by Susan Quilty

Created on: March 16, 2009   Last Updated: May 09, 2009

In Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, the protagonist possesses a questionable gift. Jean-Baptist Grenouille is born with a highly developed sense of smell. This olfactory perception is so highly developed, that scent becomes the sole purpose of Grenouille's life.

Set in eighteenth-century France, Patrick Suskind's Perfume takes readers through a pungent world described by primarily by its various scents. Grenouille scarcely needs his vision as he navigates the city by the squalid odors of the crowded streets, the sweetly sickening scent of its powdered and perfumed citizens, and the ripe and rotting smells of the marketplace.

The story begins with Grenouille's grisly birth and near-death at the hands of his uncaring mother. After surviving his mother's attempted infanticide, Grenouille is taken in by the church, and it is not long before his wet nurse notices a striking, unnatural difference in the baby. Grenouille has no personal odor. As a result of his unnaturalness, Grenouille is sent away from the church to live a difficult childhood at the hands of heartless caretakers.

From early childhood, Grenouille learns to live life by his nose. Grenouille can not only smell all, but can distill the components of any combined scent into their essential elements. Desiring the knowledge of how to capture scents, Grenouille manages to gain an unlikely apprenticeship with Giuseppe Baldini, an aging perfumer. Working secretly, Grenouille creates sensational perfumes that revive the perfumer's failing career.

As the story unfolds, it is apparent that Grenouille is a sociopath. He is completely unconcerned with other people, except to be disgusted by their odors. Until he discovers the enticing aroma of a beautiful young girl. In his excitement over her perfect scent, Grenouille murders the girl and is saddened when her scent fades. This begins his quest to capture a person's essence in a perfume vial.

Grenouille's quest initially leads him to disappointment and despair. He cannot capture the essence of a living being in the way he would capture the scent of a flower. Learning of additional perfumery processes, Grenouille embarks on a journey across France. Unusual experiences befall Grenouille on his road toward learning the perfumer's art, including a long period of isolation and a unexpected role in Marquis Taillade-Espinasse's cause de celebre, fluidal theory.

Grenouille's obsession leads him to perfect his own diabolic technique for preserving human scent. This launches a killing spree that terrorizes a small town and sends a father fleeing with his beautiful young daughter, the object of Grenouille's ultimate plan for the one perfect perfume. The aftermath of his quest is a chaos of olfactory over-stimulation and intense human emotion.

Throughout the novel, this dark story explores the essence of a human being. It examines what lies at the base of human interaction and how subtle influences, such as scent, can affect our reactions to each other. It is a disturbing and thought provoking story, rich with symbolism, and chilling in its portrayal of a strangely-abled sociopath.

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