Perfume: Part 1, Chapter 15 Summary & Analysis

Grenouille pours alcohol into the mixing bottle, horrifying Baldini from the start. In what seems like a haphazard way, Grenouille grabs different bottles, sniffs them, and pours them into the mixing bottle, ignoring the pipettes and test tubes. Baldini thinks that he looks like a selfish child, and is caught up in his own disgust at Grenouille and the age that has allowed individuals like Grenouille to exist; he only comes to when Grenouille begins to shake the mixing bottle vigorously.

Baldini yells for Grenouille to stop and calls him a brat and crude, adding that Grenouille may never again enter a perfumer's shop. However, as he speaks, he smells Amor and Psyche in the air. The narrator says that odors are powerful and cannot be fended off, and as Grenouille steps back from the table, Baldini slowly stops his tirade. He tests the concoction on a handkerchief and says "incredible."

While Baldini sniffs the handkerchief in stunned silence, Grenouille asserts that the perfume isn't very good, and says he'll make it better. Baldini doesn't interfere as Grenouille mixes right into the beaker of Amor and Psyche. Grenouille then swirls the mixture delicately, rather than shaking it, and pronounces it done. When asked, however, Baldini declines to test it and shows Grenouille to the door.

Grenouille again asks Baldini if he can work for him, and Baldini, still stunned, says he'll think about it. Grenouille disappears, and Baldini is frightened by what's just occurred. He returns to the laboratory and tests the new perfume, which he finds glorious. Silently he begins to trim the leather and starts the process of scenting the skins. Upstairs later he says nothing to his wife, and he forgets to light a candle at Notre-Dame, and forgets for the first time to say his prayers.