Why did Grenouille limp? For some reason it smells like pure spring water.

What did Europe smell like?

What medieval cities looked like

Did Grenouille have a prototype?

Why Grasse became the capital of perfumery

Is it possible to create the scent of love?

________________________________________ ______

"Perfume" by Patrick Suskind - without a doubt, the literary sensation of the end
XX century. A work popular among housewives and rebellious women
tuned intellectual students. A volume with a novel is possible
meet the secretary in the hands of a secretary pressed against the door of a subway car and
resting under the Spanish sun from the deeds of righteous and unrighteous her
The boss is a business shark. You, in fact, know all this yourself.

Much of what is presented in this book evokes in the attentive reader
questions, in particular about the morals and life of the Europeans of that time, about perfumery and
prototypes of the main character, about the possibility of creating a universal
aroma of love, etc. Let's try to figure it out...

__________________

Chapter I. Did Jean-Baptiste Grenouille have a real prototype?

In the 18th century in France there lived a man who belonged to the most brilliant and
the most disgusting figures of this era, so rich in genius and
disgusting figures. His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, and if that's the name,
unlike the names of other brilliant monsters like de Sade, Saint Just,
Fouche, Bonaparte, are now consigned to oblivion, it is by no means because Grenouille
inferior to the famous fiends of the hell of darkness in arrogance, contempt for people,
immorality, in short, in godlessness, but because his genius and his
phenomenal vanity was limited to a sphere that left no traces in
history - a volatile kingdom of smells.

Patrick Suskind, "Perfume"

It should be admitted that Suskind’s “Perfume” is by no means a work
fantastic. Fragrance compilers in pursuit of income and fame
did not disdain even the most disgusting in the eyes of modern
humanist means. Doctor of the Sorbonne perfume historian Annick Le Guerer
cites in his book “Scents of Versailles in the 17th-18th centuries.” recipe
a student of the great chemist and physician Paracelsus, a certain Crollius.

According to Crollius, the effect of the incense contained in the precious mummy
enhanced many times over with an ingredient that is as close to life as possible. A
namely, the bodies of a young man who died violent death. That
the perfumer-pharmacist was recommended to acquire the corpse of an executed person
not earlier than one day ago the criminal, preferably by hanging,
wheeling or impalement, - young (ideal - for some reason 24
year) and preferably red, since red color is a sign of vitality
strength. Then it was necessary to separate the fleshy parts, render out the fat, thoroughly
rinse with wine alcohol and keep under the sun and moon rays for two
days and two nights to purify the "vital" contained in the flesh
principles." Next, rub them with myrrh, saffron and aloe, and finally
hang over the fire, “as they do with ox tongues and pork
hams, which are hung over the fireplace so that they acquire
delicious aroma."

From the moment the recipe was published to the time of Suskind’s novel - about
hundred years. Pure nonsense. Note that no one sent Crollius to
gallows for his monstrous recommendations, the recipe was not banned, it was
well known to specialists. It is safe to assume that
the author himself, and many perfumers familiar with his calculations, in pursuit of
profit and fame, experimented with human meat.
Crollius's executed criminals are not Grenouille's young virgins, however
we are now interested in the very idea of ​​​​using human corpses in
perfumery purposes.

Contemporaries testified that the executioners made a lot of money from the sale
fresh pieces straight from the scaffold. Navarrese physician Guy de La Fontaine in 1564
wrote that in the warehouse of one of the mummy traders in Alexandria there were
Piles of bodies of slaves were discovered, destined for processing into
"improved" mumiyo.

Perfumery went hand in hand with pharmaceuticals (more on this later).
So the corpses were actively used for medical purposes. Same
Crollius recommended human flesh as a medicinal
means, first of all, antidotes. It had to be endured
several days in wine alcohol, then dry. Further, the author explained,
the pharmacist will again need wine spirit to restore the flesh
natural red hue. Since the appearance of a corpse is unappetizing,
then it had to be soaked for a month in olive oil. Because oil
absorbs useful substances from the mummy, it could also be
used for medicinal purposes.

Famous French chemist and pharmacist of the 17th century. Nicolas Lefebvre several
modernized the recipe. To begin with, he wrote, it is necessary to cut off
muscles from the corpse of a healthy and young man, let them soak in wine
alcohol, then hang in a cool, dry place. If the air
wet or raining, then these muscles need to be dried every day
low heat from juniper until it becomes like sailor corned beef.

However, one should not be surprised at the tolerance of Europeans to such recipes.
has to. Morals during the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Enlightenment
were in many of their manifestations so cannibalistic that, looking from the day
today, you're amazed.

Here is one of the episodes, so to speak, of the urban chronicle of Paris. Speech
will talk about the “incident” with the corpse of Marshal D "Ancre - Italian
adventurer Concino Concini, favorite of Queen Maria de Medici, wife
Henry IV and the mother of Louis XIII (by order of the latter, favorite marshal and
was killed). On the morning of April 25, 1617, the Parisian mob stormed
the doors of the church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, where this never-before-seen man was buried
a fighting and extremely unpopular marshal. Pulled out from under the gravestone
the body of this marshal, the crowd tied the legs of the corpse torn from the tongue
bells with a rope, dragged him through the streets and embankments and hanged him
head down. Either to one of the gallows, which was an important part
city ​​landscape, or behind the support of the New Bridge. But this is brutal
Parisians and Parisian women thought it was not enough. Someone sharpened a knife
cut off the ears, nose and “shame” of the corpse. Soon the remains of the corpse were again dragged along
Paris. And finally, returning to the New Bridge, they threw him into the divorced one right there.
bonfire. Some citizen opened the chest and, tearing out the heart, slightly
browned over the fire and swallowed.

By the way, Europe was well acquainted with the phenomenon of cannibalism, which
was an inevitable accompaniment of famine, which periodically engulfed
continent. The most terrible was the great famine of 1314-1315. Summer 1314
It was rainy, and in the summer of 1315 a real flood broke out. The result was
catastrophic harvest failure and... great demand for human meat.

The medieval chronicler-monk Raoul Glaber gives an emotional
evidence of European cannibalism caused by famine 1032 - 1034
gg.: “The famine began its devastating work, and it was possible
fear that almost the entire human race will disappear. Atmospheric conditions
became so unfavorable that it was impossible to choose the right day
for sowing, but mainly due to floods there was no
opportunity to remove bread. Continuous rains have soaked the entire earth
moisture to such an extent that for three years it was impossible to carry out
a furrow that can receive the seed. And during the harvest, wild herbs and
destructive weeds covered the entire surface of the fields. It's good if muid
yielded one net harvest of seeds, and barely received a handful of grain from it.
If by chance you managed to find any of the products on sale, then
the seller could ask for any price. When they ate both wild animals and
birds, insatiable hunger forced people to pick up carrion and create such
things that are scary to talk about. Some people ate to avoid death
forest roots and grass. Horror seizes me when I turn to
a story about the perversions that reigned then in the human race. Alas! ABOUT
woe! A thing unheard of forever: a fierce famine forced people
devour human flesh. Whoever was stronger kidnapped the traveler,
dismembered the body, boiled it and ate it. Many of those whom hunger drove from one
places to another, found shelter on the way, but at night with his throat cut
were used as food for hospitable hosts. Children were shown any fruit or
egg, and then they were taken to a distant place, where they were killed and eaten. In
In many places, in order to satisfy hunger, corpses were dug out of the ground.”

