Perfume

Patrick Suskind's "Perfume" is a classic novel of death and sensuality set in Paris, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time.

In eighteenth-century France, there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable figures in an era known for such characters. His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, and if his name has been forgotten today, it is certainly not because he lacked the arrogance, misanthropy, immorality, or, more succinctly, wickedness of more famous villains. Rather, it is because his gifts and sole ambition were confined to a domain that leaves no traces in history: the fleeting realm of scent.

An astonishing tour de force both in concept and execution.

A fantastic tale of murder and twisted eroticism controlled by a disgusted loathing of humanity. Clever, stylish, absorbing, and well worth reading.

A meditation on the nature of death, desire, and decay. A remarkable debut.

Unlike anything else one has read. A phenomenon. Everyone seems to want to get a whiff of this strange perfume, which will remain unique in contemporary literature.

An ingenious and totally absorbing fantasy.

Witty, stylish, and ferociously absorbing.