This might well be the perfect novel - a gorgeously written page-turner, with a protagonist so breathtakingly original and convincingly crafted he drags you headfirst into his dreary world of tormented desire, a cast of unforgettable characters and a recreation of the world as though it had existed solely so that Jean-Baptiste Grenouille could roam it.

One can't help feeling that, in creating such a hermetic antihero, Suskind might well be writing about himself - seeing as the reclusive author hasn't since allowed as but few and fragmentary (though brilliant in themselves) glimpses of his psyche, effectively disappearing much like his ill-fated murderer does.

Woods is one hell of a translator (his heaven-sent work on Thomas Mann alone would suffice to call him a literary benefactor of humanity), and this is a book you'll definitely find yourselves returning to, either in thought or by devouring it again and again.

(And although this is neither here nor there, this is the book that made a writer of me - so I can't help loving it to pieces).

2nd time around: Still eerie, deeply disturbing but a beautiful surreal experience! Grenouille is still one of the most fascinating characters I have ever encountered

PHENOMENAL!!!!!!!!!!!!! I f$@£! loved it




“He succeeded in being considered totally uninteresting. People left him alone. And that was all he wanted.” 




18th Century France, Grenouille is a man who has no human scent or body odor but is gifted with a very sharp sense of smell. He has the gift of recognizing and creating smells that would appeal to other people. He works as an apprentice perfumer and journeyed to explore all available human scents in Paris. He wanted to have a scent of his own. A scent that would give him the body odor that every person has that he did not have. It was his desire to be one of them that he makes concoctions of various perfumes to find a human scent that would make him smell like everyone else.



I think my head has stopped spinning enough for me to say why this book is absolutely phenomenal. The book follows the life of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (a f*cking name and a half) born in the late 1700s Paris in a very dark period where sanitation facilities and pollution were not at the best state.



(Fair warning foul descriptions at every page)


With a remarkable gift of super scent and being odorless is the only thing that is going for him. This gift comes at a huge cost as it drives him to sort out the perfect perfume and it will come at a cost of someone else's life.


“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.” 


Words I would use to describe my experience reading this book "Intoxicating Complex" For such a short book it really had a depth of a thousand pages. The character study was one of the strong points of the book, using scent as a perspective to explore power, obsession, perfection and so much more was just mind-blowing. The idea of how lonely perfection can be was an interesting POV, how as humans we desperately try to fill that emptiness but in the end, it just grows wider disintegrates till we àre left as empty vessels. As I was following this person slowly evolving into this monster I found myself feeling sympathetic towards him because that feeling of emptiness was what was driving him to commit these atrocities. His view of the world was just so dark and depressing leading him to become so introverted and isolated with no idea of what is good or bad.



*Don't go into this book expecting a fast paced thriller*






“He possessed the power. He held it in his hand. A power stronger than the power of money or the power of terror or the power of death: the invincible power to command the love of mankind. There was only one thing that power could not do: it could not make him able to smell himself.” 




.

The writing was where it got really juicy, I honestly thought this book was published in the early 1900s because of the slow descriptive atmospheric prose but it was actually translated in 1990s and the translator did an incredible job. The Gothic setting was just everything and this wasn't the conventional "murder mystery" it was a slow build up that really engulfed me placiñg me dead center into the time period.  Totally caught by surprise with a scent driven book and I will be haunted by it for a long time, I can't wait to reread this modern classic again

Una de mis novelas favoritas de todos los tiempos... tiene su pelicula, pero no termina de hacerle justicia.

Situada en Francia, en el siglo XVIII, donde el autor describe el ambiente como apestoso, caótico y nauseabundo. Por lo qué en medio de todo esto conoceremos a nuestro protagonista: Grenouille, que nada más nacer es abandonado en un mercado por su propia madre. A pesar de ello él pronto descubre que es especial, tiene la capacidad de oler todos los olores del mundo, y a la vez él mismo no huele nada, por lo que es capaz de pasar desapercibido. Algo que lo llevará a obsesionarse por crear el perfume perfecto, lo que incluirá, por desgracia, la esencia de las más bellas mujeres.