Search real prototypes Grenouille will take us to much later times.
times, namely in the 50s years XIX century. Galicia, autonomous region in
Spain, was agitated by the trial of Manuel Blanco
Romasanta. He was exposed as a serial killer of women and children. Moreover
there is reason to believe that Romasanta skinned his victims,
pumped fat out of corpses, and then sold it to pharmacists who produced
This raw material is high quality soap. It is curious that the defendant, without denying
of committing murders, however, he refused to admit guilt.
He stated in court that he was overcome by an amazing disease “lycanthropy”,
turning a man into a wolf.

As a result of the trial, this psychopathic maniac was in April
1853 sentenced to death by strangulation for the purpose of
riot prevention. The case was then brought to the High Court
authority, which replaced execution with life imprisonment. Outraged
the prosecutor is certainly supported public opinion, appealed it
decision and as a result of new hearings in March 1854, was
the original sentence was restored: strangle the scoundrel.

But... Then the powers that be intervened. Namely Queen Isabella II of Spain. TO
she was contacted by a certain French doctor who wanted to investigate
wolf man. So Romasanta was saved from the gallows - a royal person
actually canceled the execution. Further events years ago
it is not possible to restore. Romasanta either died in prison,
or maybe he escaped and disappeared...

As you know, they experimented with human fat to produce
perfumery and hygiene products, some German scientists
Nazis. There is an indication of this in the materials Nuremberg trials, Where
the leaders of the “Reich” were tried. Here is the protocol of the interrogation of a witness dated May 28, 1945
G.

“1945, May 28, Danzig, military prosecutor of the rear of the 2nd Belarusian
Front Lieutenant Colonel Justice Geitman and military investigator
of the Prosecutor's Office of the 2nd Belorussian Front, Major of Justice Kadensky was interrogated
the following as a witness who testified:

Mazur Zigmund Yuzefovich, born in 1920, native of Danzig, Pole,
accepted German citizenship in January 1944. education - graduated
6 classes of the Polish gymnasium in Danzig in 1939, served
voluntarily in 1939 in the Polish army as a soldier, one of the officials,
single, with no criminal record, lived in Danzig, Bechergasse, no. 2,
position until April 1945 - preparator at the Anatomical Institute of the city.
Danzig, has a mother in Danzig, Neishotland street, no. 10, owns
Polish and German languages.

The witness has been warned about liability for refusal to testify and for giving false testimony.

The translator is responsible for refusing to translate and for giving a false translation under Art. Art. 92, 95 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, warned.

“In October 1940, while in Danzig, I was looking for work.

German official Gustav Lange from the Danzig workers' office, to whom I
gave me one room from his apartment, promised to find me a better one,
suitable job in some educational institution Danzig, after which I
was sent to the Anatomical Institute of Danzig, where he began to work
since January 1941. At first I worked as a courier for three months. Working
courier, I became interested in medicine and with the help of Lange and professor
Shpanner was appointed to the post of anatomical preparator
Institute since January 1941. My responsibilities as a preparator included
drawing tables and assisting with autopsies.

The director of the anatomical institute was a German from Kiel, professor
Spanner Rudolf, who in January 1945 went to the Halle area.

Professor Spanner's deputy was an associate professor, Wolman was an SS officer,
but he wore civilian clothes and sometimes a black SS uniform. Wolman from
Czechoslovakia, his Czechoslovak surname is Kozlik.

In January 1945, he voluntarily joined the SS troops.

A woman, Fosbeck from Tsoppot, worked as an assistant from October 1944.
who went to Halle with Professor Spanner. She assisted
Professor Spanner.

The senior preparator was von Bargen, who came to Danzig from Kiel together with Professor Spanner.

The servant for carrying the corpses was the German Reichert from Danzig, who went to
November 1944 in German army. The German was the same minister
Borkman is from Danzig, but I don’t know where he is now.

Question: Tell us how soap was made from human fat at the Anatomical Institute of Danzig.

Answer: Near the Anatomical Institute in the depths of the yard in the summer of 1943
A stone one-story building of three rooms was built. The building is
was built for processing corpses and boiling bones. It was
officially announced by Professor Spanner. This laboratory was called
laboratory for making human skeletons and burning meat and
unnecessary bones. But already in the winter of 1943-1944, Professor Spanner ordered
collect human fat and do not throw it away. This order was
given to Reichert and Borkman.

In February 1944, Professor Spanner gave me a recipe for making soap
from human fat. This recipe called for human
5 kilos of fat with 10 liters of water and 500 or 1000 g of caustic soda - that’s all
cook this for 2-3 hours, then let cool. The soap floats to the top, and the residues and
the water remains at the bottom in the buckets. Cooking was also added to the mixture
a handful of salt and soda. Fresh water was then added and the mixture was again
cooked for 2-3 hours. After cooling, the finished soap was poured into molds.

The soap had an unpleasant smell. In order to destroy this unpleasant odor, benzaldehyde was added.

Work on making soap from human fat began in January 1944
of the year. The immediate supervisor of the soap factory was the senior preparator
von Bargen. All equipment was taken from the Anatomical Institute.

The first batch of corpses was delivered from a psychiatric hospital from Konradstein, I don’t remember the number.

In addition, there was a large supply of corpses in the anatomical institute in
number of about 400 corpses. A significant part of the corpses were
beheaded. The headless corpses were delivered after
guillotining in the Königsberg prison, and in 1944 the guillotine was
installed in the Danzig prison. I saw this guillotine in one of the rooms
prison and I saw her when I went to the Danzig prison to collect corpses. Scheme
I am attaching guillotines.

When I came to the prison to collect the corpses, the corpses were fresh, just
after the execution, and we took them in the room next to the one where
guillotine. The corpses were still warm. Each corpse had a card with
indicating the surname and year of birth, and these surnames in anatomical
at the institute they entered into a special book; where is this book now?
Don't know. I went to the prison in Danzig to collect corpses 4-5 times.

From the Struthof camp Borkman brought 4 corpses of Russian people, men.

Fat was collected from human corpses by Borkman and Reichert.

I made soap from the corpses of men and women. One production brew
took several days - from 3 to 7 days. Of the two brews known to me, in
which I was directly involved in, the finished product came out
more than 25 kilograms of soap, and 70-80 were collected for these brews
kilograms of human fat, approximately 40 corpses. Ready-made soap
came to Professor Spanner, who kept it personally.

Works on the production of soap from human corpses, as far as I know,
Hitler's government was interested. To the anatomical institute
came the Minister of Education Rust, the Minister of Health Konti,
Gauleiter of Danzig Albert Forster, as well as many professors from other
medical institutes.

I personally used this for my needs, for the toilet and laundry.
soap made from human fat. For myself personally, I took four of this soap
kilogram.

Since this soap production work was carried out on the orders of Professor Spanner, I considered this a normal occurrence.

Reichert, Borkman, von Bargen and our boss Professor Spanner, as well as all the other employees, also took soap for themselves personally.

Some students who helped with the work were also given this soap.

Professor Spanner said that the production of soap from human fat must be kept secret.

At our institute, soap preparation was experimental in nature,
but when the corpses were supposed to be used to make soap in
on a large scale, I don't know.

