The Essence of Perfume (2008) by Roja Dove
Coffee table books are a funny genre. They may be the least read of all publications, because they serve functions quite distinct from those of other kinds of books. Coffee table books are primarily decorative in nature.
They sit in people's living rooms generally untouched along with a variety of other random objects. Often they are art related and may feature the name of their subject in bold type on the spine: Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, Kandinsky, Warhol, Pollock, the list of immediately recognizable artists, even to people who never studied art history in school, goes on and on and on.
More sophisticated persons, who did study art history and perhaps have careers related in some way to art or design, may have stacks of coffee table books covering far more obscure subjects, featuring names unknown to the vast majority even of educated people. The books mark the owners as being a part of an elite cultural group rather far removed from the unwashed masses whose "coffee tables" serve as ottomans before televisions and are more likely to be littered with empty beer cans than covered with tastefully placed books.
With the advent of the internet, the boundaries between such groups have become far more fluid, since anyone can learn about even the most arcane of subjects simply by investing some time surfing the world wide web.
Which brings us back to the subject of coffee table books. Why? Because they may be the only surviving physical books in the decades and centuries to come. As devices become the primary source of printed books, making it possible to carry an entire library in one's briefcase or purse--or better yet simply access someone else's collection as needed--coffee table books may still persist, sitting in pretty stacks in living rooms rarely if ever to be read, but occasionally browsed through, provided that the images which they contain are sufficiently engaging.
Roja Dove's The Essence of Perfume, published by Black Dog in 2008, is just such a book--provided that one is a perfumista. In fact, the book is ideal as a perfumista's coffee table book because it is filled with fascinating information of little interest to anyone but perfumistas. Ask yourself how many people outside the internet fragrance communities (people, say, in your neighborhood), would be interested in a history of perfume decade by decade?
What about a list of common ingredients in perfume, along with their sources and facts about their particular manner of isolation and use?
How many people do you know who would be interested in finding out the precise distinctions between the various concentrations of perfume: extrait, eau de parfum, eau de toilette, eau de fraîcheur and eau de cologne? Do you know very many non-perfumistas who care about the history of the major perfume-producing design houses, beginning with Chanel?
The Essence of Perfume offers all of this and more in a large format, beautiful coffee table book filled with information of interest to perfumistas--and only perfumistas! The black cloth binding embossed with gold lettering will make the day when the cover falls away in tatters after too much fondling a happy one indeed.
My goodness, that looks like a really nice book. Coffee table books are a favorite of mine, but I rarely buy them because I have a small coffee table!
ReplyDeleteIt's a nice book--no doubt about that. I did not even mention the best part: Dove offers his insights as a perfumer on all sorts of perfumes and topics. To be honest, it's a bit of a hodge-podge (like I said, a great coffee table book...), but excellent for opening to any randomly selected page to find some interesting tidbit. He also defends the integrity of some surprising perfumes and offers snippets of social and cultural context along with his history of perfume by the decades. Somewhere in there he proclaims that he stopped wearing Mitsouko after thirty years, when he could no longer recognize it anymore. Naturally that little observation endeared him to me...
DeleteI do not, however, agree with his claim (discussed chez toi), that Gucci Envy and Estée Lauder Pleasures are nearly the same! ;-)
I loved this review! I laughed out loud a couple of times -- especially your last line. I had Quintessentially Perfume, which Dove seemed to have had a hand in, although several people wrote the essays. It was kind of sort of a coffee table book, not quite as deluxe as this one appears. It seemed more interested in cheerleading the major companies than in providing interesting info (or even nice pictures!). Anyway, it irritated me so much I have kind of ignored Dove since then, perhaps unfairly.
ReplyDeleteHello, Furriner, nice to see you here!
DeleteI should say that there was a bit of self-promotion going on in this book as well--but it was kept under control to the point where I can recommend this as a somewhat casual and selective reference book about perfume. This is definitely not a a case of cheerleading for the big houses, because Dove does make some critical remarks about reformulation disasters (Mitsouko and Chloé) and seems to be offering a fair treatment of the topics which he discusses.
It's hard to know whether when he praises some of the perfumes, such as Lalique Perles de Lalique, he may have some ulterior motive. He verily gushes about that one, to the point where I made myself wear it a couple of times (which I rarely do), just to see whether I could figure out the source of his esteem. Alas, I failed. I mean, I like that perfume well enough, but I do not love it and have always felt that there is something slightly off-kilter about it. Probably just a matter of taste.
The most blatant case of self-promotion is his inclusion of pictures of Roja Dove perfumes on a couple of the pages. But I excuse this by the fact that since he composed them, he obviously stands by them in terms of their quality and integrity. So I do not think that he included them in the book only to promote them, but because he genuinely believes that they are good. I do admit that the biographical text about him (on the "about the author" page) is somewhat cringe-worthy, but fortunately it does not infect the rest of the book.
The low MSRP of this large and attractive book with high-quality images is given on the jacket as a measly $29.95--quite low to begin with, and my copy came from a remainder stack by way of Amazon, so it cost even less! Books priced that low sometimes are a part of a marketing scheme (promoting some program or person or product), but this volume is absolutely worth having around for such a modest price, even though it has some flaws, if judged by book standards--rather than coffee book standards...
small update: I just searched Amazon and discovered that a new edition was released in 2010, and it is going for ~ $150!!!! Glancing at selected pages, it looks like the very same book, so I must have lucked out...
DeleteThanks for this review, Shera Pop. Just the other day I was thinking about how I wanted to learn more about aromachemicals!
ReplyDeleteHmmm... this sounds like a subtle allusion to something about which I am ignorant. Is Dove known for pushing aromachemicals? Pray tell! He does not in this book...
DeleteI bought this a while back at a great price, too, and enjoy it. I don't think it's worth the new going price, though!
ReplyDeleteWell, I bought this book blind online, so the risk was worth what I paid. I would not normally pay $150 for a book. In fact, I do not believe that I've ever paid that much for a book--whether blind-bought or not!
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