The untold story of Marie Antoinette's perfumer, Jean-Louis Fargeon.

Montpellier, 1748: Jean-Louis Fargeon was born into a family of perfumers and soon became apprentice to his father's modest perfumery. But he dreamed of the glittering court of Versailles and of becoming perfumer to the young queen, Marie Antoinette.

His ambition carried him to Paris where his boutique became one of the most elegant and well-patronised in France. Concocting sumptuous perfumes and pomades for most of the French nobility - the ingredients and procedures of which are listed in the book's appendices - Fargeon eventually caught the attention of the queen. After meeting Marie Antoinette in the Trianon Palace, he began creating lavish bespoke scents that perfectly reflected her moods and personality.

Through Fargeon's relations with the royal court, where he spent fourteen years as the queen's personal and exclusive perfumer, the reader is granted privileged access to the world of Marie Antoinette. A Scented Palace is a unique perspective on her life including her fascination with dress and fashions - a fascination that was to contribute to her downfall.

Fargeon's story touches on many aspects of life in eighteenth-century France, from the development of a bourgeois family and career, to how the suffering of hungry Parisians led to revolt, to in-depth information on the development of the cosmetics and perfume industry and its relation to scientific development during the Enlightenment. The descriptions of Parisian society and commerce provide a window into the ways of life during this turbulent chapter of France's history.

Elisabeth de Feydeau obtained a PhD in the history of perfume at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. She is a professor at the Versailles School of Perfumers and cultural adviser to France's great perfume houses, including Christian Dior, Thierry Mugler, Chanel, Guerlain and Lancaster. She is the author of several books, including Diptyque, The Guerlain Novel and The Herbarium of Marie Antoinette, which has been translated into several languages. She was awarded the Prix Guerlain for this book in 2005 and was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2011.