Professor Spanner tried to get as many corpses as possible and led
correspondence with prisons and camps with which he agreed that
corpses in these places are reserved by the Danzig Anatomical Institute.

We shaved the arriving corpses in the preparation room, and the hair
were burned, in any case, the facts of using hair are not known to me.

Just like human fat, Professor Spanner ordered to collect
human skin that, after degreasing, has been processed
certain chemicals. Production of human skin
was carried out by the senior preparator von Bargen and Professor Spanner himself.
The produced leather was put into boxes and used for special purposes, but
which ones, I don’t know.

Conferences took place at the Anatomical Institute scientific staff, and I
I know of three such conferences, but I can’t say what was discussed at them,
since I was not present at them.

Recorded correctly from my words, translated to me Polish language, I confirm.

Signed: Mazur Zigmund.”
______________________

Chapter II. Did they really smell that bad?

People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes, their breath stank of rotten teeth,
from their bellies with onion soup, and from their bodies, if they weren't already enough
young, old cheese, and sour milk, and cancer...
The peasant stank like the priest, the artisan's apprentice smelled like his wife
masters, the nobility stank, and even the king stank like a wild animal, and
the queen is like an old goat, both in summer and winter

Patrick Suskind, "Perfume"

Remember the shock you felt when you first read Perfume? No
- we are not talking about the adventures of the glamorous maniac Jean-Baptiste Grenouille: so
Residents of modern megacities are no longer surprised. Any investigator
especially important matters maybe tell stories over a glass of beer
more nightmarish. We are talking about something else - the terrible stench and unsanitary conditions that accompanied
life of the ancestors of modern Europeans. Not that far away, by the way.
ancestors - from the times described in the book by Patrick Suskind and ten generations
has not changed. What in this description true, what is artistic?
fiction? There are two versions of this that are directly opposite in meaning, each
of which he cites his sources. Let's start with a version that is quite
in the spirit of what Suskind writes about.

Kings and loofah

If you introduce me to a person who associates historical
periods with the names of great artists, musicians or scientists, I will
shake his hand for a long time and sincerely, lavishing compliments on the unique
worldview. For the majority, which includes me, history is
this is, first of all, the history of leadership: kings, emperors, sultans,
shahs, presidents and general secretaries. It's easier and more memorable
easier. Let's not forget about the distressing sycophancy that accompanies
humanity for many centuries - the habits and habits of the monarch here
became generally accepted first in his circle, and then more
wide circles of the managerial elite. A decisive break with beards
under Peter I and the craze for tennis among the Yeltsin camarilla -
phenomena of the same order. Therefore, speaking about hygiene, sanitary
state of our western neighbors, we should start with the crowned heads.

Some (not all!) European kings smelled sickening. Next to them
you wouldn't stand for even a couple of minutes. Any homeless person from Leningradsky station
Moscow will give a head start in terms of smell to such a ruler of a European country.

Stinked, however, were the royal personalities in full harmony with the recommendations
the Aesculapians of that time. Known to us as the “soothsayer” Michel Nostradamus
(1503-1566) deserves much more respect as an intelligent physician,
effectively fought the plague, and also as a promoter of elementary
hygiene procedures. The title of one of his books (editions preserved in
Parisian libraries of St. Genevieve and the Mazarin Foundation) sounds like this:
"An excellent and very useful brochure with many excellent recipes,
divided into two parts. The first part teaches us how to cook
various lipsticks and perfumes to decorate the face. The second part teaches us
prepare various types of jam from honey, sugar and wine.
Compiled by Master Michel Nostradamus - Doctor of Medicine from the Salon
in Provence. Lyon 1572." Apparently, the book does not have a chapter on jam
would have dispersed poorly. Meanwhile, Nostradamus is concerned about such problems
their contemporaries, how to prepare powder, brush and whiten teeth,
no matter how red and black they are, how to make your breath smell good,
how to clean teeth, even those badly damaged by rot, how to make soap,
making hands white and soft, how to destroy too much fullness
bodies. But Nostradamus did not become famous for such books. Were in use
completely different medical advice.

For example, the personal physician of the English king Edward II (1284-1307) John
Gatisden recommended as a procedure to preserve the integrity of
teeth breathe their own excrement (and this is after many centuries
after the ancient Romans, who prepared powder from
crushed pearls or corals!). The author of the popular book published in the 15th century
medical treatise thoughtfully stated that water weakens
organism and expand the pores on the skin, and infected people can penetrate there
air infection. So a person who has washed from the heart is practically
will inevitably get sick or even “throw away its hooves.” Other medical
luminary, already in the 16th century especially warned against washing your face: of course -
it causes catarrh and impairs vision! Funny? No! The reason for all these
The Great Plague of 1348 became a misconception. She put it
the beginning of a completely, in general, logical belief that all diseases,
each of which at that time could become fatal, live in a fetid
air and can burst into the body at any moment.

Is it any wonder that those who are well acquainted with the achievements of modern
medicine, were monarchs wary of water procedures?

About the English and Scottish bisexual king James (1566-1625)
it is known that he never washed his hands, only wet his fingertips
with a damp cloth. Queen Isabella of Castile (1451-1504), under
during the reign of which Christopher Columbus discovered America and the
The “holy” Inquisition, in the memories of contemporaries, remained a woman
outstanding beauty and virtue. Of particular interest to us is
another fact - Isabella of Castile took a vow not to wash or change
underwear until Spain defeats Granada. The month passed
months, the snow-white royal underwear of a Catholic lady gradually
deteriorated, acquiring a grayish-yellow color. This "sophisticated" shade
The Spaniards have since called it “the color of Isabel.” Legend says that
What helped Columbus get permission and money for the expedition was
the fact that he approached Queen Isabella at a distance of 5
meters and bravely withstood a 20-minute audience without revealing anything
of his disgust with the terrible stench.

What did the royal husband Ferdinand of Aragon think about the vow?
history is silent. Let us note that the exemplary Catholic queen has many
spent time hiking, sitting on a horse, which is most likely
added new fragrant notes to the royal amber.

About the famous king Henry IV (aka Henry of Navarre, 1553-1610),
the same one who, having said “Paris is worth a mass,” broke with Protestantism,
became a Catholic, opening his way to the French throne, they say that he
I've only washed three times in my life. By the way, he despised hygiene, constantly
Henry, smelling of sweat, was known as a notorious Don Juan, which characterizes not
only him, but also the undemanding court ladies. In the diary of Jean Héroir,
personal physician of Henry's son, the future Louis XIII, who observed him
from his birth in September 1601, there are many details about
hygiene standards observed in relation to the little Dauphin. "11th of November
In 1601, his head was rubbed for the first time. On November 17, 1601 he was rubbed
fresh forehead and face butter and almond milk, because there
dirt appeared. On July 4, 1602, his hair was combed for the first time;
he liked it, and he turned his head where he was itching. 3
October 1606 his feet were washed warm water for the first time. August 2
1608 was redeemed for the first time.”

By the way, we must pay tribute to Louis XIII (1601-1643), known to us
for the role of Tabakov in the Musketeer television films. He's the one, despite
unsanitary infancy and foul-smelling environment was a man
clean, and by the standards of his time - an outstanding clean man. Each
In the morning I took baths and washed my feet. The story is known as in 1604.
three-year-old Prince Louis, traveling from the Chateau Saint-Germain to Paris through
the Faubourg Saint-Honoré is a new quarter and much better ventilated than
inner-city ancient quarters - I immediately felt how it was blowing
mustiness from the waters of the stream along which the carriage moved, and wrinkled
nose.

