Das Parfum

Patrick Süskind, born in 1949 in Ambach on Lake Starnberg, studied modern and contemporary history in Munich and Aix-en-Provence, earning his living by writing screenplays.

A rare masterpiece of contemporary prose, a tightly woven, psychologically sophisticated narrative that recalls the early works of Patricia Highsmith, yet connects in its craftsmanship to the novella tradition of great European storytelling.

In the eighteenth century, there lived in France a man who was among the most brilliant and repugnant figures of an era rich in both genius and monstrosity. His story is to be told here. His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, and if his name has faded into obscurity compared to those of other infamous geniuses, such as de Sade, Saint-Just, Fouché, Bonaparte, and others, it is certainly not because Grenouille was inferior to these more famous dark figures in terms of arrogance, contempt for humanity, immorality, or, in short, godlessness. Rather, it is because his genius and singular ambition were confined to a realm that leaves no trace in history: the ephemeral kingdom of scents. At the time we speak of, the cities were filled with a stench that is hardly imaginable to modern people. The streets reeked of dung, the backyards of urine, the stairwells of rotten wood and rat droppings, the kitchens of spoiled cabbage and mutton fat; the unventilated rooms stank of...