Question:
Welcome Lynette!! WSS is a GREAT book for "snowy winter reading" - you will be instantly transported to steamy Caribbean climes and steamier Caribbean bedrooms!
I was up too early this ayem to conentrate on my frag selection and fell into Cabochard - a sumptuous old friend - alway tres elegante and tres chic. Perhaps what the snobby ladies in Spanish Town would have worn to put down Antoinettes "maman" before she married Mr. Mason!
SO look forward to what you all are thinking and doing.

Answer:
Wide Sargasso Sea - A Personal Olfactory Journey
Part 1: Childhood

Pg 4 Line 5: “Then one day, very early, I saw her horse lying down under the frangipani tree.”
Major Notes: Sweet dead meat flesh, leather, tropical woody greenery (the tree), frangipani blooms.
Perfumes / Combos:
Serge Lutens Musc Koublai Khan + Chanel Cuir de Russie + Ava Luxe Kama Extreme (dead horse flesh)
Gres Cabotine + Arran Aromatics After the Rain + Grenada Frangipani Absolu (the frangipani tree and the fresh tropical morning environment)
Alternative Combos:
Serge Lutens Musc Koublai Khan + Chanel Cuir de Russie + Mayfair Just Musk (dead horse flesh)
Serge Lutens Musc Koublai Khan + Chanel Cuir de Russie + Andy Tauer Lonestar Memories (dead horse flesh)


Pg 4 Line 28: “Our garden was large and beautiful as the garden in the Bible – the tree of life grew there. But it had gone wild. The paths were overgrown and a smell of dead flowers mixed with the fresh living smell. Underneath the tree ferns, tall as forest tree ferns, the light was green. Orchids flourished out of reach or for some reason, not to be touched.”
Major Notes: Dead flowers, fresh tropical greenery, ferns, Orchid blooms.
Perfumes / Combos:
Clinique Aromatics Elixir + Gres Cabotine + Arran Aromatics After the Rain (the over grown garden)
Crown Perfumery Crown Fougere + Avon Naturals Wild Orchid (the ferns and taboo orchids)
Alternative combos:
Penhaligons English Fern + YSL Nu EDT (the ferns and taboo orchids)


Pg 5 Line 10: “My mother usually walked up and down the glacis, a paved roofed-in terrace which ran the length of the house and sloped upwards to a clump of bamboos. Standing by the bamboos she had a clear view of the sea, but anyone passing could stare at her.”
Major Notes: Warm tropical ambience, fresh tropical greenery, bamboo, sea air, Annette Cosway (mother).
Perfumes / Combos:
Laura Biagiotti Roma + Gres Cabotine + LUSH Ginger (the over grown garden in the evening)
Calvin Klein Truth + Montale Sandflowers (the bamboo with a sea view).
Guerlain Mahora + LUSH Ginger (Annette Cosway, mother)
Alternative combos:
Il Profumo Nymphea + Montale Sandflowers (the bamboo with a sea view).
LUSH Ginger + Chloe Narcisse (Annette Cosway, mother)


Pg6 Line 0: Cristophene (home help / ex slave / Obeah woman)
Major Notes: Clean starched linen, musk, herbs.
Perfumes / Combos:
Cerruti 1881 pour Elle + Parfums Jamaica Khus Khus = Cristophene
Alternative combos:
Parfums Jamaica Khus Khus + LUSH Ginger + Nemat Egyptian Musk Superior
Guerlain Vetiver + LUSH Ginger + Nemat Egyptian Musk Superior
Cerruti 1881 pour Elle + Guerlain Vetiver
Guerlain Vetiver + LUSH Ginger


Pg 7 Line 24: “When I was safely home I sat close to the old wall at the end of the garden. It was covered with green moss as soft as velvet and I never wanted to move again.”
Major Notes: warm stone, velvety moss, green vegetation.
Perfumes / Combos:
Nemat Black Stone + Parfums Jamaica Khus Khus + Guerlain Parure
Alternative combos:
Arran Aromatics for Men (vetiver) + Guerlain Parure + Nemat Black Stone
Parfums Jamaica Khus Khus + Clinique Aromatics Elixir + Nemat Black Stone
Arran Aromatics for Men (vetiver) + Clinique Aromatics Elixir + Nemat Black Stone