Está novela es de esas que tiene bien merecida su fama, la leí cuando adolescente y no podía despegarme de ella, las descripciones de los personajes, lugares, situaciones ¡y olores! son magníficos. El protagonista, Grenouille, es de esos personajes tan bien construidos, que amas y odias a la misma vez. Su habilidad con los olores resulta fascinante, pero su retorcida forma de ver el mundo es repugnante. Grenouille es el ejemplo perfecto de un psicópata sin remedio, cargado de un profundo resentimiento y odio hacia la humanidad. A lo largo de la trama veremos como éste personaje escala desde lo más bajo, gracias a su habilidad, que lo llevara a creerse dueño del mundo, sin pensar que su mismo virtuosismo será también el causante de su perdición.

Novela que a mi criterio tiene un ritmo perfecto, aunque he escuchado que a algunos se le ha hecho algo pesado el exceso de descripciones. Grenouille va armando su propio mundo en base a olores y el autor se toma su tiempo para transmitirnoslo, lo que en mi caso agradecí enormemente ya que logró acercarme mucho más al personaje y comprender su tan peculiar (¡repugnante!) psicología.

¡Obra maestra a mí criterio!
¡Muy recomendada!

Due to a bit of a cold lately, I couldn't smell the cinnamon sprinkled on my Frothy Coffee, nor the aromas of fresh croissants walking past the patisserie, or the preparation of an evening meal consisting of mussels cooked in garlic butter. I love these smells, they are just as important to me as taste, damn this cold!, if only I had the nose of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, having a cold wouldn't have made any difference, I could smell the fresh fish markets from a mile away!. No interest though in hunting virgins for their scent thank God.

Süskind's novel (which I didn't even realise has been so popular) is Set in 18th century France, and tells the grim story of one Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a physically and emotionally abused orphan who is blessed with a supernatural gift, the great sense of smell. His frenzied obsession for odours guides him in a ghastly perverse way to search for the lost origin of his identity. A genius of aroma, Grenouille himself lacks a personal odor, signifying an absence of individual identity, but never mind, he can just go about stealing that of others. As he discovers his olfactory virtuosity, he becomes increasingly obsessed with inventing new fragrances, particularly his own, which he attempts to create artificially by extracting and blending the corporeal scents of young virginal women he murders. His great hope is to create the ideal perfume that will give him the magical essence of identity. He despises the rest of mankind, but still is solely driven by a desire for the attention and affection of others, he wants to be top dog, the hell with everybody else. At the moment of his crowning glory, however, Grenouille knows that the aura of identity created by his magic perfume is an illusion, and that it has been hate rather than love that drove him to become a genius of perfuming. After this epiphany, Grenouille goes barking mad, and surrenders himself to a gory finale.

This book was good, I enjoyed it for the most part, but for me, it wasn't great, as viewed by a lot of others. The plot is unique and skilfully done, not only in Grenouille’s characterization, but also because Süskind has done his homework on 18th century France and the science behind perfume. He describes Grenouille and his actions with a detached demeanor, thereby heightening the horrific nature of Grenouille’s actions by not commenting on that nature, this leads to the problem though of very little coverage in Grenouille's despair as he realises that everything he did was in vain and ultimately unsatisfying to both him and me as the reader. And the repetitive prose and unfocused paragraphs had me skimming the odd page here and there. I can see why it has had big appeal, because on the surface, the premise is so startlingly different, so kudos there, and he gets a range of emotions from sympathy when a filthy young orphan, to disgust and hatred when he starts his murderous quest.

Even tough the chilling horrors of Grenouille's actions are painted in such realistic tones, the novel on the whole never really got under my skin as I thought it would, it's good in places but pretentious in others, and summing up the central character he was just too two-dimensional for my liking. Not the sort of book I would normally read, so at least it was a break from the norm.
Although I am still a long way off wondering around in grandpa slippers, I felt this novel was maybe intended for a younger audience.
Forget the fish guts, cow hide, boiled puppy and dead virgins, I will stick to the mint, lavender, bergamot, sandalwood and tonka bean of Jean Paul Gaultier.

