Fragrance: The Story of Perfume from Cleopatra to Chanel

Book Information

Title: Fragrance: The Story of Perfume from Cleopatra to Chanel
Author: Edwin T. Morris
Supervised by: Shoji Nakamura
Translated by: Mari Christine and Yukiko Numajiri
Publication date: November 1, 1992 (English edition: 1985)
Publisher: Kyuryudo

Book Review

If you want to smell a perfume’s scent more clearly, sniff. When you draw in air with a series of sniffs through your nose, swirling air rises and passes across the olfactory epithelium.

Edwin Morris

Although this book is subtitled “The Story of Perfume from Cleopatra to Chanel,” it provides an all-round introduction to perfume. Through history and research, it explores the mysteries of scents and smells, the history of fragrance ingredients, the perfume industry, and distinctive topics such as naming, with much of interest throughout. As it is a somewhat older book, some pronunciations differ here and there from those used today, but this is not much of a problem. If you have read Roja Dove’s The History of Perfume and want to explore further, this book is worth buying! Do not dismiss it just because it is old.

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