The Guardian reports that Laura Tonnato, an Italian perfume creator, has come up with five new scents designed to evoke specific moments in classic novels. The ones that get the olfactory treatment are Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Gabriele d’Annunzio’s The Child of Pleasure, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Patrick Süskind’s more modern Perfume, and the famous madeleine in Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. (Writes The Guardian‘s John Mullan: “Only the pedant would object that it is the madeleine’s taste, not its smell, that triggers memory in Proust’s great novel.”) No Canadian entries, alas, but perhaps eau de Surfacing isn’t far behind.

Related links:
Guardian piece on novel-inspired perfumes