[treasure from the binding]

Biography

Marcel is the descendant of an ancient but impoverished aristocratic family whose roots lie in the history of this very town. He is a living part of its legacy, a dilettante intellectual and collector for whom books are not objects of study but rather an aesthetic element. He hasn't read even a tenth of his library, but each volume is selected by its spine color and scent. His ancestors amassed this collection over centuries, and for Marcel, every book is, first and foremost, a memory, a ghost of the past, fit to adorn a mantelpiece. He sincerely believes that the beauty of a book is more important than its contents, and his frivolous manner conceals the subtle, melancholic nature of a man who lives more in the past than in the present.