- Mamanga! - he squeaked, turning to his governess, Madame de Mongla. - How disgusting it smells in here!

A handkerchief soaked in vinegar was immediately shoved under the baby’s nose. Later, already
As an adult, Louis was tormented by the smell that reached his windows
from the ditches surrounding the Louvre, and constantly tried to escape from the city to the bosom
nature.

Sometimes doctors, despite their generally unsanitary activity, still
benefited monarchs rotting in the mud. Yes, it is known that they
several times insisted on bathing another French king -
Louis XIV (1638-1715). However, the famous Sun King,
reigned for more than 70 years and uttered the legendary “The State is
I!" I didn’t appreciate the efforts of the doctors. Apparently, having appreciated the devilish cunning of water,
bringing objective pleasure, but at the same time harmfully expanding
pores and deteriorating vision, he rarely visited the bathroom.
The only ritual that the Sun King followed daily was
washing the palms with wine alcohol.

Many ladies and gentlemen, counts, dukes, marquises and barons completely
corresponded to their dirty rulers. They washed infrequently and smelled
apparently, accordingly.

There are legends about the British Duke of Norfolk, who refused
wash out of religious beliefs (about the influence of Christianity on the medieval
We'll talk about hygiene later). The man voluntarily rotted alive. When
The body was almost completely covered with ulcers; the servants could not stand it. They
waited for the Duke to kick himself in the trash and, without asking permission,
washed his lordship.

Of course, the aforementioned Duke is a curiosity even against the backdrop of the lousy
nobility. Most of the aristocrats sought to rid themselves and
surrounding people from the horrific smell of an unwashed body. Perfumed ones were used
rags, special powder, bags with fragrant herbs, carried in
folds of clothing (they have survived to this day and are known as sachets, however,
are now used as air flavorings).

Shawls (Italian fazzoletto) came into fashion, seemingly decorative, but
with them ladies and gentlemen could drive away those who had multiplied and tried to sit down
on the dirty bodies of flies.

The hygienic nightmare in which the kings and retinue remained was getting worse
the unsanitary conditions that reigned in the palaces. Such a concept as a “toilet” in
the modern understanding of this word did not exist in the famous
residences of French kings. Not only servants, but also highborn
the inhabitants of the Louvre sat down in the courtyards, on the stairs, on the balconies. Judging
Apparently, the concept of “shameful” was very different then from what it is today. By
in need, courtiers and royalty calmly squatted on the windowsills of
open window. And only some clean people preferred chamber pots,
the contents of which were poured outside the palace gates. For the same purposes
the walls were covered with curtains, and blind niches were made in the corridors. Rude,
unclean food, which even aristocrats ate, did not cause diarrhea
something out of the ordinary, something ordinary, everyday
phenomenon. So the niches and curtains were never empty.

Thus, the commission given by Charles V (1338-1380) in 1364
paint the garden and corridors of the Louvre with red crosses to stop
those wishing to use the palace premises as a toilet remain
beautiful naivety.

The famous memoirist Duke de Saint-Simon (1675-1755) left to his descendants
a detailed description of the morals and life at the court of Louis XIV. In "Memoirs"
Duke describes the ladies of Versailles who defecated slightly
or not right during small talk. Guides of modern Versailles
often tell visitors a story about how one day in the bedchamber
The Spanish ambassador arrived for Louis. The illustrious grandee was taken aback - the heavy spirit in
the royal bedroom caused him to tear profusely. Ambassador
diplomatically asked to move the conversation to the Park of Versailles, but there
it turned out even worse. The fact is that the local bushes served as latrines
place. The ambassador fainted.

In 1764, La Morandière described the scents of the Palace of Versailles:
“The parks, gardens and the castle itself are disgusting with their disgusting stench.
Walkways, courtyards, buildings and corridors are filled with urine and feces; near
wing, where the ministers live, the sausage maker slaughters and fries every morning
pigs; and the entire Rue Saint-Cloud is flooded with rotten water and strewn with dead
cats."

Having polluted one palace or another, the kings and their retinue moved to
the next castle, giving the servants the opportunity to ventilate the premises and
remove dirt.

And yet they washed themselves!

And now the second version, a different look at sanitary and hygienic
state of old Europe. Citizens XVIII and older early centuries, How
supporters of alternative ideas argue, there was simply no need
wash as often as our contemporaries. After all, environmental
the state of cities, not spoiled by the smoking chimneys of factories and factories,
was much more favorable for human body. Yes and
synthetic food additives have not yet been invented...

Starting from the 15th century, solid soap was produced en masse in Europe. Wherein
animal fats were combined not with the wood ash of the fire, as before, but with
natural soda ash. This significantly reduced the cost
soap, transferred soap making from handicraft production to manufacture.
Soap has become available to any person with above-average income, and especially
moreover, to any representative of the rich and noble nobility. Agree,
It would be strange to increase the output of products for which there is no demand.
That means they bought it and... washed it.

The aforementioned Louis XIII was not the only clean-cut monarch. How
testifies eldest daughter Prussian King Frederick William I
(1688-1740) Wilhelmina, her father washed himself every day and scrubbed his hands
constantly. Moreover, the king used the cheapest soap, not recognizing
perfumes and incense. Frederick William I found a radical solution
lice problems, causing their surroundings (and these were mainly military)
shave your head and wear wigs... Wilhelmina's memories are quite
curious: in her assessments of people she did not forget to mention who was
dirty and smelly. For example, she writes that when her brother, the crown prince,
brought the bride, the Prussian princesses were unpleasantly shocked that she
smells bad...

In various sources you can find information that casts doubt
the reputation of the court ladies of the Middle Ages and the “Gallant Age” as
notorious dirty guys. Say, the uncrowned queen of France
favorite and mistress of Louis XV, the Marquise de Pompadour had a bidet from
expensive wood, with inlays and gilded bronze overlays. A
this is the same Louis XV who, as Suskind writes, “stank like a wild
beast".

Ladies taking baths was one of the fairly common plots
visual arts. In the middle of the 16th century, another uncrowned
Queen of France - mistress of Henry II Diana de Poitiers posed
painter and graphic artist François Clouet right during his ablutions. The result
became the painting “Lady in the Bathroom,” which is now kept in Washington
National Gallery. A little later - in late XVI century - unknown
the artist captured the favorite of the French king Henry IV in the bathroom
Gabrielle d'Estrées with his sister. But this is the same Henry IV who
it seems like I washed myself only three times in my life... Rich city women in the bathrooms
rooms depicted the famous French painter “the same age” as Grenouille
Jean Michel Moreau Jr., who lived for half a century formerly an artist Jean Baptiste
Pater.

Name: Jean-Baptiste Grenouille

A country: France

Creator:

Activity: murderer

Family status: not married

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille: the story of the character

The works of Patrick Suskind excited the readership of the early 20th century. They felt the fresh breath of new times, the spirit of extraordinary literary experiences and the charm of intricate plots. “Perfume” is a book that has become a striking example of the writer’s creative research. It attracts intellectuals and ordinary people, leaving a mark on souls.

