milk. It was the scent of a red haired girl peeling yellow plums by the river. Jean-Baptiste knew from that moment on that the only scent he really wanted to create was that of a pure human in its crystalline form. After his first murder he inhaled the lingering spirit and put it away in his memory, he then traveled along the coast and waited years for an opportunity to study the science of perfume more and to apply it to his own devilish plan.

This book, has so much more going on that I can possibly describe, the world of Jean-Baptiste and his scents was a pleasure to read. I have never been so transfixed and captivated by a sense I take for granted, and this book was a refreshing eye opener.
Hundreds of scents are described in Patrick Suskind's novel, the smell of a blossoming woman, the metallic tang of a doorknob, the soft creamy sheep wool, oaky warmth of wood pulp, oranges ripening with juice, the moonlight cape of magnolias, the fresh windy smell of a puppy and finally, Grenouille's perfect perfume composed of twenty five virgins.

The ending was pretty shocking and total punch, it left me wanting to read more but also satisfied with how well the story wrapped up. I adored the descriptions of nature and of old Paris, I felt transported to the world of great costumes, powdered wigs, dirty living conditions and interesting relationships. Great read with a chilling villain who succumbs to his own desires and of the alluring world of scent which will never be the same.

- Kasia S.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars great!
great condition! speedy delivery, much faster than estimated! :) very happy with my purchase... oh yeah and suuuuper cheap! ;D
Published 3 days ago by the Iza

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
Purchased this book as a gift and they were happily surprised! I've searched for this in mainstream bookstores and wasn't able to find a copy. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Agogo

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautifully Written Must Read
This book was beautifully and lyrically written. It had wonderful characterization and it handled the subject of scents in a unique and intriguing way. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Nancy J. Maloney

4.0 out of 5 stars Murder Sweet Smelling
Treat yourself to a gripping multiple murder story written by a master. The prose has a sensual lyricism that makes it a delight to read. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Geoffrey Lambert

1.0 out of 5 stars RIDICULOUS
We are supposed to believe that this character has a remarkable sense of smell. Yet when he kills people, he doesn't smell their urine and feces when they void their bladders and... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Roger Angle

5.0 out of 5 stars PRIMAL & UNFORGETTABLE
How many books stay with you after a year? Five years? A decade? I remember reading THE PARFUME while in high school, about twenty years ago and it is as if I was immersed into... Read more
Published 5 months ago by NeuroSplicer

1.0 out of 5 stars Inverosímil y absurdo dislate bien narrado
Un asesino con el olfato inusualmente fino se dedica a estrujar mujeres como limones con la finalidad de extraerles su aromático aceite esencial para su deleite nasal... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Yvette Banderas

3.0 out of 5 stars Uneven but good prose
Started out beautifully but seemed to change unexpectantly from section to section. Areas that should have been important were glossed over in my opinion while superfluous... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Doc Eyeback

5.0 out of 5 stars Intoxicating
Patrick Suskind weaves a story of murder, scent, and unbridled desire. His descriptions of scent are unlike any author before or after him. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Paige Kinsley

5.0 out of 5 stars Grenouille means Frog in French. This book is no Frog!
I first picked this book up over 20 years ago at the suggestion of my spouse who knows I normally limit my reading to non-fiction. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Paula

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