HE SPENT HIS time in the workshop. He explained to Druot that he was trying to invent a formula for a new cologne. In reality, however, he was experimenting with scents1 of a very different sort. Although he had used it very sparingly, the perfume that he had mixed in Montpellier was slowly running out. He created a new one. But this time he was not content simply to imitate basic human odor by hastily tossing together some ingredients; he made it a matter of pride to acquire a personal odor, or better yet, a number of personal odors.
First he made an odor for inconspicuousness, a mousy, workaday outfit3 of odors with the sour, cheesy smell of humankind still present, but only as if exuded4 into the outside world through a layer of linen5 and wool garments covering an old man’s dry skin. Bearing this smell, he could move easily among people. The perfume was robust6 enough to establish the olfactory7 existence of a human being, but at the same time so discreet8 that it bothered no one. Using it, Grenouille was not actually present, and yet his presence was justified9 in the most modest sort of way-a bastard10 state that was very handy both in the Arnulfi household and on his occasional outings in the town.
On certain occasions, to be sure, this modest scent2 proved inconvenient11. When he had errands to run for Druot or wanted to buy his own civet or a few musk12 pods from a merchant, he might prove to be so perfectly13 inconspicuous that he was either ignored and no one waited on him, or was given the wrong item or forgotten while being waited on. For such occasions he had blended a somewhat more redolent, slightly sweaty perfume, one with a few olfactory edges and hooks, that lent him a coarser appearance and made people believe he was in hurry and on urgent business. He also had good success with a deceptive14 imitation of Druot’s aura seminalis, which he learned to produce by impregnating a piece of oily linen with a paste of fresh duck eggs and fermented15 wheat flour and used whenever he needed to arouse a certain amount of notice.
Another perfume in his arsenal16 was a scent for arousing sympathy that proved effective with middle-aged17 and elderly women. It smelled of watery18 milk and fresh, soft wood. The effect Grenouille created with it-even when he went out unshaved, scowling19, and wrapped in a heavy coat-was of a poor, pale lad in a frayed20 jacket who simply had to be helped. Once they caught a whiff of him, the market women filled his pockets with nuts and dried pears because he seemed to them so hungry and helpless. And the butcher’s wife, an implacably callous21 old hag if there ever was one, let him pick out, for free, smelly old scraps22 of meat and bone, for his odor of innocence23 touched her mother’s heart. He then took these scraps, digested them directly in alcohol, and used them as the main component24 for an odor that he applied25 when he wanted to be avoided and left completely alone. It surrounded him with a slightly nauseating26 aura, like the rancid breath of an old slattern’s mouth when she awakens27. It was so effective that even Druot, hardly a squeamish sort, would automatically turn aside and go in search of fresh air, without any clear knowledge, of course, of what had actually driven him away. And sprinkling a few drops of the repellent on the threshold of his cabin was enough to keep every intruder, human or animal, at a distance.
Protected by these various odors, which he changed like clothes as the situation demanded and which permitted him to move undisturbed in the world of men and to keep his true nature from them, Gre-nouille devoted28 himself to his real passion: the subtle pursuit of scent. And because he had a great goal right under his nose and over a year still left to him, he not only went about the task with burning zeal29, but he also systematically30 planned how to sharpen his weapons, polish his techniques, and gradually perfect his methods. He began where he had left off at Baldini’s, with extracting the scent from inert31 objects: stone, metal, glass, wood, salt, water, air....
What before had failed so miserably33 using the crude process of distillation34 succeeded now, thanks to the strong absorptive powers of oil. Grenouille took a brass35 doorknob, whose cool, musty, brawny36 smell he liked, and wrapped it in beef tallow for a few days. And sure enough, when he peeled off the tallow and examined it, it smelled quite clearly like the doorknob, though very faintly. And even after a lavage in alcohol, the odor was still there, infinitely37 delicate, distant, overshadowed by the vapor38 of the spirits, and in this world probably perceptible only to Gre-nouille’s nose-but it was certainly there. And that meant, in principle at least, at his disposal. If he had ten thousand doorknobs and wrapped them in tallow for a thousand days, he could produce a tiny drop of brass-doorknob essence absolue strong enough for anyone to have the indisputable illusion of the original under his nose.
He likewise succeeded with the porous39 chalky dust from a stone he found in the olive grove40 before his cabin. He macerated it and extracted a dollop of stone pomade, whose infinitesimal odor gave him indescribable delight. He combined it with other odors taken from ail32 kinds of objects lying around his cabin, and painstakingly42 reproduced a miniature olfactory model of the olive grove behind the Franciscan cloister43. Carrying it about with him bottled up in a tiny flacon, he could resurrect the grove whenever he felt like it.
These were virtuoso44 odors, executed as wonderful little trifles that of course no one but he could admire or would ever take note of. He was enchanted45 by their meaningless perfection; and at no time in his life, either before or after, were there moments of such truly innocent happiness as in those days when he playfully and eagerly set about creating fragrant46 landscapes, still lifes, and studies of individual objects. For he soon moved on to living subjects.
He hunted for winter flies, for maggots, rats, small cats, and drowned them in warm oil. At night he crept into stalls to drape cows, goats, and piglets for a few hours in cloths smeared47 with oil or to wrap them in greasy48 bandages. Or he sneaked49 into sheepfolds and stealthily sheared50 a lamb and then washed the redolent wool in rectified51 spirit. At first the results were not very satisfactory. For in contrast to the patient things, doorknobs and stones, animals yielded up their odor only under protest. The pigs scraped off the bandages by rubbing against the posts of their sties. The sheep bleated52 when he approached them by night with a knife. The cows obstinately53 shook the greasy cloths from their udders. Some of the beetles54 that he caught gave off foully55 stinking56 secretions57 while he was trying to work with them, and the rats, probably out of fear, would shit in the olfactorily sensitive pomades. Unlike flowers, the animals he tried to macerate41 would not yield up their scent without complaints or with only a mute sigh-they fought desperately58 against death, absolutely did not want to be stirred under, but kicked and struggled, and in their fear of death created large quantities of sweat whose acidity59 ruined the warm oil. You could not, of course, do sound work under such conditions. The objects would have to be quieted down, and so suddenly that they would have no time to become afraid or to resist. He would have to kill them.
He first tried it with a puppy. He enticed60 it away from its mother with a piece of meat, all the way from the slaughterhouse to the laboratory, and as the animal panted excitedly and lunged joyfully61 for the meat in Grenouille’s left hand, he gave one quick, hard blow to the back of its head with a piece of wood he held in his right. Death descended62 on the puppy so suddenly that the expression of happiness was still on its mouth and in its eyes long after Grenouille had bedded it down in the impregnating room on a grate between two greased plates, where it exuded its pure doggy scent, unadulterated by the sweat of fear. To be sure, one had to be careful! Carcasses, just as plucked blossoms, spoiled quickly. And so Grenouille stood guard over his victim, for about twelve hours, until he noticed that the first wisps of carrion63 scent-not really unpleasant, but adulterating nevertheless-rose up from the dog’s body. He stopped the enfleurage at once, got rid of the carcass, and put the impregnated oil in a pot, where he carefully rinsed64 it. He distilled65 the alcohol down to about a thimbleful and filled a tiny glass tube with these few remaining drops. The perfume smelled clearly of dog-moist, fresh, tallowy, and a bit pungent66. It smelled amazingly like dog. And when Grenouille let the old bitch at the slaughterhouse sniff67 at it, she broke out in yelps68 of joy and whimpered and would not take her nose out of the glass tube. Grenouille closed it up tight and put it in his pocket and bore it with him for a long time as a souvenir of his day of triumph, when for the first time he had succeeded in robbing a living creature of its aromatic69 soul.
Then, very gradually and with utmost caution, he went to work on human beings. At first he stalked them from a safe distance with a wide-meshed net, for he was less concerned with bagging large game than with testing his hunting methods.
