Constantly before his eyes now was a river flowing from him; and it was as if he himself and his house and the wealth he had accumulated over many de… - Patrick Süskind

He had escaped the abhorrent taint! He was truly completely alone! He was the only human being in the world!

So spoke Grenouille the Great and, while the peasantry of scent danced and celebrated beneath him, he glided with wide-stretched wings down from his golden clouds, across the nocturnal fields of his soul, and home to his heart.

The rivers stank, the marketplaces stank, the churches stank, it stank beneath the bridges and in the palaces. The peasant stank as did the priest, the apprentice as did his master’s wife, the whole of the aristocracy stank, even the king himself stank, stank like a rank lion, and the queen like an old goat, summer and winter.