A lightly scented 3/5

Wow, was this one disturbing. Our main character was born with an incredibly good sense of smell, but without any smell to his own body. He uses these anomalies to work his way from being a detested orphan to a celebrated parfumier, but ultimately, he's looking to acquire power over other people. He uses his gifts in the most grotesque ways to achieve this.

It's so weird describing a book this dark as anything pleasing to the senses, but I suspect that's the whole point. This book will have your nose on alert; the smells described so evocatively are, at turns, repellent and luscious. It's a sensory rollercoaster and it's deeply unsettling.

اهلا بكم في رواية ينبعث من صفحاتها عبق ما... رواية رائعة ذات رائحة

لا ليس بهذه الطريقة مستر جرين ...لم أقصد رائحة الكتب الساحرة التي آلفناها
بل هي رواية ذات روائح مختلفة ومتعددة تسبب لك مزيج من المتعة، القرف، النشوة، الحنين، الاشمئزاز و اﻷثارة..والجمال...رواية عطرية بعطور متعددة مختلفة

أهلا بكم في فرنسا القرن الثامن عشر..كما لم تراها تشتمها من قبل

في ذلك الوقت لم تكفي عطورها الشهيرة اخفاء نتن فقر شوارعها وحتي أهلها قبل الثورة ..وفي دكان بيع سمك بأقذر أحياءها يولد جان باتيست جرينوي ..القاتل

قاتل لأنه ليس له رائحة مميزة...مجرد عديم الرائحة , أو ربما كما اقترح عليّ احد الأصدقاء في التعليقات هنا- عديم الشخصية
لذا صار يسرق من غيره رائحتهم...شخصيتهم .. جاذبيتهم
في رواية عجيبة , وجرائم فظيعة..ورائحة عطور مختلفة

ولنقسم الريفيو كما الرواية الي 4 اجزاء

الجزء اﻷول
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ومع كل الرائحة الزفرة حوله في دكان السمك، او رائحة باريس العفنه..يولد جرينوي بإعاقة شاذة...فهو بلا رائحة مميزة، بل بلا أي رائحة علي الأطلاق، ليس هذا فحسب بل أن سوء الحظ وشؤمه يقع علي كل من تولي رعايته وهو صغير حتي ينتقل في سن الثامنة للعمل في مدبغ جلود بائس

وحتي يصل لعمر الثالثة عشر تتغير حياته عندما يكتشف اجمل عطر التقطته انفه، عطر فتاة جميلة حمراء الشعر ، وقد كلفها شغفه برائحتها عمرها القصير...بينما ظل هو أسير مثل هذا العطر النادر

ونكتشف أن جرينوي يميز الروائح كلها ببراعة غريبة ويفسرها وحتي قدرته علي الكلام والتسمية تعتبر في احسن احوالها عند ربط المسمي بعطره

وفي الجزء اﻷول ايضا نتعرف علي بالديني العطار صانع الروائح، العجوز والذي سحب منه البساط لصانعوا العطر الجدد

وفي الليلة التي ينوي فيها اعتزال العمل نهائيا لشعوره بالعجز لتصنيع عطور جديدة ... يدخل حياته جرينوي بالصدفة ليقلب حياته رأسا علي عقب
وايضا تنقلب حياة جرينوي الذي يصقل موهبته الفطرية الغريبة والغير عادية, ويبحث عن كافة الوسائل الممكنة لتحقيق غايته الغريبة المجهولة لنا حتي الأن

وينتهي الجزء الاول النهاية الطبيعية لعلاقة العمل الغريبة بين جرينوي وبالديني، ولكن بعد ان عرف جرينوي كل طرق الحصول علي العطر من اي شئ ، إيا كان

