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Perfume (International Writers) | 
 enlarge | Author: Patrick Suskind
Creator: J.e. Woods
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: $16.50
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $16.49 (100%)
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Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 232106
Media: Paperback
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0140120831
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780140120837
ASIN: 0140120831
Publication Date: January 26, 1989
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Stained Edges;stained cover Giving great service since 2004: Buy from the Best! 4,000,000 items shipped to delighted customers. We have 1,000,000 unique items ready to ship! Find your Great Buy today!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 A thriller that explores the little known world of smell June 6, 2007
deaner73 (Palo Alto, CA USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Patrick Suskind's, "Perfume," is a beautifully written novel that richly brings to life the world of 19th century France primarily through the scents and aromas that permeated the cities, people and countryside of that time. At its core, "Perfume," is a riveting character study that introduces as its main-character a villain every bit as imaginative and fleshed out in his sense of malice and purpose as Hannibal Lecter. The true beauty in this novel, however, is found in Suskind's detailed musings on his protagonist's extraordinary sense of smell and the way he interprets the world through such a gift.
While "Perfume," is an English translation of a German novel - the translation work is superb and fully conveys the depth of detail and colour that Suskind originally brought to life in his native tongue.
A Brilliant Story of the Best Nose in the World and the Murderer It Is Attached To January 18, 2007
Wildness (Colorado Plateau)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
"Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" is the brilliant story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille; born an Orphan in 18th Century Paris, Grenouille had no odor. In a city of stench, this child was born without an odor; wet nurse after wet nurse would give up after a few days because something was just not right. So begins the awful childhood of Grenouille.
He soon realizes that he has an amazing sense of smell; so amazing that as a teenager he picked the smell of the most beautifully smelling girl in all of Paris out a large crowd. Years after having been sold into servitude to a Tanner and accepting his meager existence, Grenouille was awakened by this smell; he needed to possess it. He needed to possess all of the most amazing smells in all of the world. Thus begins the journey of Grenouille...to great the world's greatest perfume to give himself - a man without an odor - the world's greatest smell.
Like "The Pigeon", another brilliant book by Sueskind, this book follows the evolving life of one man; a man so possessed by his ability to smell and his ability to recall smell and his ability to recreate that smell, that he must possess the very essence of the smell. And, when that smell belongs to beautiful young women, he must possess their very essence.
Patrick Sueskind's command of his prose makes him one of my favorite writers. The opening paragraph of this book is one of the most well crafted opening paragraphs I have every written; in it, he immerses the reader into the stench that was 17th Century Paris (I read this as a metaphor for need for the French to rely on perfume so much) so completely, that it makes your nose wrinkle and your eyes water.
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A Guide to my Book Rating System:
1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.
The Ode to Olfaction December 6, 2006
Galina (Virginia, USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I finished reading it few days ago and it is as good as I expected and deserves its praise. I read it in two languages, first in English and then in Russian and both translations are quite masterful. The novel does not flatter us humans at all and presents rather pessimistic outlook at the mankind. In this regard, the final two scenes seem to be absolutely brilliant in their morbid irony. Loved the style, the language, the pace and the manner in which Susskind makes myriads of odors he describes so real and the science and craft of perfume making so compelling. Another achievement is exploring the mind, motivations and the terrifying inner world of a genius-murderer with such incredible depth. The writer feels very comfortable in the 18th century's France and we can hear it, see it, touch it and certainly smell it from the pages of this remarkable debut by Patrick Susskind.
I count the days until the movie based on the novel and directed by Tom Tykwer opens here, next month, January 2007.
SCENTLESS APPRENTICE. June 28, 2006
Jeffery L. Voyles (tennessee)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
I came across this book and bought it only because I knew that Kurt Cobain of Nirvana had based his song Scentless Apprentice on the book. Had I simply seen the cover of the book I would not have even picked it up to look at it. I expected when I recieved the book that it might be a book which I would read perhaps three chapters of and then become bored with it. I was wrong. I think this may be the best book I have ever read. The story of suffering, the images of a certain time and place, the strangeness of the main character himself and the way the book is written are all amazing. I began reading this book with low expectations and was very pleasantly surprised. I would love to see someone may this book into a good movie. Thinking of the book as a movie I kept picturing someone like Elijah Wood as the main character and quirky actor Jeff Goldblum as the inventor of a flower growing machine in the book. Very highly recommended.
Deliciously decadent. August 29, 2005
Mary Whipple (New England)
22 out of 23 found this review helpful
This lusciously depicted novel is both a vivid evocation of life in eighteenth century Paris and an homage to the least celebrated of our senses--that of smell. In language so onomatopoetic it must have been an almost insuperable challenge for the translator, Suskind tells the tale of Grenouille (Frog), an orphan on the streets of Paris whose hard life would have destroyed a less single-minded pursuer of the sensuous life.
Grenouille's sense of smell is so subtly attuned that he can distinguish a single, elemental scent among the various aromas and stenches bombarding him, all vividly described by Suskind. He can identify individuals from their unique scents, a pursuit so compelling for him that he is willing to kill without conscience to preserve or distill the most glorious of these scents. As Grenouille moves from his apprenticeship in a butcher shop (depicted in nauseatingly odoriferous detail) to that of a perfumer, one of the book's witty ironies, the reader is bombarded with scents so intoxicatingly described that s/he may reach for the nearest spray perfume in order to participate personally in the author's sensuous celebrations.
One of the most gloriously descriptive (and sly) novels you will ever read, it is also an unforgettable commentary on depravity, unfettered arrogance, and ironically misplaced idealism, which culminates in a final, thunderous scene of exuberant depravity. Mary Whipple
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