Perfume shares several traditions of the novel genre. The work at the outset presents itself as historical in nature, purporting to deal with a French figure of the eighteenth century no less brilliant than the Marquis de Sade, Louis Antoine Saint-Just, Joseph Fouche, and Bonaparte — and no less arrogant, misanthropic, immoral, and wicked.

And while the focus is upon Grenouille as the central figure, Perfume is divided into four parts which treat his development in the fashion of the educational novel (bildungsroman). Part I concludes with the end of his apprenticeship to Baldini and departure from Paris: II deals with his years of isolation and his introduction to the Enlightenment society of Montpellier by the marquis: III represents residence in Grasse while developing techniques for the manufacture of perfumes; and the final Part IV details flight from the site of his scheduled execution to die as on...