Fragrance expert Michael Edwards has revised and updated his reference work Perfume Legends. Perfume Legends II includes the original list of fragrances covering the period from 1882 to 1992 (you can find that list in the review linked above) plus two that were left out: Robert Piguet Fracas (because the formulation was so bad at the time) and Guerlain Nahéma (because Edwards couldn't get the information he needed from Jean-Paul Guerlain). It then brings us up to 2010 with Serge Lutens Féminité du Bois, Rochas Tocade; Christian Dior J’Adore; Kenzo Flower; Chanel Coco Mademoiselle; L'Artisan Parfumeur Timbuktu; and Frédéric Malle Portrait of a Lady. You can order a copy from Fragrances of the World for $145.
The book sounds awesome but the price makes it not so awesome.
The local library is the answer!
I have to say that I learned more from the first volume than any other book I’ve ever read about perfume.
My library system does not have this book and probably never will.
Robin, a lot of libraries will do an interlibrary loan by request. That’s how I was able to read the first volume (this book is fairly niche for our library). I live in two states and one does it for free; in the other you sometimes pay for shipping. Still a deal! It’s a worth a shot asking.
Thank you! I am a major user of interlibrary loan, but I find it a hassle for rare things like this.
But also, this is a book I have referred to again and again. If I had to do it all over again, this is probably the only perfume book I’d buy and I would have bought it sooner than I did.
But it might also depend on exactly why/how you are interested in perfume. I can see why some people would prefer to own something else or might not find this one useful.
Seriously! Robin’s comment makes me want it, but… don’t they know we have perfumes to buy?
I ended up getting my copy on eBay by using an automated search, and I just waited until I got a decent price. But it was worth it! And I understand the price, it’s a lot of specialist research and not likely to sell a million copies.
Too bad they didn’t add more things. I have the original one and can’t justify to purchase this copy for just a few new fragrances.
I do not know how much the rest of the material is revised. I do know that since a decent version of Fougere Royal is on the market again, they’ve made that a separate chapter instead of just part of the intro.
You can buy one or two perfumes for the price of that book
Yes but they won’t last as long, and arguably more work went into the book
It is worth if you enjoy knowing the background and history of the fragrances. The info Michael Edwards put on this book cannot be found nowhere and it’s amazing and fascinating the histories and how much those legends carry with them.
I think I might splash out on this ($230 for me). I loved the earlier edition ( library copy) . It was a goldmine of information.
Agree about the goldmine. There are perfumes I probably never would have really understood but for the first edition.
As a semi-regular undergrad, I spent more than this on a single book that I used twice! Maybe this could be my Christmas present to myself.
I can believe it! Another example of an arena where books require specialist knowledge but have no huge market.
I have the original book, & mentioned on here before (many years ago) that my motorcyclist husband & like-minded friends were going to a bike show in either Edinburgh or Glasgow (can’t remember which as it’s so long ago!) & all of them, suitably clad for a 300 mile round trip motorcycle day out in Scotland, piled into relevant city’s House of Fraser department store where I had arranged for said book to be collected from the main fragrance counter & gingerly brought back to me here in Aberdeen – I think a few of the local ‘ladies who lunch’ had some raised eyebrows at the leather wearing, helmet carrying group but apparently the staff were highly amused! It cost me GBP 75.00, which was a lot of money back then but well worth it, & has been lent to & enjoyed by friends & colleagues over the years. I don’t envisage buying this ‘update’ – I eagerly anticipated what the author announced his next book would be – ‘Great American Fragrances’ or some such similar title, but to my knowledge this has not materialised.
Yes — I wonder if we will ever see the American edition!
Sounds worth having (eventually–there may be a bottle of FM Rose & Cuir in my future).