Perfume
by Patrick Süskind
List Price: $13.00
Pages: 272
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0375725849
Publisher: Vintage
An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's
classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one
man's indulgence in his greatest passion-his sense of smell-leads to murder.
In the slums of eighteenth-century
France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift-an
absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris,
and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient
art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such
that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing
the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and frest-cut wood. Then
one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying
quest to create the "ultimate perfume"-the scent of a beautiful young
virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brillance, Perfume is a hauntingly
powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.
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1. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born in a food market that had been erected above the Cimetire des
Innocents, the "most putrid spot in the whole kingdom" [p. 4]. He barely
escapes death at his birth; his mother would have let him die among
the fish guts as she had her four other children. But Grenouille miraculously
survives. How would you relate the circumstances of his birth to the
life he grows up to live?
2. When the wet nurse refuses to keep Grenouille because he has no smell and therefore must be a "child
of the devil" [p. 11], Father Terrier takes him in. But he is exasperated.
He has tried to combat "the superstitious notions of the simple folk:
witches and fortune-telling cards, the wearing of amulets, the evil
eye, exorcisms, hocus-pocus at full moon, and all the other acts they
performed" [p. 14]. In what ways can Perfume be read as a critique
of the eighteenth century's conception of itself as the Age of Reason?
Where else in the novel do you find rationality being overcome by baser
human instincts?
3. Throughout the novel, Grenouille is likened to a tick. Why do you think Süskind chose this analogy?
In what ways does Grenouille behave like a tick? What does this analogy
reveal about his character that a more straightforward description would
not?
4. Grenouille is born with a supernaturally developed sense of smell. He can smell the approach
of a thunderstorm when there's not a cloud in the sky and wonders why
there is only one word for smoke when "from minute to minute, second
to second, the amalgam of hundreds of odors mixed iridescently into
ever new and changing unities as the smoke rose from the fire" [p. 25].
He can store and synthesize thousands of odors within himself and re-create
them at will. How do you interpret this extraordinary ability? Do you
think such a sensitivity to odor is physically possible? Do you feel
Süskind wants us to read his novel as a kind of fable or allegory?
Why do you think Süskind chose to build his novel around the sense
of smell instead of one of the other senses?
5. What motivates Grenouille to commit his first murder? What does he discover about himself and
his destiny after he has killed the red-haired girl?
6. Do the descriptions of life in eighteenth-century France--the crowded quarters, the unsanitary conditions,
the treatment of orphans, the punishment of criminals, etc.--surprise
you? How are these conditions related to the ideals of enlightenment,
reason, and progress that figure so prominently in eighteenth-century
thinking?
7. The perfumer Baldini initially regards Grenouille with contempt. He explains, "Whatever the art or
whatever the craft--and make a note of this before you go!--talent means
next to nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard
work, means everything" [p. 74]. And yet Grenouille is able to concoct
the most glorious perfumes effortlessly and with no previous experience
or training. What do you think the novel as a whole conveys about the
relationship between genius and convention, creativity and destruction,
chaos and order?
8. The narrator remarks, "Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances,
emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended
off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues
us totally. There is no remedy for it" [p. 82]. Do you think this is
true? Why would an odor have such power? In what ways does Grenouille
use this power to his advantage?
9. Some reviewers have claimed that the Süskind's writing in Perfume is "verbose and theatrical,"
while others have described it as "sensuous and supple." Clearly, the
writing is more extravagantly imaginative than the pared down minimalism
of much recent American fiction. How do you respond to Süskind's
prose? How do you respond to the critical reactions outlined above?
10. Grenouille is introduced as "one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that
knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages" [p. 3]. Does Süskind
manage to make him a sympathetic character, in spite of his murders
and obsessions? Or do you find him wholly repellent? How might you explain
Grenouille's actions? To what extent do his experiences shape his behavior?
Do you think he is inherently evil?
11. When Grenouille emerges from his self-imposed seven-year exile, he is brought to the attention
of the marquis de La Taillade-Espinasse, whose theory that "life could
develop only at a certain distance from the earth, since the earth itself
constantly emits a corrupting gas, a so-called fluidum letale, which
lames vital energies and sooner or later totally extinguishes them"
[pp. 139Š140] seems to explain Grenouille's sad condition. This theory
also contends that all living creatures therefore "endeavor to distance
themselves from the earth by growing" upwards and away from the earth
[p. 140]. What attitudes and beliefs is Süskind satirizing through
the character of Taillade-Espinasse?
12. Grenouille becomes, toward the end of the novel, a kind of olfactory vampire, killing young women
to rob them of their scents. "What he coveted was the odor of certain
human beings: that is, those rare humans who inspire love. These were
his victims" [p. 188]. Why does he need the scents of these people?
13. In the novel's climatic scene, just as Grenouille is about to be executed, he uses the perfume
he's created to turn the townspeople's hatred for him into love and
to inspire an orgy which collapses class distinctions and pairs "grandfather
with virgin, odd-jobber with lawyer's spouse, apprentice with nun, Jesuit
with Freemason's wife--all topsy-turvy, just as opportunity presented"
[p. 239]. Grenouille is revered and regards himself as godlike in this
triumph. Does he enjoy this moment, or is it a hollow victory? What
is the novel suggesting about the nature of human love? About order
and disorder?
14. After Grenouille leaves the town of Grasse, where he has caused so much death and suffering,
his case is officially closed and we're told, "The town had forgotten
it in any event, forgotten it so totally that travelers who passed through
in the days that followed and casually inquired about Grasse's infamous
murderer of young maidens found not a single sane person who could give
them any information" [p. 247]. Why do the townspeople react this way?
Why isn't it possible for them to integrate what has happened into their
daily consciousness?
15. How do you interpret the novel's ending, as Grenouille returns to the Cimeti¸re des Innocents
and allows himself to be murdered and eaten by the criminals who loiter
there? What ironies are suggested by the narrator's assertion that Grenouille's
killers had just done something, for the first time, "out of love" [p.
255]?
16. Perfume is set in eighteenth-century France and tells an extravagant story of a man possessed
with a magical sense of smell and a bizarrely destructive obsession.
Do its historical setting and fantastic elements make it harder or easier
to identify with? What contemporary issues and anxieties does the story
illuminate?
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"A fable of crimial genius.... Remarkable."—The New York Times
"Superb storytelling all the
way...the climax is a savage shocker."—The Plain Dealer
"An astonishing performance,
a masterwork of artistic conception and executioin. A totally gripping page-turner."—San Francisco Chronicle