*************************
في هذا الجزء تتجلي براعة الرواية وفكرتها الاساسية بل وعبقرية الراوي في وصف العطور المختلفة, ليس "العطور,البرفانات" فحسب وانما تقريبا جميع انواع الروائح

اعجبني جدا ايضا في هذا الجزء التقسيم بين نصفه الاول المخصص لنشأة جرينوي والنصف الثاني المخصص لبالديني وكيف كان السبب في بداية وضع جرينوي علي الطريق الوحيد الذي يصلح له، طريق العطور

كما ان بالرغم من ان الجزء الاول ليس مليئا بالاحداث، وقد يغلب عليه السرد بكثرة. إلا انه 'محكما' روائيا وايضا بالنسبة لتصوير مصائر كل الشخصيات التي ظهرت به بطريقة تصويريه بارعة بحق

كذلك المشهد الذي تنتهي فيه حياة جريمال صاحب المدبغ بينما تبدأ حياة جرينوي الجديدة من المشاهد المكتوبة سينمائيا بدقه فعلا

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

الجزء الثاني
-------------
يذهب جرينوي في رحلة للبحث عن ذاته ... بالعزلة التامة عن الناس

وفي هذا الجزء يكتشف ، في نصف الرواية بالضبط ، شذوذه الغريب، أنه بلا أي رائحة بشرية. ..بلا رائحة علي الإطلاق... مما كاد يفتك به
ولكن جرينوي ذلك القراد القاسي... ذلك القملة المقيت مصاص الدماء يأبي أن يموت

ولهذا نتعرف في النصف الثاني من هذا الجزء علي الماركيز اسبيناس ذو الاكتشافات العلمية الغريبة، والتي بفضلها ينجح في أشفاء جرينوي ليصير إنسانا طبيعيا ظاهريا
ولكنه لا يعلم أن شفاء جرينوي التام كان له سببا اخرا اهم, أنه نجح في مقصده اﻷول. .. خلق رائحة له

في هذا الجزء ايضا يغلب السرد والذي كاد يكون مملا بالنسبة لي في نصفه اﻷول ولكن ما يميزه هو أن المؤلف أضاف بصورة بارعة الحالة العامة لفرنسا أنذاك ...إجتماعيا.، طبقيا، دينيا وعسكرياً, ظهور التنوريين والماسون وتطرف الجماعات الدينية الي اخر اهم ظواهر ذلك القرن دون اسهاب او ملل

كما أن الجزء الخاص بتعريف نظريات الماركيز العلمية الغريبة أثارت أهتمامي جدا خاصا وانها مكتوبة بتفصيل غريب

الأمر الآخر أن أيضا في هذا الجزء رسم المؤلف النهاية للشخصيات بالجزء الثاني ايضا كما ي الجزء الأول, فقدم تفصيل لكيف انتهت شخصية الماركيز

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
الجزء الثالث
-------------

العـــــــــطــــــــر

وهنا تبدأ الاحداث في الاثارة
وهنا ,بعد منتصف الرواية تقريبا يبدأ جرينوي كما حدد ,تنفيذ اسطورته الشخصية كما يقول العم باولو كويللو

بالمرث الساخن والبارد سيحاول الوصول لغايته الغريبة -ستقابل الكثير من الكلمات الغير معتادة نوعا ما في تلك الترجمة , ولكن سهل معرفة معناها بالاحداث- ليحقق اهم عطر في حياته

وليصل لاسطورته...وايضا حقيقته
ومن رضيع عديم الرائحة ولد علي ارض زفرة نتنة..الي معشوق اهل المدينة الصغيرة التي كانت محطتة الأخيرة


وكي لانحرق الاحداث بالنسبة لهذا الجزء, الذي كان به شخصيات مثيرة كان من الممكن "مرثها" اكثر لاستخراج احداث اقوي , او حتي نهايات محكمة كما في الجزءين السابقين

ولكن من اهم نقاط القوة هنا ايضا غير وصف العطور والروائح, شرح ممتع لصناعة مراهم العطور والصابون و روح العطور الخالصة والفروق في صناعتها بشكل غير مسهب وغير مختصر او مبهم..فكان هناك توازن جيد