History of creation

German playwright and novelist, Patrick Süskind, took a curious approach to creating literary works. Each of them tells about a human drama. The novel “Perfume” was published in 1985, collecting rave reviews from critics and readers. Among Suskind's nine books, it turned out to be the most popular work.

The full title of the book is “Perfumer. The story of a murderer." The action takes place in the 18th century. Researchers attribute the novel to the direction of pseudo-realism due to the imagery with which the author recreated the era described. The plot is complemented by detailed characteristics of the characters and the environment. The writer indicates dates, the slightest nuances of relationships and physiological details, creating a sense of the reality of what is happening.

Russian readers became acquainted with the work in 1991, when it was published in the journal Foreign Literature. The book tells the story of a man groveling before everything stronger than him and rising to the status of a deity.

Plot and prototype

As is the case with any work, where every detail has detailed description, the plot of the novel provoked the question - “Did Jean-Baptiste Grenouille have a prototype?” Did he live? real character in France, what his biography is is difficult to say. But the facts confirm that history keeps the secrets of people who were engaged in similar activities and had interests similar to Grenou.

The image of a fragrance compiler whose main desire was to come up with delicious perfumes cannot be considered fictional. People of this profession did not disdain any experiments and manipulations to get what they wanted. A certain Crollius, who studied the effects of incense, chemistry and medicine, argued that the body odor of a recently deceased young man contains an ingredient that can enhance the effect of the aroma of perfume. Crollius believed that the ideal victim would be a man with a shock of red hair, hanged or impaled no later than a day ago.

The researcher voiced the recipe 100 years before writing the novel. Previously, pharmacist and chemist Nicolas Lefebvre suggested using similar instructions. He believed that muscles cut from the corpse of a young man, soaked in wine alcohol and dried, possessed a component precious to perfume.

In Spanish Galicia in the second half of the 19th century, a trial took place over a certain Manuel Blanco Romasanta. He was accused of serial murders of women and children in order to pump out fat to make scented soap. In Nazi Germany, similar experiments were carried out to develop a perfume and hygiene line.

Suskind's hero Jean-Baptiste Grenouille combined in himself a maniac and a genius prone to practical application theories regarding perfumery. He was born near the Cemetery of the Innocents and was not a wanted child. The mother tried to get rid of the child by giving birth in the market. The baby was miraculously saved, but the woman was executed for infanticide. Grenouille ended up in the care of a monastery, with a nurse. But the woman refused him, citing the unfamiliar smell from the boy.

Moving on to the priest Terrier, Grenouille first sniffs his new acquaintance, and he sends the child to Madame Gaillard's orphanage, where the boy was raised until he was 8 years old. Jean-Baptiste was not the life of the party. His peers did not like him, considering him a weak-minded freak. Since childhood, the hero had unusual abilities based on the finest sense of smell. He predicted rain and found money by smell. Having matured, the boy became an apprentice to a tanner, where he endured hard work for the opportunity to get acquainted with new aromas.

One day, meeting a girl on the street, Grenouille was struck by her delicious aroma. He decided to take possession of it. Having strangled his chosen one, the young man enjoyed the smell and decided to become a perfumer.

Having become a student of the famous Baldini, Grenouille learns the basics of craftsmanship. He invents ingenious fragrances, which Baldini appropriates and presents under his own name. Having become an apprentice, Grenouille began working for himself. The perfumer went to Grasse, accompanied by a new discovery: he had no smell. At this moment, the hero decided to invent a perfume, thanks to which he would cease to be an outcast. Under the patronage of the Marquis Taillade-Espinasse, Grenouille works on special perfumes.

In Grasse, the hero is hired as an apprentice to the widow Arnulfi and again smells the magical aroma. Laura exudes it. Studying the effects of aromas and the way they are captured, Jean-Baptiste comes to the conclusion that fabric soaked in fat preserves them best. This is how the serial murders of the perfumer begin. Young girls are becoming victims. Their corpses are found without clothes and with shaved heads. Laura's father understands that his daughter will become a victim of the perfumer because of her amazing beauty. The young man is arrested and sentenced to death.

Having ascended the scaffold, Grenouille opens a bottle of invented perfume. And everyone who came to watch his death finds himself mesmerized by the aroma. The smell awakens carnal passion in people, which provokes an orgy in the city square. Those present admire the perfumer. Gradually the adoration reaches its peak. Laura's father recognizes him as his son, forgiving his crimes. Jean-Baptiste disappears from the execution site. When the aroma dissipates, the city's residents are left amazed at their own appearance and what happened.

Having realized what his power over people is, Grenouille analyzes how great such power is. Such perfumes will give the perfumer the appearance of a god in the eyes of people who will never appreciate his creation. Grenouille returns to Paris, to the Cemetery of the Innocents. Finding himself among tramps and bandits, he applies the invented perfume to himself. Those around him pounce on him, tear him to pieces and devour his remains.

Film adaptations

The novel “Perfume” was filmed in 2006 by director Tom Tykwer. The director accurately conveyed the atmosphere of the era described by Suskind, focusing on the subtleties and nuances of the given characteristics. Main role played in the film. The actor, whose appearance, like that of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, was neither attractive nor off-putting, created a credible screen image. Thanks to the professional flair of the performer, the dramatic intensity in the film increased due to the development of the personality of the portrayed hero.

Participation in a project based on a novel was Whishaw's first major work. Engaged in dramatic productions on the theater stage, the actor instantly gained fame in cinematic circles and received a lot of offers. The next films with his participation were “Cloud Atlas”, “The Adventures of Paddington”, “007: Skyfall”.

Grade 11

FROM THE LITERATURE OF THE END OF THE XX - BEGINNING OF THE XXI CENTURY. MODERN LITERARY PROCESS

M. PAVLIN, P. SUSKIND

SAMPLE ESSAYS

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille - the “dark genius” of art

From the very beginning of the novel, the author warns the reader that we will be talking about a person who belonged to one of the most brilliant and most disgusting figures of an era, rich in brilliant and disgusting personalities. His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille.

It would seem that everything is clear. But in fact, the image of a perfumer is incredibly complex and contradictory. On the one hand, Grenouille is an unlucky child who was almost killed by her own mother. They don’t like him in the orphanage, they try to kill him several times, the nurses and even the priest don’t like him, no one has ever felt friendship for him, the hero has not made anyone want to be friends or love.

On the other hand, Jean Baptiste is a genius. He is the only one who understands the essence of smells, creates brilliant perfumes from unexpected ingredients, creates scents that can control people.

But there is another side to Grenouille - he is a monster, a murderer. To create the formula for the perfect fragrance, he needs new components, and for this he commits crimes. It is interesting that the hero does not even understand the essence of what is happening: he needs the smells of beautiful girls for perfume - he kills them without looking into their eyes, without receiving any emotions towards them - he is only interested in purely scientific ones. He is a monster and a murderer, but a brilliant murderer, who by his existence proves that genius and crime are completely compatible things.

The brilliant scoundrel Grenouille belongs to the same category as de Sade, Saint-Just, Fouche and Bonaparte. In some ways he even surpassed them, because from the moment of birth he was left without a soul, humanity was simply absent in him. He kills without feelings, guided only by cold creative calculation, without remorse and regret, hatred and passion.

