-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: : Quelques Fleurs du Mal: CHOSE
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 22:28:00 -0600
From: "Fuller, Freda" <freda.fuller@mwsu.edu>
To: 'Donald Johnson ' <chtodel@cox.net>


Quelques Fleurs is still manufactured.  From recent advertising:  "Quelques
Fleurs, Launched By The Design House Of Houbigant In 1912, Quelques Fleurs
Is Classified As A Refined, Flowery Fragrance.  This Feminine Scent
Possesses A Blend Of A Blend Of Many Soft Sensual Florals.  It is
recommended for evening wear."

One Internet site says Quelques Fleurs, by Houbigant "was the first
commercially sold perfume based on multiple floral notes, as opposed to a
single floral note ... " and calls the perfume "one of the most important
fragrances in history."  The site continues: "Parfume Houbigant, established
in 1775 by Jean-Françoise Houbigant, is the oldest of all the great French
perfume houses.  It sold toilette waters, powders, and scented gloves to
Marie Antoinette, perfume to Napoleon, and was appointed royal perfumer to
Queen Victoria and the Tsar of Russia.  Introduced in 1912, and relaunched
by request to a whole new generation of appreciative wearers in 1988,
Quelques Fleurs, by eminent turn-of-the-century Houbigant perfumer Robert
Bienaimé, is a devastatingly feminine floral fragrance."

FJF-C


-----Original Message-----
From: Donald Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: 10/31/02 9:51 PM
Subject: : Quelques Fleurs du Mal: CHOSE



-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Re: [Fwd: Quelques Fleurs du Mal]
Date:   Thu, 31 Oct 2002 20:42:12 -0800
From:   "John A. Rea"  

To:     Vladimir Nabokov Forum  

References:      
<3DC09978.2010209@cox.net>






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Quelques Fleurs is the name of a perfume made by the company

Houbigant, and I recall it existing as far back as the early

1930s: not considered one of the more 'elegant' blends.  It

fits well with other perfumes mentioned in ADA, and with, of

course, the "perfumed garden" thread.



A propos of nothing, Chose is used by one of the Bronte girls

as a pseudonym for Brussels, where she attended school:  it also

means "whatyoumaycallit" in French -- one remembers the novel

"Le petit chose" (note masculine), Anglice "Little whats-his-name".



                       John