Disguised by his faint perfume for inconspicuous-ness, he mingjed with the evening’s guests at the Quatre Dauphins inn and stuck tiny scraps of cloth drenched70 in oil and grease under the benches and tables and in hidden nooks. A few days later he collected them and put them to the test. And indeed, along with all sorts of kitchen odors, tobacco smoke, and wine smells, they exhaled71 a little human odor. But it remained very vague and masked, was more the suggestion of general exhalations than a personal odor. A similar mass aura, though purer and more sublimely72 sweaty, could be gleaned73 from the cathedral, where on December 24 Grenouille hung his experimental flags under the pews and gathered them in again on the twenty-sixth, after no less than seven masses had been sat through just above them. A ghastly conglomerate74 of odor was reproduced on the impregnated swatches: anal sweat, menstrual blood, moist hollows of knees, and clenched75 hands, mixed with the exhaled breath of thousands of hymn-singing and Ave Maria-mumbling throats and the oppressive fumes76 of incense77 and myrrh. A horrible concentration of nebulous, amorphous78, nauseating odors- and yet unmistakably human.
Grenouille garnered79 his first individual odor in the Hopital de la Charite”. He managed to pilfer80 sheets that were supposed to be burned because the journeyman sackmaker who had lain wrapped in them for two months had just died of consumption. The cloth was so drenched in the exudations of the sackmaker that it had absorbed them like an enfleurage paste and could be directly subjected to lavage. The result was eerie81: right under Grenouille’s nose, the sackmaker rose olfactonly from the dead, ascending82 from the alcohol solution, hovering83 there-the phantom84 slightly distorted by the peculiar85 methods of reproduction and the countless86 miasmas87 of his disease-but perfectly recognizable in space as an olfactory personage. A small man of about thirty, blond, with a bulbous nose, short limbs, flat, cheesy feet, swollen88 gem’talia, choleric89 temperament90, and a stale mouth odor-not a handsome man, aromatically91 speaking, this sack-maker, not worth being held on to for any length of time, like the puppy. And yet for one whole night Grenouille let the scent-specter flutter about his cabin while he sniffed92 at him again and again, happy and deeply satisfied with the sense of power that he had won over the aura of another human being. He poured it out the next day.
He tried one more experiment during these winter days. He discovered a deaf-mute beggar woman wandering through the town and paid her one franc to wear several different sets of rags smeared with oils and fats against her naked skin. It turned out that lamb suet, pork lard, and beef tallow, rendered many times over, combined in a ratio of two to five to three-with the addition of a small amount of virgin93 oil-was best for absorbing human odor.
Grenouille let it go at that. He refrained from overpowering some whole, live person and processing him or her perfumatorily. That sort of thing would have meant risks and would have resulted in no new knowledge. He knew he now was master of the techniques needed to rob a human of his or her scent, and he knew it was unnecessary to prove this fact anew.
Indeed, human odor was of no importance to him whatever. He could imitate human odor quite well enough with surrogates. What he coveted94 was the odor of certain human beings: that is, those rare humans who inspire love. These were his victims.
收听单词发音 |
1
scents
|
|
| n.香水( scent的名词复数 )；气味；（动物的）臭迹；（尤指狗的）嗅觉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
scent
|
|
| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
outfit
|
|
| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
exuded
|
|
| v.缓慢流出，渗出，分泌出( exude的过去式和过去分词 )；流露出对（某物）的神态或感情 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
linen
|
|
| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
robust
|
|
| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
olfactory
|
|
| adj.嗅觉的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
discreet
|
|
| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
justified
|
|
| a.正当的，有理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
bastard
|
|
| n.坏蛋，混蛋；私生子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
inconvenient
|
|
| adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
musk
|
|
| n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
deceptive
|
|
| adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
fermented
|
|
| v.（使）发酵( ferment的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）激动；骚动；骚扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
arsenal
|
|
| n.兵工厂，军械库 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
middle-aged
|
|
| adj.中年的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
watery
|
|
| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
scowling
|
|
| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
frayed
|
|
| adj.磨损的v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
callous
|
|
| adj.无情的，冷淡的，硬结的，起老茧的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
scraps
|
|
| 油渣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
innocence
|
|
| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
component
|
|
| n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
applied
|
|
| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
nauseating
|
|
| adj.令人恶心的，使人厌恶的v.使恶心，作呕( nauseate的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