He is a maniac, but not in the usual sense for us - a “killer maniac”, but in the sense of a “creative maniac” - a person who cannot help but create. Its tragedy is that in order to obtain a source for creating masterpieces, it is necessary to deprive beautiful girl life. This maniacal genius, while killing, consistently and stubbornly goes to his professional goal. He is only an artist, there is nothing personal in his crimes.

Suskind's hero evokes disgust, curiosity and the understanding that he is not a victim, but a murderer, although, apparently, deeply unhappy. The writer managed to create an image that, however, does not evoke sympathy, because the purposeful Grenouille does not look like an unhappy guy, but also a terrible killer.

The hero achieves his goal: a scent is created that gives him mystical power over the crowd. But the writer paints a picture not of the hero’s victory, but of his defeat. The aroma he creates does not improve people, but, on the contrary, corrupts them. You cannot remake humanity for the better with art that is devoid of morality. This idea is confirmed by the scene of the public bacchanalia that took place after the attempt to execute the murderer Grenouille.

The hero, who dreamed of appropriating the created smell in order to be like everyone else, in the end was never able to do this. This smell gave him only a temporary, illusory power over the crowd, which would end when the last drop poured out of the bottle.

The ending of the novel once again emphasizes the idea that Art, Perfection and Beauty must go side by side.

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was not born a murderer; he was driven to crime by an obsession in search of a divine scent. At the beginning of Suskind's novel, we are presented with a boy from whom horses in the street shy away and whom we will ultimately fall in love with the love of a victim for his potential murderer,

The main character of the novel, Jean Baptiste Grenouille, is shown as an exceptional person. He has the rare gift of distinguishing thousands of smells. At the same time, it itself is absolutely odorless. The core of the novel, its idea, is smell, a metaphor for smell. The very technique of P. Suskind's writing turned out to be oriented according to the central metaphor and coincided with the technology of perfumery: the novel, like good perfumes, is made on the harmony of contrasts.

Two main themes resonate in the novel: aroma and stench, life and death, everything and nothing.

Suskind describes his hero as an ugly, frail dwarf of an alien, inhuman nature, but possessing, nevertheless, a unique gift of smell, elevating him to the genius of the perfume craft. Grenouille is a “non-human”, a half-beast, born in human form by a strange whim of nature. At the same time, it is interesting that Suskind somehow ensures that the reader subconsciously empathizes with this terrible creature and follows his fate with sympathy. Perhaps because Jean Baptiste is surrounded mostly by greedy and vain scum who shamelessly use him for their own unrighteous purposes (here rather lies a hidden appeal to the reader, an attempt to point out to us our own shortcomings and the imperfection of human society as a whole).

He commits his first murder of a girl from Marais Street almost unconsciously. In the stench of the big city, his nose caught “some incomprehensible aroma, unexpected, it did not fit anywhere, in fact, it should not have existed at all.” “Like a sleepwalker,” “as if against his will,” Grenouille followed the scent, which he smelled more than half a mile away on the other side of the river. The source was a girl. “Grenouille realized that if he did not master this scent, his life would lose all meaning.” He strangled the girl and absorbed her scent. So he found a “compass for his future life... He must become the Creator of smells. And not just any ordinary one. But the greatest perfumer of all time." “The fact that at the beginning of this splendor there was murder was deeply indifferent to him (if he was aware of it at all)” (52).

The scene of the first murder committed by Grenouille is shown in detail. The red-haired girl, killed in cold blood by Grenouille, had a special mystical aroma, which the Perfumer placed at the top of the entire hierarchy of smells. This was the basis, the highest principle of beauty - from that moment Grenouille learned wherein lies the thousand-year-old secret of love. According to “Perfume”, people attribute their high or low aspirations to the beauty of the body, eyes, voice, gait or inner world of the one they love. In fact, without knowing it, they only obediently follow the call of this supreme aroma. Deprived of ordinary human feelings, Grenouille - more a predator than a man - was able to understand that there is a power immeasurably more powerful than the power of money, fear, death, hunger or war. This is the power of love. Grenouille one day suddenly realized that his body had no scent of its own (so people unconsciously, but quite rightly, considered him a stranger all his life). Jean Baptiste dealt with this problem. The perfumer invented a specific perfume: the essence of human smell. It is interesting how Suskind describes the process of creating this bouquet. The smell of people is based on cat excrement, rotten cheese, fish entrails and other slops. Having diluted this mixture with alcohol, Grenouille added essential and floral oils of geranium, rose, jasmine, etc.

Grenouille learned the secret of supreme power over people. To do this, he created a special scent, woven from the smells of the girls he killed. Suskind in his novel definitely clarifies that the most important element of perfume was precisely spiritual beauty these girls: their pure thoughts, kindness, love for the world and all living things. However, Grenouille is also indifferent to these bright qualities. For him, they are only the source material of those spirits with the help of which he will gain power over the world. And for Suskind, who did not describe humanity very flatteringly, these are, first of all, the “cream” of the human race. Perhaps hope that all is not lost...

P. Suskind built a magnificent mental plot device. He directed his hero’s thoughts along the following path: aromatic essences taken from nature - essential oils of plants, secrets of animal organisms, which are very diverse and numerous; However, true irresistibility is something that no one has ever tried to extract - the aroma of a living person, the smell of life, love and passion. Grenouille begins hunting for people - for young virgins, whose “aroma” he sniffs out detachedly and professionally, like a perfumer. In his novel, Patrick Suskind showed how powerful and effective invisible, non-objective currents of odors are, and what mysterious power they possess. Sometimes nothing can so strongly excite an overloaded memory and dulled feelings as a forgotten aroma wafting from nowhere - even if it is a very specific “aroma” with a negative sign. The range of human emotional reactions to smell is extremely wide - from delight to disgust.

Sentenced to death for the murders he committed, Jean Baptiste Grenouille, with the help of the magical spirits of “non-judgmental adoration” he invented, avoids death. However, in the finale of the work, the genius of perfume becomes a victim of his own genius. Ingredients of many romantic heroes mixed in the work of P. Suskind: Quasimodo, Peter Schlemil, Heinrich von Ofterdingen and others. The novel creates a multiple image of the hero.

More than seven years pass between the first murder on the Rue Marais and the series of murders of twenty-five girls in the city of Grasse, during which Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is formed as a scent hunter. Now he is driven by the idea of ​​gaining power over the world, through the smell of inspiring people to love him. Grenouille, rejected by everyone since birth, lived alone for almost seven years on the top of the Plon du Cantal mountain, enjoying the peace and absence of human smells. Some events and wars were taking place in the world, but Grenouille was interested in only one thing - “the aroma from the cellars of the heart.” And he would have remained there until his death if a catastrophe had not happened that drove him away from the mountain: once in a dream he almost suffocated from his own smell. He who never smelled and never wanted to smell himself!

Grenouille descends from the mountain and finds himself in the city of Grasse - the promised land of perfumers. And here his nose caught a scent that he wanted to take possession of, but not as recklessly as on the Rue Marais. He wanted to make this scent his own. And to do this, he must expand his knowledge and improve his craft skills in order to be fully armed when the harvest time comes.

It takes him two years to experiment with scents. He changed them like dresses and was amused by how people perceived him differently depending on the smell.

At the same time, murders of young girls, incomprehensible to the townspeople, began in Grasse. It was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille who was preparing for his main goal - to take away from the girl the smell that so captivated him upon his arrival in Grasse.