كما ستظل من اهم نقاط القوة التي أحتسبها للمؤلف هو تقديمه لمشهد جامح دون السقوط في الأبتذال او الاسهاب البذئ ككتاب أخرين

لن نحرق المزيد من اﻷحداث وسنكتفي بان يكون حديثنا عن أصغر الاجزاء هو الكلمة الاخيرة لريفيو تلك الرواية الفريدة

الجزء الرابع
-------------

تقييمي لهذا الجزء هو ما انقص شيئا بسيطا من التقييم النهائي, منذ اواخر الجزء الثالث الي الجزء الرابع شعرت ان الاحداث بدات تنتهي بخفوت كالعطر, الاثارة والقوة تتطاير لتنتهي الرواية فقط بشعور انك جربت عطر رائع ولكنه انتهي اسرع مما كنت تريد

ربما تكون هذه ميزة,لكني شعرت اني اريد نفحة اقوي بالنهاية...تمريث اكثر قليلا علي الساخن :)
ولكن ستظل الرواية لها مكانتها فعلا بين الروايات المتميزة

العــطـر , رواية فريدة...فكرة جهنمية وشخصية غريبة وطريقة سرد تجعلك تشتم كل العطور والروائح التي تم ذكرها

تجعلك تشعر بالنوستاليجا الشمية "الحنين لبعض روائح الماضي" وستجد عقلك يحاول البحث عن وصف لتلك الروائح كما وصف العبقري باتريك سيسكيند الروائح بتلك الرواية , تذكرت عطر ابي المفضل في الثمانينات واوائل التسعينات

اعجابي الغريب برائحة الاستيكة, ضيقي من رائحة اثار الخبز والجبن الابيض في حقيبة المدرسة, عشقي لرائحة السجاد الجديد في محلات الموكيت والسجاد و و و و
حتي عطر رائحته كالماء والتي شممتها في يوم ما في احد الدروس وظللت اتذكر اني شممت عطر الماء وحتي الان اتمني ان اجد مثله
Aquamarine اشتريت مؤخرا شاور جل برائحة
وهي فعلا رائحته مقاربة ولكني مازلت اتمني ان اجد مثل هذا العطر

ولا ننسي الرائحة التي أسرتنا جميعا اعضاء الجودريدز..كمستر جرين في اول الريفيو..رائحة المجلات والكتب

وبالحديث عن رائحة الكتب
يبدوا انهم مرثوا الكثير من الكتب لينتجوا هذا العطر ذو رائحة الكتب

عطر "عشق الورق" حقيقي ويمكن شراءه من موقع امازون او اي موقع تسوق

بعد هذا الاعلان الغير مدفوع للاسف :) , ارشح لكم رواية العطر فعلا كنموذج متميز وفريد لافكار الروايات
رواية غريبة خارجة عن المألوف

رواية ستشمها وانت تقرأها..حرفيا

محمد العربي
من 25 اغسطس 2014
الي 29 اغسطس 2014

One of my all time favorite novels! I kept re-reading this book to a point that I lose count. It's a shockingly elegant, frightening, rich and masterfully crafted story about the 19th century Paris and a murderer with a highly unusual talent.

edited@01/12/2021:

I watched n  Parfumn, the rewritten version/adaptation of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer! And I find it to be very delightful and creative!

Por fin me decido a leer este clásico.  

Poco puedo decir que no se haya dicho ya de esta obra de sobra conocida.
La primera obra escrita por Patrick Süskind en 1985, nos narra con una prosa exquisita y muy detallada a la hora de describir los olores y cada matiz, la vida de Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, un asesino serial un tanto peculiar y con una vida marcada por la desgracia desde el mismo momento que nace.
La ambientación y el inicio es brutal, te atrapan y no te sueltan.
La gente le teme porque no desprende ningún olor, al contrario de la vida de la época, calles que huelen a pis y excremento (todo esto se narra al detalle nada más empezar a leer las primeras líneas y me ha hecho poner cara de asco en múltiples ocasiones

