Odours exercise a strange, mysterious power. Some attract and seduce us, while others provoke irresistible reactions of disgust and rejection.
In this book, Annick Le Guérer traces the extraordinary history of odours from Antiquity to the present. Based on recent scientific research on the olfactory sense, she shows how closely linked odours are to sexuality. In addition, she analyses the symbolic value of odours in myth and religion, and examines the vast powers of life and death that medicine endowed them with.
She also explains why philosophers and psychoanalysts have traditionally considered the study of odours with mistrust.

Annick Le Guérer is an anthropologist and philosopher, specialising in odours, perfume and the olfactory sense.