This goal was achieved, but exposure immediately followed, and Grenou faced execution. The whole city gathers in the square to watch the murderer suffer. The killer is taken to the square, and then the incredible happens: the crowd is inflamed with love for Grenouille. Even the father of the murdered girl throws himself on the killer’s chest with words of adoration. As a result, the planned execution of the most disgusting criminal turned into an orgy of voluptuousness. The killer had only to nod - and everyone would renounce God and pray to him, the Great Grenouille. But at this moment of his triumph, Grenouille was horrified. What he always so passionately desired, namely, to be loved by other people, at the moment of success became unbearable to him, because he himself hated them. But the more he hated them at that moment, the more they idolized him.

Grenouille flees Grasse to Paris. He has no longing for either cave loneliness or life among people. He was out of breath both here and there. He wanted to return to Paris and die. His death takes place in the most fetid place in Paris - the Cemetery of the Innocents. He will be torn into pieces and eaten by people attracted by the smell that evokes love. This is the story of the crime and punishment of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, who became a murderer out of a desire to gain irresistible power - to inspire people to love.

The text about the fate of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille unfolds into several plans. Firstly, this is the purpose of the text (an attempt to answer the question - why was it written). Secondly, this is the general outlook of the author’s interests and thoughts. Thirdly, these are amazing moments in the means that the author uses. When reading the book, the question arose quite early on about its purpose - due to the semi-intuitive idea that such a text could not be written just like that, as “pulp reading,” and even more so as a historiographical work. The need to answer this question increases attention to the nuances of the work, some of which begin to highlight and gradually lead to certain considerations. The first surprising thing was the author's ease in constructing his presentation. What was clearly unexpected was that as soon as some new non- minor character, the author, not bothering at all with the smoothness of the transition, abruptly breaks off the description of events and completely and for a long time goes on to describe the character, and does this in a certain non-standard way.

Further, if we move along the presentation, two points are of particular interest. The first is Grenouille’s stay in the cave (with a surprisingly contrasting connection, at first glance: his sleep, when he is suffocating from his own (!) smell and the absence of this very smell, which was actually established by him). The second in this connection clearly and simply indicates the main character’s journey to a complete understanding of the impossibility of understanding himself (after all, he perceived and understood everything through smells). And if we comprehend the same thing in a more complex way, then here we can see, if not the only, then the author’s key indication of the impossibility of goal-setting and self-determination based only on one’s talent. Second intermediate interesting point associated with the episode of Grenouille’s stay with the Marquis de la Taillade-Espinasse.

Changes with the main character occur when he sees himself for the first time (!) (in the mirror) - after that his external image for him is separated from “ inner world“, and, based on the desires of the second, it turns out to be possible to play with the external world by the first. It was probably at this moment that Grenouille became convinced of the crazy idea of ​​realizing the limits of his talent and competence in the ideal scent that would become his externally. In the scene of Grenouille's failed execution, it becomes clear what Patrick Suskind wanted to say with the text. The text is a Warning To strong people the fact that the development and implementation of talent for the sake of talent is meaningless (unhappiness and disappointment are the softest words that describe the feelings at the end of such a path).

The further dramatic ending of the work, associated with Grenouille’s suicide, is only a beautiful confirming conclusion to the Warning. Here it is important to especially note the behavior of Antoine Richy in the execution scene (and the author's attention to this). It, of course, upsets both the reader (and Grenouille (!)), but the point, I think, is that here the author specifically shows that from the point of view of his talent and his competence] Strong man- beyond competition and without question the best. And this is another argument to justify the Warning. It only remains to add that Grenouille’s fainting from suddenly “hearing” his “own smell” in the execution scene and the correspondence of this experience with his sleep in the cave is another underscoring of the Warning, this time artistic. The third time this same emphasis appears is in the scene of Grenouille’s suicide. A separate important and interesting question is the following. Does the author take any steps to designate a meaningful goal-setting space? It seems that, by and large, it does not, except for the well-known indication of the presence of the outside world in the episode of Grenouille’s return from the cave to the World.

Origin of the name

Grenouille's mother, who worked in a fish market, did not give him a name and was executed shortly after his birth. Police officer Lafosse wanted to first take the baby Grenouille to an orphanage on the rue Saint-Antoine, from where children were sent daily to Rouen, to a state foundling hospital, but since Grenouille was not baptized, he was handed over to the monastery of Saint-Merri, where he received at baptism name Jean-Baptiste.

Biography

Part one

Jean-Baptiste was born near a fishmonger's shop on the rue Haut-Fères near the Cemetery of the Innocents in Paris on July 17, 1738. Grenouille's mother, who had no intention of letting him live, was soon executed for multiple infanticide on the Place de Greve. Possessing a phenomenal sense of smell, Grenouille, however, does not have his own smell, which repels several nurses. In the end, it was decided to raise him at the expense of the Saint-Merri monastery. For this purpose, he was given to the nurse Jeanne Bussy, who lived on the Rue Saint-Denis, offering 3 francs a week as payment. However, a few weeks later, Jeanne Bussy appeared at the gates of the monastery and told Father Terrier (a fifty-year-old monk) that she was no longer going to keep him with her because the baby did not smell. An unpleasant dialogue took place between Father Terrier and the nurse, as a result of which Jeanne Bussy was fired.

“...You can explain this any way you like, Holy Father, but I,” and she resolutely crossed her arms over her chest and looked with such disgust at the basket at her feet, as if a toad was sitting there, “I, Jeanne Bussy, will no longer take this to to yourself!

"- Oh well. “Have it your way,” said Terrier and removed his finger from under his nose. -... I note that for some reason you refuse to continue breastfeeding the baby Jean-Baptiste Grenouille entrusted to me and in currently you return it to its temporary guardian - the monastery of Saint-Merri. I find this upsetting, but I can't seem to change it. You are fired."

Having taken the child for himself, Father Terrier was at first indignant at the nurse’s dissatisfaction and was touched by the child given to him: he even began to imagine himself as the father of this child, as if he were not a monk, but an ordinary man in the street who had married a woman who bore him a son. But the pleasant fantasy ended when Jean-Baptiste woke up: the child began to sniff Terrier, and the latter was horrified, because it seemed to him that the baby had stripped him naked, had sniffed out everything about him and knew all his ins and outs.

“The child, who had no smell, sniffed him shamelessly, that’s what. The child smelled it! And suddenly Terrier seemed to smell like sweat and vinegar, sauerkraut and unwashed clothes. He seemed naked and ugly, as if someone was looking at him, giving no indication of himself. It seemed that he sniffed it even through the skin, penetrating inside, to the very depths. The most tender feelings, the dirtiest thoughts were laid bare in front of this small greedy nose, which was not even a real nose yet, but just some kind of tubercle, rhythmically wrinkled, and swelled, and trembled with a tiny perforated organ. Terrier felt a chill. He felt sick. Now he, too, twitched his nose, as if there was something foul-smelling in front of him that he did not want to deal with. Goodbye to the illusion of father, son and fragrant mother. It was as if the soft trail of affectionate thoughts that he had fantasized around himself and this child had been torn off: a strange, cold creature lay on his lap, a hostile animal, and if not for self-control and fear of God, if not for the reasonable view of things characteristic of Terrier’s character, he In a fit of disgust, I would shake it off like some kind of spider.”