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is about odors, smells, scents, bouquets, aromas, stenches, miasmas, etc. and their influence over people’s senses and, ultimately, actions and decisions. Now what if you could capture such influence and make it yours? What if, with such power in your hands, you could control people, lure them, abuse them, and have them do whatever you want without them ever being the wiser? How much time would it take before you, the master perfumer, began to fall prey to your own newfound ability, then went to town with it and altogether joined the dark side, succumbing as a result to all its seductive, alluring, and murderous vices and perversions? Well, if you are so inclined to find out, the answer is in this book, which, truth be told, is an absolute masterpiece… that is, until you reach the end. And then, even though you know it couldn’t have ended any other way, you can’t help but notice a wistful fragrance of might-have-beens in the air as you reluctantly yet gladly turn the last page.

OLIVIER DELAYE
Author of the SEBASTEN OF ATLANTIS series
n  n

I'd like to make something very clear with my review of this book. I normally don't go overboard with the whole "the movie vs. the book" argument because I'm not interested in making people's decisions for them, even though I'm strongly opinionated about the subject. But this is a case where I have to speak out. Süskind has created here a work of literary art in prose, and I take that seriously. I admire lots of books but I wouldn't say this about any old novel. The movie "Perfume" makes an utter mockery of this artwork, its incredible language (even in translation) and its profoundly disturbing character. The movie is to this book what a smudge of dirt is to a brilliant, glowing star. The movie not only fails to capture the depth and profundity of the prose but also of its unique darkness and unsettling moral bleakness. "Perfume"'s central character (in many ways, its only character) is far beyond some simplistic "good" or "evil." Rather, he is utterly disconnected from humanity. He lacks a fundamental concept of agency in other people, who are essentially conveyors or producers of smells and nothing more. He kills, not with any idea of transgression, but simply as he would break an object in order to smell it. In this he is far more terrifying than any serial killer or other contrived "evil" character, and the story of his incredible and absurd life leaves one with a deep darkness that takes a long time to dissipate after the novel is closed and shelved or passed on.

The movie, as I saw it, conveyed none of this existentially disturbing character, but merely his salient features; i.e., his uncanny ability to smell and dissect smells, and even then can't possibly describe what he senses with the book's vividness and detail. In short, viewers are left with a paltry, thin gruel that denigrates and shames the original book and its author.

To be entirely honest I still haven't decided whether I loved the book or hated it. XD I loved the writing style and the idea behind it but at the same time I was disgusted by the vivid pictures it provoked. It was way too easy to get lost in the "Perfume" and I swear I could literally smell the book while I read it. *lol*

All things considered it actually was a very good read and I can recommend it to everyone who's into haunting stories.

I read that book a while ago and I'm still thinking about it! So yeah I guess Patrick Süskind did an amazing job! ;-)

Bizarre and unusual tale set in eighteenth century France. Grenouille is born without an odour and becomes obsessed with odours. He gradually moves through the novel learning all there is to know about perfume and scent and how to make, extract and distill it. Unfortunatley Grenouille is completely amoral with no feeling for anyone else. The story becomes increasingly bizarre and the ending is strange; difficult to stomach you might say!
It is a well written, beautifully crafted with rich language and an empty heart. Take it out of its historical context and stick it in a modern city and what do you have. Scent obsessed loner murders 26 young girls for their hair and scent; we do not know their names (apart from one), they are merely victims; all very young. None of the victims are male and there are no significant female characters in the book (Ok. I know teenage boys don't smell that sweet! But I did wonder at Grenouille choosing young girls as he didn't seem to find any odour offensive). A heart warming story of a serial killer, who objectifies women. American Psycho anyone!!
As you may have guessed I didn't find the story all that convincing and as for the orgy at the end, I think the author ran out of ideas; or possibly forgot himself and thought he was writing for Playboy. Nevertheless, it passed a wet afternoon and there were a few laugh out loud moments (not entirely sure they were meant to be funny though!)