#90 in Historical fiction
Perfume
- 263
- Pages
- about 5 h
- Reading time
- Film 2006 +1
- On screen
- World Fantasy Award for Best Novel
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Editor’s note Patrick Süskind’s only full-length novel, published in 1985 with the subtitle The Story of a Murderer, stayed on Der Spiegel’s bestseller list for about nine years. It is set in eighteenth-century France and told almost entirely through smell. Süskind avoids interviews and has turned down literary prizes. Tom Tykwer filmed it in 2006.
About the book
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a 1985 literary historical fantasy novel by German writer Patrick Süskind. The novel explores the sense of smell and its relationship with the emotional meanings that scents may have.
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen 2 times — from 2006 to 2018.
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.9 across 1,098 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 88% of the weight and the score stays at 8.1 — the Historical fiction average of 8.0 barely moves it. A further +0.10 comes from the small bonus for major awards.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.8 | 89 | 8% |
| Google Books | 8.0 | 31 | 3% |
| Hardcover | 7.9 | 978 | 89% |
Frequently asked
How long is Perfume?
It has 263 pages — shorter than 86% of the ranked books in Historical fiction.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Historical fiction — and a score of 8.1, the closest to this book.
