Smells

This is an extraordinarily interesting cultural history of odours in early modern times that gives a fascinating slant on involving social conditions and corresponding outlooks. Readers learn that there was a pervasive stench in medieval towns, how the smell of women was demonised and eroticised concurrently and how perfume was developed in the 18th century as people became more conscious of personal hygiene in an atmosphere pervaded by fear of the devil.