Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu Paperback – Illustrated, October 21, 2008

This book is a travel log of a historic character, namely Marco Polo. Interestingly, one of the first things that strikes the reader is the straight up fact that Marco was NOT the trailblazer we think he was. It was his father, and uncle, who first reached the Chinese court and transacted with Kublai Khan. The book takes the reader all over the place....literally. Observations about everything......food, clothing, terrain, the people and their customs, sexual mores, the politics, the industries, the business practices, the wars. It makes one appreciate why the east was much farther advanced politically and financially as regards Europe at that time. Plus, the book allows the reader to appreciate Marco's post travel life as a naval commander for Venice (vs. Genoa), the circumstances surrounding the creation of the log's text and the later numerous historical, and legal, battles surrounding its publication and dissemination. The author is an easy read........smooth flowing text, well paced. There are many short, brief but distinct, sections so as to allow a reader to have a very languid, relaxed pace as he goes deeper into the book.

Had a decent but odd background for this. I had previously read "Over the Edge of the World," and had traveled through Patagonia, hence was eager for Bergreen's account of the other side through the eyes of its most noted early European observer. Too, in my canon of touchstone texts is Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities," strangely never mentioned by Bergreen, in which Marco arrives at the court of Kubla and entertains him with fantastic brief tales of human settlements he (Marco) had never really visited, but which make for playful musings on urban design and life. What Calvino does is in both letter and spirit of Marco's own embellishments and enhancements of reality. Then, too, Coleridge was a major player in my doctoral dissertation. All that said, I learned a lot from this very well researched account, one which saves the reader the task of wading through one or more versions of the original (well, there were a lot of originals). You learn a lot you did not know, and Bergreen's narrative gloss is neither intrusive nor jarring. Contemporary references do not detract, either. Yes, as other reviewers have noted, maps spaced through the narrative would have been helpful.

Marco Polo is something of a hero of mine. I think of him as an archetype of the "Intrepid Merchant" figure that travels through both real life and literature and still exists today in some of the more dangerous parts of the world. People like Marco brought knowledge and wealth back and forth and could be credited with a great part in the develpment of democracy.In the old "eat your spinach first" tradition I will deal with the faults first. The first is simply presumption. The author makes so many guesses about Marco's personality that one might wonder if he was writing a novel. Moreover much of his guesswork looks suspiciously like wishful thinking. That is pardonable when doing a biography of someone for whom there are so few real records. But the author takes it way to far and occasionally even questions the authenticity of versions of "Travels" because they disaggree with his preconceptions. The second fault is the author's preachiness. The author seems to like to paint a "deliverance from ignorance" morality tale, and tends to be shocked, shocked that medieval people did not in fact think like a twenty-first century academic's version of Political Correctness. This is a fairly conventional fault too and again, any historian should be pardoned a little preachiness-it kind of goes with the vocation. However the author hammers on it enough to take away some of the fun. Both of these faults are in fact conventional to the Marco tale. But the author takes these quite far.So much for flaws. Now to the virtues. These are many and mighty. The book is not just a biography. It is a panorama of the Medieval world. From the ambitious, shrewd, and sometimes ferocious merchant princes of Venice. To the splendours of the Khan's court. To the conquered but ultimatly unconqurable vastness of China. Not to mention the hardships of the trade routes and the romantic cities whose very names give visions of glory. The author has the love for his subject and the epic sensibility that is an asset to a history writter. Nor is detail neglected and there is plenty of detail to go around. A surefire attraction to those like me who have a taste for romance and a love of detail-and appreciate when they are combined.Some may be annoyed by the frequent tendency to drift aside from the plain narrative. To me they are the most interesting part. While I sometimes imagine myself hearing coffeehouse tales from Marco in heaven(of course they have coffeehouses in heaven-who could doubt it!)on Earth there is little to work with besides the simple Idea of his journey. However the side drifts are knowledgeable, and well-researched as well as entertaining. There is more then enough to take delight in.I have a personal story to go with this. One of the reasons I like my Kindle is that it allows me to have a vast diversity of subjects at my grasp. But I felt it somehow incomplete because it did not have anything on the great Silk Road that I was satisfied with. Well now it has and this book is a great addition to my collection.

This is a good book in a basic meatloaf-and-potatoes way. It nourishes but doesn't delight. I've listened to the audiobook version four times already and although each time it gets better, it tops out at 3 stars -- i.e., just average. After listening to it the first time, I would have rated it 2 stars.The story as it is told by the author, Laurence Bergreen, doesn't convey a sense of place in any of the many places where the action takes place. Obviously, this is a huge irony. One reads a book like this or listens to its audiobook version with the expectation of basking in the author's descriptions of Marco Polo's travels to faraway places. Having previously listened to the audiobook version of Bergreen's "Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe," in which Bergreen succeeded in conveying a sense of place for each of the many places Magellan visited, I had high expectations for Bergreen's story of Marco Polo. Unfortunately, those expectations weren't met. What this story lacked was the type of sense-of-place treatment that Simon Winchester excels at and reliably delivers, book after book after book.Before listening to the audiobook version I was pleased to see that Bergreen, himself, wasn't doing the reading, as his reading of his story on Magellan didn't match the high quality of his writing. The reader for Bergreen's book on Marco Polo, Paul Boehmer, was OK, but 4 stars at best.All of this being said, Bergreen's book is informative and I learned a lot from it. It's just that the story isn't delivered in a 5-star, knock-your-socks-off way.

Readable, enjoyable and informative account of Marco Polo's travels from Venice to the court of Kublai Khan. Really enjoyed reading this.

Excelente livro, valeu a pena. E as ilustrações são um bônus que não esperava.

ok

Still reading the book, about 3/4 through, but enjoying it.

Excellent read, as is Bergreen's book on Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe.