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Perfume (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)

by Patrick Suskind (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics (6 Sep 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141189193
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141189192
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 31,136 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #3 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > S > Suskind, Patrick

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Product Description

Product Description

Survivor, genius, perfumer, killer: this is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He is abandoned on the filthy streets as a child, but grows up to discover he has an extraordinary gift: a sense of smell more powerful than any other human’s. Soon, he is creating the most sublime fragrances in Paris. Yet there is one odour he cannot capture. It is exquisite, magical: the scent of a young virgin. And to get it he must kill. And kill. And kill …


About the Author

Patrick Süskind was born in Ambach, near Munich, in 1949. He studied medieval and modern history at the University of Munich. His first play, The Double Bass, was written in 1980 and became an international success. It was performed in Germany, in Switzerland, at the Edinburgh Festival, in London, and at the New Theatre in Brooklyn. His first novel, Perfume, became an internationally acclaimed bestseller. He is also the author of The Pigeon and Mr Summer's Story, and a coauthor of the enormously successful German television series Kir Royal. Süskind lives and writes in Munich.
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written, 19 May 2008
I have nothing but praise for this beautifully written book. It's amazing how one can write about something that can only be smelt so realistically. The story is of an outsider and is portrayed not as someone that likes nothing and no-one but someone who is obsessed only with the world of scent.
Bit of trivia for Nirvana fans, this book was one of Cobain's favourites and the song 'scentless apprentice' was based on it. There you go if theres any reason to read it......
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The aroma of the soul, 24 Feb 2008
By Peter Bracken (France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
There is good for reason for Penguin to reissue this novel as a 'Modern Classic'. It is a work of real imagination, evocatively written and beautifully crafted.

I read it back in 1992 and returned to it when the film was released (worth seeing incidentally). I'd forgotten just how captivating the narrative was, and how fine the writing needed to be to sustain the outrageous central idea: of murder in the cause of bottling the perfume of the soul.

Give yourself a treat and buy it.
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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Oh great, they eat him, 11 Dec 2008
By Greshon (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
This seems to be a very famous book. I'd never heard of it before somebody at a charity book sale more or less forced me to buy it, telling me it was very 'erotic'. It then languished on my bookshelf for about a year, forgotten, until one of my friends saw it and started talking about it. And then it seemed like all of my friends had either read it or knew somebody that had read it. So I decided to give it a go. Perfume was written by German author Patrick Saskind in 1985 - though you probably know that - and since then has become regarded as something of a modern classic. It's all about a character with no conscience and a very good sense of smell who goes on a quest to make the ultimate perfume - which, incidentally, is distilled from young virgins on the cusp of womanhood. It's not very erotic, partly because the main character has no carnal feelings whatsoever. He wants these young virgins, who he murders, purely for their scent and has no other designs on them. However, the effect this distilled essence has on others does arouse desire, leading to a logical yet ridiculous finale. Disagreeing with the consensus, I didn't find this book erotic or particularly elegant. All the characters are dislikeable, leading to a sense of emotional non-attachment. My favourite bits were the fascinating and detailed descriptions of traditional perfume-making which, good as they are, are not really integral to the story. Kind of like the greatly detailed but at the end of the day superfluous fishing scenes in that awful George Clooney film 'The Perfect Storm'. To sum up, an unusual, diverting and unpleasant little book.
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