Smell: The Tale of a Fading Sense - Hardcover

by Bjørn Berge (Author), Lucy Moffatt (Translator)

A celebration of our olfactory sense.

The sense of smell is often linked to the dark, the antisocial, the primitive--the very opposite of modernity and progress. Today, we live in an almost odorless world, where everything is reduced to images. Yet smell plays a vital role in how we relate to others and our surroundings, forming our experiences and our memories. Tracing a history of smell from the first ancient cities through medieval plagues and the Industrial Revolution to the present day, this book is a tribute to the sense of smell in all its beauty and disgust. Along the way, Bj rn Berge introduces us to twenty iconic scents--from blood and soil to the ocean--and invites readers to reflect on and reawaken their senses.

Author Biography

Bjørn Berge is an architect and author. His books include The Ecology of Building Materials and Nowherelands: An Atlas of Vanished Countries 1840-1975. Lucy Moffatt is an award-winning translator working primarily from Norwegian to English, with a focus on literary projects, both fiction and nonfiction.