The Lily of the Valley, or Love as Breathing in the Scent

The Lily of the Valley, published by Balzac in 1836, can be considered as a standard in olfactory literature since the novel is entirely built on the perception of odors and the central role of breathing in romantic relationships. As the title indicates, it is in the floral and olfactory registers that the essence of love expresses itself. Perfume presides over the birth of love, the recognition of the other, and the definition of the woman’s identity. We can read it as a poetics of breathing that tells another story and reenchants the world. The Lily of the Valley offers a powerful antidote to the impediments to breathing nowadays. I try here to interpret it like an ode celebrating another way of inhaling the world through love and perfumes.