Perfume - Patrick Süskind & John E. Woods (Translator)

 

I read this book over the Halloween weekend as I thought it would be the perfect spooky read. It is labelled 'the story of a murderer', so I knew it would be pretty creepy and thrilling. I was published in 1985 by German author Patrick Süskind as Das Parfüm. Die Geschichte eines Mörders, and was translated into English by John E. Woods. I found the book to be reminiscent in style and language use to Shelley's Frankenstein, and also adopts similar themes as the classic Gothic novel, particularly in its protagonist. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is portrayed as an outsider who is driven by instinct and not human emotion - much like Victor Frankenstein's monster. Grenouille is born in the filthy, disease-ridden slums of eighteenth-century France to a woman who is hanged soon after his birth. Now an orphan, the baby is rejected by carers as they realise he has no personal odour - in such a smelly city he is completely unscented, which alarms and frightens people as they believe him inhuman.

Despite his lack of perfume, Grenouille grows up with an unparalleled sense of smell, and he quickly deciphers the scents around him with ease before becoming an apprentice to a local perfumer who coaches him in the ancient art of combining oils and herbs to create colognes. As his talent grows, Grenouille becomes obsessed with capturing the scent of other objects such as wooden furniture and metal, and learns how to extract their odour and encase it in oil to preserve the memory of the object. That is, until one day he experiences a scent which he has never experienced - that of a virgin girl. On his quest to make the ultimate perfume of this beautiful smell, Grenouille becomes murderous, and his insatiable thirst for virginal girls results in numerous victims.

This book is really creepy and uncomfortable to read, but so dazzling in its prose and rich, luxurious language. Certain passages are so visceral, particularly when describing the rotten, festering and disgusting smells of the foetid French streets, and you can almost smell the odours Süskind is describing. I have to admit that the end of the novel got a bit much for me (no spoilers!) as it just descended into complete chaos and was completely ridiculous. Yes, the entire novel was fantastical and over-the-top, but I think the ending was just too bizarre and outrageous for my liking! That being said, this was a harrowing, shocking and mesmerising novel which I enjoyed for the most part.