Pg 8 Line 2: “I could not sleep, but I wasn’t quite awake as I lay in the shade by the pool – deep and dark green under the trees, brown green if it had rained, but a bright sparkling green in the sun. The water was so clear that you could see the pebbles at the bottom of the shallow part.”
Major Notes: lush natural / wild tropical vegetation, shades of green from dark to light, sweet water.
Perfumes / Combos:
Il Profumo Nymphea + Parfums Jamaica Khus Khus + Gres Cabotine
Alternative combos:
Il Profumo Nymphea + Guerlain Vetiver + Gres Cabotine


Pg 19 Line 22: Aunt Cora (friend of Annette Cosway) “Just for a moment I shut eyes and rested my head against her shoulder. She smelled of vanilla, I remember.”
Major Notes: (French) vanilla, musk, cloth.
Perfumes / Combos:
L’Artisan Vanillia + I Profumo de Firenze Vaniglia de Madagascar
Alternative combos:
L’Artisan Vanillia + Yves Rocher Vanille Bourbon
L’Artisan Vanillia + Chopard Casmir


Pg 20 Line 27: “I had not seen any flames, only smoke and sparks, but now I saw tall flames shooting up to the sky, for bamboos had caught. There were some tree ferns near, green and damp, one of those was smouldering too.”
Major Notes: smoke, burning wood, green vegetation.
Perfumes / Combos:
Ava Luxe Fire Wood + Arran Aromatics for Men (vetiver) + Andy Tauer Lonestar Memories + Nemat Black Stone (Burning Coulibri Estate)


Pg 31 Line 2: Louise de Plana (fellow pupil at the convent). “Ah but Louise! Her small waist, her thin brown hands, her black curls which smelled of vetiver, her high sweet voice, singing so carelessly in Chapel about death.”
Major Notes: vetiver, soft skin musk, soap.
Perfumes / Combos:
Parfums Jamaica Khus Khus + TBS Japanese Musk
Alternative combos:
Guerlain Vetiver + TBS Japanese Musk
Liberty’s of London (Simply) Musk + TBS Japanese Musk + Parfums Jamaica Khus Khus
Liberty’s of London (Simply) Musk + TBS Japanese Musk + Guerlain Vetiver


Pg 31 Line 25: “This convent was my refuge, a place of sunshine and of death where very early in the morning the clap of a wooden signal woke the nine of us who slept in the long dormitory. […]The long brown room was full of gold sunlight and shadows of trees moving quietly.”
Major Notes: green vegetation, soft incense, stone walls, polished wood.
Perfumes / Combos:
Etro Mahogany + Parfums Jamaica Khus Khus + Etro Messe de Minuit
Alternative combos:
Etro Mahogany + Guerlain Vetiver + Etro Messe de Minuit
Etro Mahogany + Guerlain Vetiver Eau Friache + Etro Messe de Minuit
Etro Mahogany + Guerlain Vetiver + Storer Monk
Etro Mahogany + Parfums Jamaica Khus Khus + Storer Monk
Etro Mahogany + Guerlain Vetiver Eau Friache + Storer Monk


Pg 32 Line 0: “But I soon forgot about happiness, running down the stairsto the big stone bath where we splashed about wearing long grey cotton chemises which reached our ankles. The smell of soap as you caustiously soaped yourself under the chemise, a trick to be learned, dressing with modesty, another trick.”
Major Notes: vetiver, sunshine, old incense, stone, soap.
Perfumes / Combos:
Parfums Jamaica Khus Khus + TBS Japanese Musk + Etro Messe de Minuit
Alternative combos:
Guerlain Vetiver + TBS Japanese Musk + Etro Messe de Minuit
Nemat Black Stone + Thierry Mugler Cologne + Guerlain Vetiver
Etro Messe de Minuit + Thierry Mugler Cologne + Parfums Jamaica Khus Khus
Guerlain Vetiver + TBS Japanese Musk + Storer Monk
Storer Monk + Thierry Mugler Cologne + Parfums Jamaica Khus Khus
************************************************** *************
Public Safety Warning: The recommended blends above are to be dabbed on lightly or 'pre-blended' then applied with wisdom. Asphixation by heavy handed or spritzed application is done at the wearers own peril. The author is not liable for injuries sustained (from passing out or being battered by angry bystanders) when recommend combos are applied in this manner. Thank you.

