Perfume
Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society
History Hit
4.8 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 9 May 2023
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What did Napoleon smell like? How many pairs of scented gloves did Marie Antoinette get through a month? And how did the study of perfume become the study of life itself in the 19th century?
Kate is joined by Theresa Levitt for this episode to find out about the world of the Parisian perfumiers Laugier and Laurent. Theresa is the author of Elixir: A Parisian Perfume House and the Quest for the Secret of Life.
Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior producer: Charlotte Long. Mixed by Stuart Beckwith.
Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society. A podcast by History Hit.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello my lovely betwixters, it's me Kate Lister. I am here once again to warn you to stay away |
| 0:07.0 | from this podcast if you are of a sensitive disposition. I have no idea what you're doing here if |
| 0:11.6 | you're of a sensitive disposition but here comes your fair dues warning and then if you continue |
| 0:16.7 | to listen to this and if you get upset with us you will just have to say to yourself well I can't |
| 0:21.2 | be mad because fair dues they did warners. Here we go. This is an adult podcast spoken by adults |
| 0:27.8 | to other adults about adulty things in an adulty way covering a range of adult subjects and you |
| 0:32.9 | should be an adult as well. Have we all got that? Jack I don't actually think that we're super |
| 0:38.9 | rude today but to be honest I've become so desensitized to what is rude anymore. My bath for |
| 0:44.5 | shocking is so high I don't even know is perfume a scandalous subject because that's what we're |
| 0:49.2 | talking about today. It's a fascinating subject absolutely it's not particularly rude or we will |
| 0:54.6 | be talking about some pretty minion stuff in the city of Paris you know like just rotting horrible |
| 0:59.7 | stinky stuff that might make you gip a bit I'll definitely be swearing but I think you can handle |
| 1:04.3 | this one but twixters definitely and I am ready if you are. |
| 1:13.6 | Are you like me? Are you a bit of a sucker for perfume? I just love them at least not just the |
| 1:18.8 | smells of them it's all the nonsense that they sell with it the perfume adverts because |
| 1:24.3 | how do you sell a smell for goodness sake? So you head to the local department store or maybe |
| 1:29.0 | I don't know maybe you're in duty free and there are just thousands of perfume bottles available now |
| 1:35.7 | what do you go for? Something floral maybe a bit fruity are you somebody you like something |
| 1:41.1 | woody? Like me I like a gormon sweet smell. Perhaps a little bit of all of them and then maybe you |
| 1:48.6 | do what I'll do which is that you try and so many of them that you can't smell any of them anyway |
| 1:52.4 | and you're given anyone who's within a 10 meter radius of your headache as well but never mind |
| 1:57.6 | my perfume fascination what was the world like before the perfume industry boomed? What was the |
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