Patchouli was the fragrance of our generation. Smelling like the earth, undergrowth, youth, and freedom, it connected us to the imaginary world born of 19th-century Romanticism, when the word “patchouli” first appeared. In a commentary on Baudelaire, André Guyaux noted that the poet “didn’t need to go looking far for a little jar of heliotrope or tuberose, a bag of peau d’Espagne or a cashmere shawl redolent of patchouli cast on a sofa” to find himself spirited away. We, too, wanted an earthly paradise that wasn’t artificial.
— Perfumer Jean Claude Ellena, from his book Atlas of Perfumed Botany. Read more in A Master Perfumer's Reflections on Patchouli and Vetiver at MIT Press Reader.
I bought the Atlas of Perfumed Botany a couple months ago, so I’ll wait to read the book instead of these excerpts. It’s a beautiful book! I’ll definitely make it my next non-fiction read.
Oh good, I’m tempted to pick up a copy myself.
Oh thank you so much for this information Robin – I have read two other books by JCE on perfume and I am so happy to learn of a new one. He writes very clearly with such interesting details. This is a lovely treat to look forward to!
Good! I will probably end up buying it too.