Answer:
Good Lord!!
Moondeva dearest, I wish I had you in my real-life Bookclub!!
Ladies, I will have to read this book again after all these years. The combination of your words and scents makes it now irresistable for me.
A big to you all!!

Answer:
Oh, so good to see this revival! Had totally given up!
Thanks to Moondeva for the fab combos and for enticing our Dutch Dragon Lady into the den!
I had already sprayed generously from my sample of Putain des Palaces before coming downstairs to find this thread revivified - rather suitable to the spirit of Annette Cosway/Mason, "pretty like pretty self", as it turns out! PdP began as soft roses and violets with a hint of powder and has dried down to an amber-y animalic (I do that to some frags.) Maybe later I will add some Figue Amere to get vegetation and salt air.
I'm printing out Moondeva's combos and have at least two of her entries - on to page 44 and ferns and orchids, ginger, lilies and roses - jasmine and honeysuckle - and blood and tears.
--------------------------------------
Well, it didn't work out that way. Was so struck by Rochester's reflection on page 87 - a few days after he and Antoinette have arrived at Grandbois and are in the early stages of their devouring lust for each other. He has gone alone to the bathing pool: "It was a beautiful place - wild, untouched, above all untouched, with an alien, disturbing, secret loveliness. And it kept it's secret. I'd find myself thinking, 'What I see is nothing - I want what it hides - that is not nothing'".
So I've got Ava-luxe Lily on my left arm - and Kai on boobs and neck - and Blenheim Bouquet on my right arm. Roses and Gardenias - and cedar and herbs with a hint of English roses. Because when he finds what it hides - dense layers of complicated history - it destroys him and his passion for Antoinette. He takes her back to England where she reaches destruction ultimately. Or liberation - depending on how you look at it.
I find Rhys sympathetic to Rochester - further on she has him say - when he has realized that Antoinette has given him the love philtre supplied by Christophine - "She need not have done what she did to me. I will always swear to that. She need not have done it." ...he had begun to soften toward her.
I think it interesting that Rhys gave the Obeah woman the name of "Christophine" - a feminization of Christ.
So many layers to this fascinating book.
Hey you guys - what can I find for blood? Iron and salt and meat - sort of?

Answer:
From: Il Gattopardo by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
ll giardino esalava profumi untuosi, carnali e lievemente putridi come i liquami aromatici distillati dalle reliquie di certe sante; i garofanini sovrapponevano il loro odore pepato a quello protocollare delle rose ed a quello oleoso delle magnolie che si appesantivano negli angoli; e sotto sotto si avvertiva anche il profumo della menta misto aquello infantile della gaggia ed a quello confetturiero della mortella, e da oltre il muro l'agrumeto faceva straripare il sentore di alcova delle prime zagare.
Era un giardino per ciechi: la vista costantemente era offesa ma l'odorato poteva trarre da esso un piacere forte benche' non delicato. Le rose Paul Neyron erano degenerate si erano mutate in una sorta di cavoli color carne, osceni, ma che distillavano un denso aroma quasi turpe...Il Principe se ne pose una sotto il naso e gli sembro' di odorare la coscia di una ballerina dell'Opera.
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2...6-28768274_ITM
Bellodgia -Musc Ravageur- Carnal Flowers- Joy- Rose Barbare- Rosa Flamenca

Answer:
Quote: Originally Posted by nyneve From: Il Gattopardo by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa Welcome Nyneve and thanks for the link. Opened up whole new worlds for me! (for anyone who cares to follow the link, it is an examination of the use of smell in the written art - sort of).
Was hoping your post might regenerate some interest in the SSLBC - let's see what happens!!

Answer:
Moondeva, that was amazing. Your knowledge of scents is truly astounding. Thanks so much!

Answer:
Mind if I jump in? Do we just post as we read, or has an official "discussion date" been set?

Answer:
Quote: Originally Posted by julie-madam Mind if I jump in? Do we just post as we read, or has an official "discussion date" been set? Welcomewelcome ]ulie-Madam!! Sent you a pm on this.