Perfume

In eighteenth-century France, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born at a Paris fish stall with no body scent of his own and a sense of smell so sharp that he can read streets, workshops, and people by odor alone. After years in an orphanage and tannery he apprentices to a perfumer, learns distillation and composition, then travels to Grasse, the centre of the scent trade. There he hunts a perfect human fragrance, taking it from young women as a craftsman takes essence from flowers. The novel follows his craft, isolation, and crimes among guilds and luxury shops. It is a historical crime novel of smell and making, not a treatise on perfume chemistry.

Bound in grey cloth with gilt and white decoration on covers and maroon spine title. Engraved period map endpapers printed grey on cream. Maroon slipcase.