Perfume - The Story of a Murderer  (English, Paperback, Sueskind Patrick)

Often said to be one of the greatest Gothic horror novels ever written, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind is a book unique by all standards.

Summary Of The Book

First published in 1985, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, often called the great German classic talks about human identity, morality and communication through the life and story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an apprentice to a French perfumer with an extraordinary, insatiable sense of ‘smell’.

Born in 18th century France, Grenouille identifies every smell he comes across. He has an undeniable need for gathering the various smells that solves no other purpose for him, other than satisfying this greed. This almost supernatural ability of his leads to his desire of becoming a creator of scents, the greatest perfumer in the world.

What provides the main gist of the novel is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille’s desire to not only identify every smell he comes across, but also possess the ‘smells’ he likes for himself, which leads him to commit a series of murders when he realizes nothing affects him more than the smell of young, virgin girls.

Filled with vivid descriptions and a brilliant sense of literary writing style, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a book of madness, mystery and suspense, profoundly disturbing but innately pleasurable at the same time. The book is dark as it is mysterious, and Suskind presents us with one of the most complex literary characters ever in Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an individual who is completely disconnected with humanity.

An international bestseller, the novel has been adapted into a number of films and musical adaptations and also has been cited as inspiration for a number of songs. It was published as Das Parfum originally, and has sold more than 12 million copies and translated into 46 languages.

About Patrick Suskind

German novelist and screenwriter Patrick Suskind is not only well known for his internationally acclaimed novel Perfume, but also his play The Double Bass, which catapulted him into fame in the early 1980s.

Apart from being a successful playwright and screenwriter for TV productions such as Monaco Franze and Kir Royal, he has also written a number of novellas such as The Pigeon, and The Story of Mr. Sommer.

Born near Munich in 1949, Suskind was the son of writer and journalist Wilhelm Emanuel Suskind. He studied Medieval and Modern History at the University of Munich and the Aix-en-Provence.