The Perfume Lover: A Personal History of Scent
Perfume seduces, and it is so much a part of dressing to please that it’s often taken for granted. It will be difficult, though, to think of scent in such an uncomplicated fashion after reading this tantalizing mix of history, contemporary events, and autobiography. The author opens her narrative with Bertrand Duchaufour, head of L’Artisan Parfumeur, an organization that creates many of today’s celebrated and favorite odors. He agreed to whip up a scent capturing the essence of her years-ago fling in Seville. Interspersed with Duchaufour’s trials in arriving at the right scent are personal tales of the author’s divorce from Tomcat; her liaisons with Monsieur; her upbringing in Montreal, complete with allergies and Catholic private schooling; and her intense desire to be a Parisian. Integrated in her elegant yet dense prose are definitions (such as perfume is but an aesthetic, cultural, and emotional elaboration of the raw materials provided by nature); acknowledgments of the great figures and great moments in the industry (for instance, the 1982 Dior launch of Poison); and a hint of the science and art that go into the making of a perfume. --Barbara Jacobs