Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind. Short summary

5 seconds

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was a fanatical and ruthless killer. He lived in the captivity of scents and killed to create the perfect scent of love.

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Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was born under the counter of a smelly fish stall. Until the age of eight, the strange boy with an incredibly keen sense of smell lived in an orphanage. Then he was placed in the service of a tanner. Overcoming illness and resentment, Grenouille stubbornly clung to life. His only pleasure was the study of smells.

One day the young man sensed a new, previously unknown, alluring scent. It came from an unfamiliar girl. Jean strangled her to enjoy the scent.

Next, Grenouille killed purposefully — composing a formula for the perfume of love, using the natural body odors of young beauties. The murderer was caught and led to the scaffold, but the mystical perfume turned the execution into a mad orgy.

Avoiding punishment, Jean-Baptiste tried once again to demonstrate the power of his creation. He doused himself with perfume and was torn apart by vagrants, who went into ecstasy under the influence of the fragrance of love.