Perfume

Perfume

by

Patrick Süskind

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The perfumer who takes Grenouille on as an apprentice; Chénier's employer. Baldini is very concerned with upholding and maintaining order, both in the larger world and in the smaller world of creating perfumes in his workshop. He's described as kind, although often to his own detriment, but also treats Grenouille as little more than a fountain of brilliant ideas for perfumes. He uses Grenouille to save himself from the has-been perfumer he'd become and rises to European fame with Grenouille's formulas, though Grenouille isn't allowed to take credit for his work. When Baldini exhausts his uses for Grenouille, he grants Grenouille journeyman's papers and sends him on his way. Baldini dies that night when his business, which sits on a bridge crossing the Seine, collapses into the river.

Giuseppe Baldini Quotes in Perfume

The Perfume quotes below are all either spoken by Giuseppe Baldini or refer to Giuseppe Baldini. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Growing Up and Becoming Human Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 11 Quotes

The man was indeed a danger to the whole trade with his reckless creativity. It made you wish for a return to the old rigid guild laws. Made you wish for draconian measures against this nonconformist, this inflationist of scent.

Related Characters: Giuseppe Baldini (speaker), Pélissier
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:

Man's misfortune stems from the fact that he does not want to stay in the room where he belongs. Pascal said that. And Pascal was a great man, a Frangipani of the intellect, a real craftsman, so to speak, and no one wants one of those anymore.

Related Characters: Giuseppe Baldini (speaker)
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 14 Quotes

But he at once felt the seriousness that reigned in these rooms, you might almost call it a holy seriousness, if the word "holy" had held any meaning whatever for Grenouille...

Related Characters: Jean-Baptise Grenouille, Giuseppe Baldini
Page Number: 67
Explanation and Analysis:

The tick had scented blood. It had been dormant for years, encapsulated, and had waited. Now it let itself drop, for better or for worse, entirely without hope. And that was why he was so certain.

Related Characters: Jean-Baptise Grenouille, Giuseppe Baldini
Related Symbols: The Tick
Page Number: 69
Explanation and Analysis:

Your grandiose failure will also be an opportunity for you to learn the virtue of humility, which—although one may pardon the total lack of its development at your tender age—will be an absolute prerequisite for later advancement as a member of your guild and for your standing as a man, a man of honor, a dutiful subject, and a good Christian.

Related Characters: Giuseppe Baldini (speaker), Jean-Baptise Grenouille
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:

... [he] looks just like one of those unapproachable, incomprehensible, willful little prehuman creatures, who in their ostensible innocence think only of themselves... if one let them pursue their megalomaniacal ways and did not apply the strictest pedagogical principles to guide them to a disciplined, self-controlled, fully human existence.

Related Characters: Giuseppe Baldini (speaker), Jean-Baptise Grenouille
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 17 Quotes

He believed that by collecting these written formulas, he could exorcise the terrible creative chaos erupting from his apprentice.

Related Characters: Jean-Baptise Grenouille, Giuseppe Baldini
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:

But by using the obligatory measuring glasses and scales, he learned the language of perfumery, and he sensed instinctively that the knowledge of this language could be of service to him.

Related Characters: Jean-Baptise Grenouille, Giuseppe Baldini
Page Number: 92
Explanation and Analysis:
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Giuseppe Baldini Quotes in Perfume

The Perfume quotes below are all either spoken by Giuseppe Baldini or refer to Giuseppe Baldini. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Growing Up and Becoming Human Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 11 Quotes

The man was indeed a danger to the whole trade with his reckless creativity. It made you wish for a return to the old rigid guild laws. Made you wish for draconian measures against this nonconformist, this inflationist of scent.

Related Characters: Giuseppe Baldini (speaker), Pélissier
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:

Man's misfortune stems from the fact that he does not want to stay in the room where he belongs. Pascal said that. And Pascal was a great man, a Frangipani of the intellect, a real craftsman, so to speak, and no one wants one of those anymore.

Related Characters: Giuseppe Baldini (speaker)
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 14 Quotes

But he at once felt the seriousness that reigned in these rooms, you might almost call it a holy seriousness, if the word "holy" had held any meaning whatever for Grenouille...

Related Characters: Jean-Baptise Grenouille, Giuseppe Baldini
Page Number: 67
Explanation and Analysis:

The tick had scented blood. It had been dormant for years, encapsulated, and had waited. Now it let itself drop, for better or for worse, entirely without hope. And that was why he was so certain.

Related Characters: Jean-Baptise Grenouille, Giuseppe Baldini
Related Symbols: The Tick
Page Number: 69
Explanation and Analysis:

Your grandiose failure will also be an opportunity for you to learn the virtue of humility, which—although one may pardon the total lack of its development at your tender age—will be an absolute prerequisite for later advancement as a member of your guild and for your standing as a man, a man of honor, a dutiful subject, and a good Christian.

Related Characters: Giuseppe Baldini (speaker), Jean-Baptise Grenouille
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:

... [he] looks just like one of those unapproachable, incomprehensible, willful little prehuman creatures, who in their ostensible innocence think only of themselves... if one let them pursue their megalomaniacal ways and did not apply the strictest pedagogical principles to guide them to a disciplined, self-controlled, fully human existence.

Related Characters: Giuseppe Baldini (speaker), Jean-Baptise Grenouille
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 17 Quotes

He believed that by collecting these written formulas, he could exorcise the terrible creative chaos erupting from his apprentice.

Related Characters: Jean-Baptise Grenouille, Giuseppe Baldini
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:

But by using the obligatory measuring glasses and scales, he learned the language of perfumery, and he sensed instinctively that the knowledge of this language could be of service to him.

Related Characters: Jean-Baptise Grenouille, Giuseppe Baldini
Page Number: 92
Explanation and Analysis: