I have been home recuperating from an illness and have been reading Collette this past week.
I was delighted by the many scent references in her poetic writing and wanted to share some excerpts here. I'd love to read excerpts from other writers that basenoters are enjoying, particularly dealing with the sense of smell.
These are from "The Ripening Seed," by Collette
"He felt assured of his welcome, however, when he saw the studied half-light in the salon and noticed the almost invisible table from from which rose a pervasive aroma of slow ripening peaches, of red cantaloupe melon cut in slices the shape of crescent moons, and of black coffee poured over crushed ice."
(Can't you just smell the peaches, melon and coffee notes? Yum!)
"He caught a whiff of lavender, of well ironed linen and seaweed, the components of Vinca's particular brand of scent..."
(This made me think if Penhaligon's had a scent with these notes in it)
"She had been quick to apprehend a feminine presence in Phillippe's life, warned from the outset by the vigilance of her pure love. She could be said almost to have sniffed the air around him, as if he had been smoking in secret or eating forbidden sweets."
(I like this one in which a woman's intuition is likened to the sense of smell. It is so true, isn't it?)
and this one:
"He put his hot hands to his face and felt them to be softer than was usual. They still carried vestiges of a scent so volatile that it vanished under his nostrils when he most wished to establish its essence , yet hung in the air like that of certain sweet-scented plants when their leaves are bruised."
(Isn't this language sublime? Thanks for permitting me my indulgences.I can count on you, of all people to understand my obsession with language and scents.)
I was delighted by the many scent references in her poetic writing and wanted to share some excerpts here. I'd love to read excerpts from other writers that basenoters are enjoying, particularly dealing with the sense of smell.
These are from "The Ripening Seed," by Collette
"He felt assured of his welcome, however, when he saw the studied half-light in the salon and noticed the almost invisible table from from which rose a pervasive aroma of slow ripening peaches, of red cantaloupe melon cut in slices the shape of crescent moons, and of black coffee poured over crushed ice."
(Can't you just smell the peaches, melon and coffee notes? Yum!)
"He caught a whiff of lavender, of well ironed linen and seaweed, the components of Vinca's particular brand of scent..."
(This made me think if Penhaligon's had a scent with these notes in it)
"She had been quick to apprehend a feminine presence in Phillippe's life, warned from the outset by the vigilance of her pure love. She could be said almost to have sniffed the air around him, as if he had been smoking in secret or eating forbidden sweets."
(I like this one in which a woman's intuition is likened to the sense of smell. It is so true, isn't it?)
and this one:
"He put his hot hands to his face and felt them to be softer than was usual. They still carried vestiges of a scent so volatile that it vanished under his nostrils when he most wished to establish its essence , yet hung in the air like that of certain sweet-scented plants when their leaves are bruised."
(Isn't this language sublime? Thanks for permitting me my indulgences.I can count on you, of all people to understand my obsession with language and scents.)