As a result, Terrier decided to get rid of the child, sending him as far away as possible so that he could not reach him. At that very moment he rushed to the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and gave the child to Madame Gaillard, who took any children as long as she was paid.

Grenouille lived with Madame Gaillard until 1747, when he was eight years old. During this time, he experienced “measles, dysentery, chicken pox, cholera, a fall into a six-meter-deep well, and burns from boiling water with which he scalded his chest.” Grenouille inspired unconscious horror in other children; they even tried to kill him, but he survived.

At the age of three he just stood on his feet, and at four he uttered his first word - “fish”. At the age of six, he knew his entire surroundings by smell. As a result of casually attending the parish school of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, he learned to read a little and write his name.

This aroma captivated him.

“...He had a vague feeling that this aroma was the key to the order of all other aromas, that one could not understand anything about smells unless one understood this one thing, and he, Grenouille, would live his life in vain if he did not manage to master it. He must get it not just to quench his thirst for possession, but for the sake of the peace of his heart. He almost felt sick from excitement.”

Having reached the Rue Marais, turning into an alley and passing through an arch, he saw red-haired girl, who cleaned the mirabelle - this aroma came from her.

Approaching her from behind, he strangled her. Then he took off her dress and absorbed all her scent.

Returning home unnoticed to his closet, he realized that he was a genius, and that his task was to become the greatest perfumer. That same night he began to classify smells.

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Excerpt characterizing Jean-Baptiste Grenouille

It was not difficult to say “tomorrow” and maintain a tone of decency; but to come home alone, to see your sisters, brother, mother, father, to confess and ask for money to which you have no right after your word of honor was given.
We weren't sleeping at home yet. The youth of the Rostov house, having returned from the theater, having had dinner, sat at the clavichord. As soon as Nikolai entered the hall, he was overwhelmed by that loving, poetic atmosphere that reigned in their house that winter and which now, after Dolokhov’s proposal and Iogel’s ball, seemed to thicken even more, like the air before a thunderstorm, over Sonya and Natasha. Sonya and Natasha, in the blue dresses they wore at the theater, pretty and knowing it, happy, smiling, stood at the clavichord. Vera and Shinshin were playing chess in the living room. The old countess, waiting for her son and husband, was playing solitaire with an old noblewoman who lived in their house. Denisov with sparkling eyes and with tousled hair he sat, throwing his leg back, at the clavichord, and clapping them with his short fingers, struck chords, and rolling his eyes, in his small, hoarse, but faithful voice, sang the poem he had composed, “The Sorceress,” for which he was trying to find music .
Sorceress, tell me what power
Draws me to abandoned strings;
What fire have you planted in your heart,
What delight flowed through my fingers!
He sang in a passionate voice, shining at the frightened and happy Natasha with his agate, black eyes.
- Wonderful! Great! – Natasha shouted. “Another verse,” she said, not noticing Nikolai.
“They have everything the same,” thought Nikolai, looking into the living room, where he saw Vera and his mother with the old woman.
- A! Here comes Nikolenka! – Natasha ran up to him.
- Is daddy at home? - he asked.
– I’m so glad you came! – Natasha said without answering, “we’re having so much fun.” Vasily Dmitrich remains for me one more day, you know?
“No, dad hasn’t come yet,” said Sonya.
- Coco, you have arrived, come to me, my friend! - said the countess's voice from the living room. Nikolai approached his mother, kissed her hand and, silently sitting down at her table, began to look at her hands, laying out the cards. Laughter and cheerful voices were still heard from the hall, persuading Natasha.
“Well, okay, okay,” Denisov shouted, “now there’s no point in making excuses, barcarolla is behind you, I beg you.”
The Countess looked back at her silent son.
- What happened to you? – Nikolai’s mother asked.
“Oh, nothing,” he said, as if he was already tired of this same question.
- Will daddy come soon?
- I think.
“Everything is the same for them. They don't know anything! Where should I go?” thought Nikolai and went back to the hall where the clavichord stood.
Sonya sat at the clavichord and played the prelude of the barcarolle that Denisov especially loved. Natasha was going to sing. Denisov looked at her with delighted eyes.
Nikolai began to walk back and forth around the room.
“And now you want to make her sing? – what can she sing? And there’s nothing fun here,” thought Nikolai.
Sonya struck the first chord of the prelude.
“My God, I am lost, I am a dishonest person. A bullet in the forehead, the only thing left to do is not sing, he thought. Leave? but where? anyway, let them sing!”
Nikolai gloomily, continuing to walk around the room, glanced at Denisov and the girls, avoiding their gaze.
“Nikolenka, what’s wrong with you?” – asked Sonya’s gaze fixed on him. She immediately saw that something had happened to him.
Nikolai turned away from her. Natasha, with her sensitivity, also instantly noticed her brother’s condition. She noticed him, but she herself was so happy at that moment, she was so far from grief, sadness, reproaches, that she (as often happens with young people) deliberately deceived herself. No, I’m having too much fun now to spoil my fun by sympathizing with someone else’s grief, she felt, and said to herself:
“No, I’m rightly mistaken, he should be as cheerful as I am.” Well, Sonya,” she said and went out to the very middle of the hall, where, in her opinion, the resonance was best. Raising her head, lowering her lifelessly hanging hands, as dancers do, Natasha, energetically shifting from heel to tiptoe, walked through the middle of the room and stopped.
"Here I am!" as if she was speaking in response to the enthusiastic gaze of Denisov, who was watching her.
“And why is she happy! - Nikolai thought, looking at his sister. And how isn’t she bored and ashamed!” Natasha hit the first note, her throat expanded, her chest straightened, her eyes took on a serious expression. She was not thinking about anyone or anything at that moment, and sounds flowed from her folded mouth into a smile, those sounds that anyone can make at the same intervals and at the same intervals, but which a thousand times leave you cold, in the thousand and first times they make you shudder and cry.
This winter Natasha began to sing seriously for the first time, especially because Denisov admired her singing. She no longer sang like a child, there was no longer in her singing that comic, childish diligence that was in her before; but she still did not sing well, as all the expert judges who listened to her said. “Not processed, but a wonderful voice, it needs to be processed,” everyone said. But they usually said this long after her voice had fallen silent. At the same time, when this raw voice sounded with irregular aspirations and with efforts of transitions, even the expert judges did not say anything, and only enjoyed this raw voice and only wanted to hear it again. In her voice there was that virginal pristineness, that ignorance of her own strengths and that still unprocessed velvet, which were so combined with the shortcomings of the art of singing that it seemed impossible to change anything in this voice without spoiling it.
“What is this? - Nikolai thought, hearing her voice and opening his eyes wide. -What happened to her? How does she sing these days? - he thought. And suddenly the whole world focused for him in anticipation of the next note, the next phrase, and everything in the world became divided into three tempos: “Oh mio crudele affetto... [Oh my Cruel love…] One, two, three... one, two... three... one... Oh mio crudele affetto... One, two, three... one. Oh, our life is stupid! - Nikolai thought. All this, and misfortune, and money, and Dolokhov, and anger, and honor - all this is nonsense... but here it is real... Hey, Natasha, well, my dear! Well, mother!... how will she take this si? I took it! God bless!" - and he, without noticing that he was singing, in order to strengthen this si, took the second to the third of a high note. "My God! how good! Did I really take it? how happy!” he thought.