Perfume – What Does Humanity Smell like?

 Having just finished reading this book by Patrick Suskind I can tell you that humanity stank back in late 17th and early 18th century.  It stank of blood stains, of onion breath, rotting fish and human waste and while this book is pure fiction, the environment that it depicts is chillingly real.

This classic tells of Grenouille, a man born with an outstanding sense of smell but no odour of his own in a stinking and overcrowded Parisien slum.  The book brings the world of perfumery to live (albeit in a rather grizzly way) by describing in great detail the intricasies of the perfumers toolbox, the materials used and the methods employed to capture a materials essence.

The book makes for a thrilling and graphic read regardless of whether you are going to be the next big “nose” or have set your sights on detective work.  What does humanity smell like today?