Travels of Marco Polo

All of us have read history as part of our curriculum, rarely, if ever, have we thought of the sources out of which historical narratives emerge. So, it was thrilling novelty reading Marco Polo's travelogue is an invaluable source, perennially referenced. That was an added incentive to read it. Marco Polo's narratuon of encounters, at times bizarre and previously unheard of , with varied peoples and ethnic groups all along the ancient silk route ,his acute observations of their social traditions in the thirteenth century is fascinating and immersive. As it is rendered in modern English reading is facile, fluid , and the cornucopia of anecdotes touching a very broad sweep of diverse cultures keeps readers hooked. Copious footnotes immensely help understanding. An authentic slice of medieval history that readers with a historical bent of mind must read.

it is a general book and very classic title with interesting genre while starting the book for read gradually..

Good one

To have travelled so far during a time when little was known abt lands beyond and in face of so many perils on the journey, Marco Polo's courage is so inspirational.....

Awesome packaging loved the the book in good condition.

I brought the book as I love to read travelogue. The chapters are very short, hence it fails to satisfy the thirst.. the contents has left me high and dry. Going by the quantum of the travel Marco Polo undertook the book should have been more descriptive. Too much information is squeezed in with very short chapters.The book has failed to quench my thirst.

worst quality

thanks

It has been a pleasure to revisit the travels of Marco Polo. I was transfixed by these stories of travel and adventure when I was a child, and never questioned the veracity of the narrative. I know today that the narrative has been corrupted over the centuries, that "The Travels" can scarcely be used as an historical reference, and that a more tantalizing and complete manuscript has probably been lost to the ages. Still, there are glimpses and insights within the narrative that could only have come from first-hand experience, and these describe an enormous, exotic world that titillates even today, while readers in the 13th and 14th centuries must have been enthralled. I was most keen this time around to Polo's descriptions of the cultures and wildlife he encountered, of the whales and lions and leopards and bears--he even describes a white bear, and the people who hunted it were surely of the group often called Eskimos. He describes dog-sledding in the far north and the cannibalistic practices of the people of Java far to the south, both of which are extant in our current era. There are also the fascinating observations of the Mongol Empire, of that group of nomadic people who somehow rose up, like an event in an Isaac Asimov novel, to conquer much of the known world. Somewhat depressingly, though, are Polo's observations of the tensions that existed between the Islamic and Christian worlds, tensions rooted in the competition for hegemony over trade in the Far East. Seven hundred years later, these tensions are still acting themselves out. This translation by Ronald Latham from 1958 includes an introduction that puts Marco Polo's life in context with events and includes footnotes to help the reader make sense of the myriad manuscripts that make up the travels of Marco Polo. This is a somewhat dry read; even Latham comments on the paucity of skill employed by Polo's chronicler. Once I put my mind in context with the narrative, however, I was able to roll with the repetition and sycophancy and enjoy the text.

Une relation archi détaillée des périgrinations de l'immense Marco Polo.. Agrémentée de centaines de "footnotes" ( notes de bas de page.)..Difficile de garder son attention, totalement en éveil .. D'autant que si l'on en croit une autre des notes de l'auteur, cette relation de ses voyages exploratoires n'a pas été écrite par Marco Polo lui même, mais il l'aurait dictée- pendant qu'il était en prison- à un compagnon de cellule , parait il porté à l'exagération.. L'homme qu'a vu l'homme qu'a vu l'ours ? Ah bon... Il n'empêche, certaines pages sont bien intéressantes

Excellent read and a good way to rethink the connecting routes between Europe and Asia. Marco Polo narrates the story of his travels through a mediator, Rustichello da Pisa, complicating further notions of authorship and textual authenticity (the original manuscript has gone lost). But does it really matter? What I enjoyed the most is the mapping of mercantile interests of the late Middle Ages, the inventories of commodities as well as local customs and artifacts. But also recognizing the names of cities that in the course of history, and particularly our recent history, have had such a tragic fate (e.g., Iraq's Mosul).

The Travels of Marco Polo may be perhaps the most challenging travelogue ever put together. While Marco Polo was not the first to write about lands distant and alien to one’s own, he wrote of a journey of immense challenge and difficulty. Difficulty that is difficult to appreciate in our modern world. First of all, the most notable controversy; was Maro Polo a fraud? This reader disagrees. While some regard it as suspect that he traveled to Yuan Dynasty China and did not mention the largely Han practice of foot binding, one needs to remember that he was employed in the court of Kubilai Khan, a Mongol Emperor who headed a very multicultural court. While this reader is not a first class scholar of medieval China, the narrative through which Marco Polo describes the China of then corresponds somewhat to the cultural mosaic of today. While in the Southwest of China, he describes people of rather relaxed sexual practices, which have an eery similarity to the Naxi of Yunnan Province, he describes a religious mosaic that regularly alternates between either Christian, Muslim or, as he terms it, idolatory, he describes funerary practices, the choice of clothing, and dietary practices. Therefore, this reader rules favorably in the authenticity of Marco Polo’s account. The book in itself is mainly a travelogue, and describes everywhere from Armenia and the Caspian Sea region, China, India, the Middle East, and in the final chapter, Russia. Toward the end, the book becomes something of a commentary of the then current affairs, describing a conflict in what was then an area close to Russia’s frontier, and earlier parts of the book describe the conflict and intrigue in the court of the Great Khan. However, the book, for the most part, is a travelogue. The book is an immensely entertaining and readable account. With just simple relaxation and the right approach, one feels themselves there with Marco Polo, exploring unknown lands, and traveling a greater distance traveled by no man since the creation, in the words of the introduction. Marco Polo’s Travels, or to give it it’s actual title, Il Milione, is a timeless classic. A timeless work of inquiry and observation that is both intriguing and fascinating, and a pleasure for the soul.

During the 13th Century the Mongols conquered most of the world from China to the Black Sea, providing a rare window of opportunity for people to travel from Europe to the Far East. A few adventurous Europeans accomplished it. One actually wrote about it: Marco Polo. Many years later, as he lay dying, family members and the attending priest begged Marco Polo to recant all the outrageous lies he had told about his incredible adventures. He refused, insisting that everything he said and wrote had all been absolutely true. The record Marco Polo left of his travels stirred the imaginations of Europeans about the possibilities that existed beyond their own limited horizons. Little more than two hundred years later they had established a trade route around Africa to reach the Far East, and attempts to do the same thing by sailing westward had revealed the existence of two hitherto entirely unknown American continents. The Travels of Marco Polo is one of a handful of books that can truly be said to have changed the world. This is not merely another adventure story, it is THE adventure story of all time! The Polos traveled thousands of miles through unknown and hostile territory in order to reach lands hitherto only vaguely rumored to exist. They accomplished it entirely on their own, and not at the head of a conquering army, but as simple commercial travelers. On the down side, this is not the most convenient of books to get through. A good map is an absolutely necessary accompaniment to the text. Even then, many of the names commonly applied today to many of the people and places alluded to in the text have been changed. In fact, some of the places mentioned in the text don't even exist any more. That is, of course, only to be expected after the lapse of more than 700 years. This edition is provided with copious footnotes which, like the map, are an absolute necessity. However, the editors might have made things a lot easier by altering the names of the people and places to their current spelling, and providing a map with locations plotted on it, without really altering the content of the text.