A New Biography of François Coty: Parfum d'Empire {Fragrant Readings}

There have been already several books written about the life of perfume industry giant and genius François Coty but author Alain Duménil who is visibly fascinated by the trajectories of men that climb up very high in the social sphere to fall very hard in the end (he previously signed a biography of Nicolas Fouquet) decided to turn his attention to the "emperor of Artigny", another man guilty of hubris.

About François Coty, director Jean-Pierre Melville once said upon visiting his castle of Artigny that this is when you realized that Citizen Kane was not born American.

Parfum d'Empire: la vie extraordinaire de François Coty, 247 p., Plon, was published in May of 2009.

Available on Amazon.com for €18,91.