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Description
SmellsUnlock the power of your olfactory senses with Robert Muchembled's groundbreaking book, focusing on the often overlooked importance of smell in human history and culture. 'Smells' (ISBN: 9781509536788) is a compelling exploration that revives our understanding of scent, tracing its significance from the Renaissance to the 19th century. In an age dominated by the pursuit of odorless environments, this book challenges us to reconsider our relationship
Unlock the power of your olfactory senses with Robert Muchembled's groundbreaking book, focusing on the often-overlooked importance of smell in human history and culture. 'Smells' (ISBN: 9781509536788) is a compelling exploration that revives our understanding of scent, tracing its significance from the Renaissance to the 19th century. In an age dominated by the pursuit of odorless environments, this book challenges us to reconsider our relationship with smell and its emotional, cultural, and historical ramifications.Spanning 260 pages, this BRAND NEW publication by John Wiley & Sons (UK) details how smells influenced life, love, and society, reflecting deep-seated beliefs and practices. Delve into a time when towns were engulfed by overwhelming odors, and the very essence of humanity was intertwined with the scents of everyday life, including body odors and the unmistakable scent of excrement. Muchembled argues that these once-cherished aromas shaped eroticism and sexuality, revealing the intimate connections between smell and societal norms.
Discover how the medical explanations of plagues shifted, leading to an olfactory revolution that replaced appalling scents with floral and fruity delights. Fascinate yourself with this historical narrative that illuminates why the sense of smell deserves to be celebrated, not suppressed.
Note: Shipping for this item is free. Please allow up to 6 weeks for delivery. Once your order is placed, it cannot be cancelled.
Note: Shipping for this item is free. Please allow up to 6 weeks for delivery. Once your order is placed, it cannot be cancelled.
Condition: BRAND NEW
ISBN: 9781509536788
Year: 2020
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (UK)
Pages: 260
Description:
Why is our sense of smell so under-appreciated? We tend to think of smell as a vestigial remnant of our pre-human past, doomed to gradual extinction, and we go to great lengths to eliminate smells from our environment, suppressing body odour, bad breath and other smells Living in a relatively odour-free environment has numbed us to the importance that smells have always had in human history and culture. In this major new book Robert Muchembled restores smell to its rightful place as one of our most important senses and examines the transformation of smells in the West from the Renaissance to the beginning of the 19th century He shows that in earlier centuries, the air in towns and cities was often saturated with nauseating emissions and dangerous pollution Having little choice but to see and smell faeces and urine on a daily basis, people showed little revulsion; until the 1620s, literature and poetry delighted in excreta which now disgust us. The smell of excrement and body odours were formative aspects of eroticism and sexuality, for the social elite and the popular classes alike At the same time, medicine explained outbreaks of plague by Satan's poisonous breath corrupting the air Amber, musk and civet came to be seen as vital bulwarks against the devil's breath: scents were worn like armour against the plague The disappearance of the plague after 1720 and the sharp decline in fear of the devil meant there was no longer any point in using perfumes to fight the forces of evil, paving the way for the olfactory revolution of the 18th century when softer, sweeter perfumes, often with floral and fruity scents, ca
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4.8 ★★★★★
Based on 15 reviews
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Product Reviews
★★★★★ 5
Works
Size: 3 Panel-102'', Color: Beige, Size: 3 Panel-102'', Color: Beige
It’s beige and not white. Once install - hard to disinstall. Need a drill to put it together
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Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2026
★★★★★ 3
Does the job, but assembling by yourself is a nightmare
Size: 4 Panel-88'', Color: Black
Does it do the job? Yes, although as others said there are small gaps but it's not a huge deal. The price is also good. But the reason I'm giving it a 3/5 is simply because the assembly for this was a complete nightmare. I honestly don't think I would recommend this to anyone unless they have another person to help them assemble it, because doing it by myself was terrible. I don't think I'd buy this again, I think I'd opt to just spend a bit more money and save myself the trouble personally.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2026
★★★★★ 4
Reasonably adequate room divider
Size: 4 Panel-88'', Color: Beige
I'm reviewing this as I assemble it.
Couple things:
1. I didn't expect as much assembly. I've ordered dividers before and they more-or-less came as one unit. Sometimes the panels needed screwing together. These require complete assembly and come largely as three rods: two make up vertical columns and snap together. Another one (called part "C") makes the horizontal columns and you have two of these per panel (one attaches to part "A" and the other part "B"). These parts are metal with a plastic shim. Using the wood screws to attach to part "C" is a real pain in the neck. There's not much holding the panel in place so it's a little tricky.
One tactic I've found while I'm assembling that works for the initial connections from parts A and B to their respective "C" rods is to hold the screw in place with a screw driver and then rotating the rod around the screw. This will do a number on your hands if you aren't wearing gloves. This obviously doesn't work when completing the connection.
Using a driller driver on this is really near impossible because there isn't anything you can use to secure it in place. You can use it on the first panel, but as it gets longer, it becomes increasingly difficult and because it isn't wood, it's really tight. I considered drilling larger pilot holes but since there are only 4x4=16 screws I need to screw in, I just decided to use my screw driver to complete it.
2. Also related to assembly. When completing the panels (attaching parts "A" and "B" to parts "C" that have the cloth cover on it), you have to be careful that when you tighten that side that it isn't loosening the other side. Because the pilot holes are so tight, you can end up rotating the rod, which rotates it in the same direction as looser on the original side. Having someone hold the "C" rod in place while you screw it in is probably the easiest approach. I didn't have a 2nd person, so I just had to keep flipping back and forth and tightening both sides as I screwed it in. Not the worlds biggest deal, but annoying nonetheless.
3. The way the instructions are written, they seem to suggest building this thing progressively; that is, you do panel 1, then 2, connect them together, then do 3 and connect it, etc. I took a different route that I suspect saved me quite a bit of trouble, and I assembled all four panels first and THEN connected everything together.
4. For the love of God make sure you check that the plastic tip is on the same side for every panel. Otherwise, you have to take one side apart again and reverse it. On the bright side, if this happens, you've essentially bored out the pilot holes to be the correct size... which is having me question if I shouldn't have just bored them out to the appropriate width in the first place.
5. Attaching all of the panels together is also an enormous pain in the ass unless you happen to have an 88" long elevated surface. Attaching the legs either requires you to elevate one side, which will invariably twist the inexplicably cheap material in the bottom connectors... or you can attach them sideways... or you can put this thing upright, having two people hold the panels in place while you use the allen wrench to tighten the bolts on the underside. None of those are particularly great options.
NOW on to the utility itself.
1. The panels do let some light through (I didn't believe their advertising, and that was one of the reasons that I bought beige, is that I wanted it to not be too dark). They aren't transparent though, so it isn't that far off from their description. They functionally work great, and keep the mess of wires hidden and when I'm sitting at my desk, actually reflect quite a bit of light into my office. Great!
2. My wife has described these as "the most hideous piece of furniture ever conceived of by man." So it does not have spouse approval factor. Granted, she will seldom be in my office area, so that isn't the end of the world.
3. These are really hard to align in a way that doesn't look a little tacky. There are some plastic connectors but they don't do a bang up job of keeping these in place. Each panel is slightly tilted and it's... quite obvious. I may at some point make my own improvements to these to help make them more level. It's not a particularly expensive product so I wasn't expecting much so it's fine and I'm not going to ding them on the rating because of it.
All said, would I buy this product again? Probably not. It's assembly was ~90 minutes which is about 75 minutes longer than I was anticipating spending on this (not including the 5 minute writeup that I'm doing here). But am I going to return it? Also no, if for no other reason I'd be just as annoyed taking it apart and putting it in the original box to return it.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2023
★★★★★ 5
Great product
Color: Black, Size: 4 Panel-88''
Literally exactly what I was needing
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Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2026
★★★★★ 5
It's good...
Color: Black, Size: 4 Panel-88'', Color: Black, Size: 4 Panel-88''
It's good....took about 45 minutes to put together. No issues. Looks great...made the wife happy....
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Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2026