Pages of Marvels

A book that is poetic with images

What do I buy? Have you ever run across that problem when shopping for someone? You try to search and seek out something for someone who seems to have just about everything. How can you compete with someone's curiosity cabinet? "The Merchant of Marvels: and the Peddler of Dreams" might just be your ticket. Frédéric Clément has brought us a book that is as beautiful as it is rich.
This fictional tale is about the peddlar Frederick Knick-Knack whose task is to find the most amazing birthday gift for his friend the Merchant of Marvels. The author has presented a story unfolding with pictures of imaginable raptures. The peddlar has gathered these trinkets of wonders and presents them to his friend. He begins with two precious thimbles. However, she is not impressed. He pulls out an army of elephants as large as a grain of sand, but the Merchant is tempted. Even his offer of a carpet ride for "one thousand and one nights" seems a mere triumph.
Readers begin to unravel this mysterious tale. We realize the various paths we take to please love, to unravel it and wrap it up again. How a person's desire of collecting such precious and rare artifacts become filler for something so great in life; something that cannot be contained in a bottle nor in a magic lantern.
As a writer, Clément has also pursued a career as a dream weaver. He collects with a passion that consumes a lot of his time, and as a result he collects time. Besides a writer, he has been a designer, creator of books, and has had his work published in a variety of publications. As an illustrator, he truly reveals this in "The Merchant of Marvels". The illustrations are keepsakes and tiny trinkets of pieces that may be entangled in dust-balls in somebody's drawer.
In the end, the peddlar does find a way to capture the heart of the girl called the Merchant of Marvels. It is a key that opens up the world of dreams. A place where everything is wide-open, all eyes, mouths and ears. Best of all and the most marvelous is that it is the key to openness of his arms.

Publication Date: 2003-06-08
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2807