awakens
|
|
| v.（使）醒( awaken的第三人称单数 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
devoted
|
|
| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
zeal
|
|
| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
systematically
|
|
| adv.有系统地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
inert
|
|
| adj.无活动能力的，惰性的；迟钝的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
ail
|
|
| v.生病，折磨，苦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
miserably
|
|
| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
distillation
|
|
| n.蒸馏，蒸馏法 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
brass
|
|
| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
brawny
|
|
| adj.强壮的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
infinitely
|
|
| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
vapor
|
|
| n.蒸汽，雾气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
porous
|
|
| adj.可渗透的，多孔的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
grove
|
|
| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
macerate
|
|
| v.浸软，使消瘦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
painstakingly
|
|
| adv. 费力地 苦心地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
cloister
|
|
| n.修道院；v.隐退，使与世隔绝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
virtuoso
|
|
| n.精于某种艺术或乐器的专家，行家里手 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
enchanted
|
|
| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
fragrant
|
|
| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
smeared
|
|
| 弄脏； 玷污； 涂抹； 擦上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
greasy
|
|
| adj. 多脂的，油脂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
sneaked
|
|
| v.潜行( sneak的过去式和过去分词 )；偷偷溜走；（儿童向成人）打小报告；告状 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
sheared
|
|
| v.剪羊毛( shear的过去式和过去分词 )；切断；剪切 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
rectified
|
|
| [医]矫正的，调整的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
bleated
|
|
| v.（羊，小牛）叫( bleat的过去式和过去分词 )；哭诉；发出羊叫似的声音；轻声诉说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
obstinately
|
|
| ad.固执地，顽固地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
beetles
|
|
| n.甲虫( beetle的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
foully
|
|
| ad.卑鄙地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
stinking
|
|
| adj.臭的，烂醉的，讨厌的v.散发出恶臭( stink的现在分词 )；发臭味；名声臭；糟透 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
secretions
|
|
| n.分泌（物）( secretion的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
desperately
|
|
| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
acidity
|
|
| n.酸度，酸性 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
enticed
|
|
| 诱惑，怂恿( entice的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
joyfully
|
|
| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
descended
|
|
| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
carrion
|
|
| n.腐肉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
rinsed
|
|
| v.漂洗( rinse的过去式和过去分词 )；冲洗；用清水漂洗掉（肥皂泡等）；（用清水）冲掉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
distilled
|
|
| adj.由蒸馏得来的v.蒸馏( distil的过去式和过去分词 )；从…提取精华 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
pungent
|
|
| adj.（气味、味道）刺激性的，辛辣的；尖锐的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
sniff
|
|
| vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
yelps
|
|
| n.（因痛苦、气愤、兴奋等的）短而尖的叫声( yelp的名词复数 )v.发出短而尖的叫声( yelp的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
aromatic
|
|
| adj.芳香的，有香味的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
drenched
|
|
| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
exhaled
|
|
| v.呼出，发散出( exhale的过去式和过去分词 )；吐出（肺中的空气、烟等），呼气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
sublimely
|
|
| 高尚地，卓越地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
gleaned
|
|
| v.一点点地收集（资料、事实）( glean的过去式和过去分词 )；（收割后）拾穗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
conglomerate
|
|
| n.综合商社，多元化集团公司 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
clenched
|
|
| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
fumes
|
|
| n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
incense
|
|
| v.激怒；n.香，焚香时的烟，香气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
amorphous
|
|
| adj.无定形的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
garnered
|
|
| v.收集并（通常）贮藏（某物），取得，获得( garner的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
pilfer
|
|
| v.盗，偷，窃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
eerie
|
|
| adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
ascending
|
|
| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
hovering
|
|
| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
phantom
|
|
| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
peculiar
|
|
| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
countless
|
|
| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
miasmas
|
|
| n.瘴气( miasma的名词复数 )；烟雾弥漫的空气；不良气氛或影响 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
88
swollen
|
|
| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
choleric
|
|
| adj.易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
temperament
|
|
| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
aromatically
|
|
| 芳香的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
92
sniffed
|
|
| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
virgin
|
|
| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
coveted
|
|
| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |