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Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu | 
 enlarge | Author: Laurence Bergreen
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $28.95
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Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 51526
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 432
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.5
ISBN: 140004345X
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.4
EAN: 9781400043453
ASIN: 140004345X
Publication Date: October 23, 2007
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Amazon.com Review
Drawing on original writings and walking in the footsteps of Marco Polo himself, Laurence Bergreen's Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu is the most definitive biography of the legendary traveler to date, separating the man from his considerable myth. Look inside Marco Polo (Click on thumbnails to see a larger image):
 |  |  | | Marco Polo: a traditional portrait; Granger | Frontispiece of an early published edition of Marco Polo s Travels, Nuremberg, Germany, 1477; Granger | Kublai Khan, emperor of the world s largest land-based empire; Granger |  |  |  | | Marco Polo commanded a Venetian galley similar to this in the Battle of Curzola; Granger | Stone carving on the Marco Polo bridge; Laurence Bergreen | Marco Polo s vivid and occasionally misinterpreted descriptions of his travels inspired this medieval artist to depict dragons in China; Granger |
Marco Polo timeline (All dates given in the Julian calendar): 1215 - Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan and Marco Polo's mentor, is born. 1254 - Marco Polo born in Venice, although one tradition locates his birthplace in the Venetian colony of Dalmatia. 1260 - Kublai Khan becomes leader of the Mongols and in 1271 founds the Yuan ("Origin") Dynasty. 1271 - Young Marco Polo leaves Venice with his father Niccolo and uncle Maffeo, bound for the court of Kublai Khan. 1274 - Kublai Khan oversees a failed Mongol invasion of Japan, as the Mongols, masters of the Steppe, meet their match at sea. 1275 - The three Polos arrive in Shang-du, Kublai Khan's summer palace immortalized by Samuel Taylor Coleridge as Xanadu; Marco begins his years in the service of the Khan. 1276 - 1293 - Marco travels throughout Asia, reaching the coast of India, and possibly Zanzibar, gathering intelligence for Kublai Khan and serving as a tax collector for the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty. 1281 - Kublai Khan's second failed invasion of Japan, a serious blow to his prestige. 1292 - The Polos escort Princess Kokachin to Persia to marry, their last formal service to Kublai Khan before departing. 1294 - Kublai Khan dies, freeing the Polo family, who undertake a dangerous return voyage by sea. 1295 - Marco, his father, and uncle, arrive in Venice after their 24-year absence. They have been away for so long that their fellow Venetians do not recognize them. 1298 - Marco is captured by the Genoese in the Battle of Curzola, according to some accounts, and confined to a cell in Genoa with a romance writer, Rustichello of Pisa, to whom he dictates his adventures in China, his reminiscences of Kublai Khan, his life among the Mongols. 1300 - Safely back in Venice, Marco Polo marries Donata Badoer; the couple has three daughters. 1324 - As manuscript versions of his exploits spread throughout Europe, Marco Polo dies in Venice, claiming that he did not reveal the half of his experiences in his remarkable Travels.
Product Description
As the most celebrated European to explore Asia, Marco Polo was the original global traveler and the earliest bridge between East and West. A universal icon of adventure and discovery, he has inspired six centuries of popular fascination and spurious mythology. Now, from the acclaimed author of Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe (“Superb . . . A first-rate historical page turner”—The New York Times)—comes the first fully authoritative biography of one of the most enchanting figures in world history. In this masterly work, Marco Polo’s incredible odyssey—along the Silk Road and through all the fantastic circumstances of his life—is chronicled in sumptuous and illuminating detail.
We meet him as a callow young man, the scion of a wealthy Venetian merchant family, only seventeen when he sets out in 1271 with his father and uncle on their journey to Asia. We see him gain the confidence of Kublai Khan, the world’s most feared and powerful leader, and watch him become a trusted diplomat and intelligence agent in the ruler’s inner circle. We are privy to his far-flung adventures on behalf of the Khan, living among the Mongols and other tribes, and traveling to magical cities, some far advanced over the West. We learn the customs of the Khan’s court, both erotic and mercantile, and Polo’s uncanny ability to adapt to them. We follow him on his journey back to Venice, laden with riches, the latest inventions, and twenty-four years’ worth of extraordinary tales.
And we see his collaboration with the famed writer Rustichello of Pisa, who immediately saw in Polo the story of a lifetime; enlivened by his genius for observation, Polo’s tales needed little embellishment. Recorded by Rustichello as the two languished as prisoners of war in a Genoese jail, the Travels would explode the notion of non-Europeans as untutored savages and stand as the definitive description of China until the nineteenth century.
Drawing on original sources in more than half a dozen languages, and on his own travels along Polo’s route in China and Mongolia, Bergreen explores the lingering controversies surrounding Polo’s legend, settling age-old questions and testing others for significance. Synthesizing history, biography, and travelogue, this is the timely chronicle of a man who extended the boundaries of human knowledge and imagination. Destined to be the definitive account of its subject for decades to come, Marco Polo takes us on a journey to the limits of history—and beyond.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
Marco Polo November 11, 2007
Stephen Balbach (Ashton, MD United States)
67 out of 72 found this review helpful
Marco Polo (1254-1324) was not the first European to make it to China, but he was the first to bring the news back to a wider European public. As famous as he is, Marco Polo remains a mysterious and controversial figure. The author of this biography Laurence Bergreen is probably best known for his wonderful account of Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe and there is a connection - it was on that journey beginning in 1519 that one of the 18 survivors named Antonio Pigafetta, the official chronicler, had read and was inspired by Marco Polo's "Travels".
Marco Polo's "Travels" (ca. 1298) is not a single account but about 119 surviving manuscripts, each one different and none authoritative. Scholars have tried to patch the various versions together over the centuries, but in the age before the printing press, Marco kept handing out new hand-written copies with additions and subtractions, and others would make more copies adding their own embelishments or mistakes: chronology would change, ordering of events would change as if the pages were dropped on the floor and re-assembled incorrectly, specifics of events would change, places and people changed, etc.. there is no "correct" version. Bergenger bases his account on the longest version available and usually does not question its accuracy, rather, often pointing out why it must be so (except for a few well known problems).
The "Great Question" that has haunted "Travels" since it first appeared is its veracity; children are said to have followed Marco Polo chanting, "Messer Marco, tell us another lie!". Until the 19th century it was mostly seen as comparable to The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1357), an enjoyable but fanciful account. When scholars in the 19th and early 20th centuries were able to verify through Chinese records many of the details, and with the recognition of the importance of the Age of Discovery and global trade and travel in World History, Marco has become today one of the most well known figures of the Middle Ages. Yet there still remain a few critics who question if Marco Polo actually ever went, and this myth of the "faked Travels" hangs over it. Even in Colin Thubron's recent review of this very book in The Washington Post (November 4, 2007; Page BW10) he raises the question; but as Bergreen says in the "Epilouge", it would have been a more amazing feat to amass so much accurate information about Asia without actually going there, then to have made the trip and write about it (Occam's Razor).
Four stars instead of five because I think Bergreen is not able to create a convincingly strong central narrative like he did in "Over the Edge"; he shows Marco Polo develop from a naive youth to a curious sensualist, into a spiritual awakened middle aged man into a petty, cranky and aged ex-opium addict - we know very little about Marco Polo the person, it is conjecture when faced with Marcos externally orientated "Travels" - the portrait is believable but the sources are weak. Bergreen also sometimes makes allusions to current events which will dilute the books timeless appeal.
The book is organized with an Introduction, 15 chapters, and an Epilogue. Most of the issues discussed in this review are in the Epilogue and they hung over me while reading the body of the story, which is essentially an excellent re-construction of "Travels". One approach is to read the Epilogue first, putting the text and story in historical context. Then enjoy one of the most astounding snapshots of the world in time ever compiled - 13th century Asia in all its extremes, diversity and exotica.
NICELY DONE - A PLEASURE TO READ AND INFORMATIVE. January 13, 2008
D. Blankenship (The Ozarks)
23 out of 23 found this review helpful
For the most part, this was a pleasing book and a very interesting read. We have plenty of blow by blow reviews already posted here, most of them quite well done, so I won't go into the page by page details with this review which has already been done. Simply stated, the author, Laurence Bergreen, has taken many of the surviving manuscripts (there are, I understand, well over 100 variations at this time, but I suspect there have been many, many more over the years) and attempted to tell the story of the adventures of Marco Polo and his travels from Europe to China, and beyond, during the 13th century. The author has done a very nice job of this.
Polo's journey, by ship and by land, lasted well over twenty years. He became quite involved with the court of the almost mystical Kublai Khan. Now the author is quick to point out that there are many discrepancies in the Polo papers but is also quick to point out that much of what was written has since proven to be true. I am one of those that feel that Marco Polo did actually make the journey he wrote about, but also feel that there was a tremendous amount of exaggeration on Polo's part and I feel the reader must remember that the world was being viewed through the eyes of a man of the 13th century. I think the author has made a good case for Polo and has done a very good job of pointing these facts out. This was a world so different than ours, that I personally, find it a bit difficult to comprehend, at times. What is fact and logical for us, was simply not so during the time of Polo's travels. The reader must remember this.
Overall the book was quite well written and certainly held my interest, for the most part. His observations and explanations as to what Polo wrote are quite logical and well stated. The author has an easy style and can indeed hold the reader's interest. This is the first book by Bergreen I have read, so I cannot compare this work with his other works as several reviewers have. I can only judge this book as a stand a lone, and to be honest, I was impressed. If his other works are better, then they must be quite good.
I did have a couple of problems with this work, ergo, the four stars and not five. I found it quite frustrating that there were really no maps available in the book. Fortunately I have a rather large collection of period maps in my collection, but to be honest, going back and fourth from book to map, was a real pain and distracted from the reading. I feel it quite impossible to gain the full impact of Polo's travels without an intimate knowledge of the geographical areas concerned, or a set of very good maps. I feel the author should have provided these. I also felt that some of the book was just a bit repetitive at times which caused it to drag a bit.
All in all, I learned much from this book, enjoyed reading it and feel richer for having done so. What more could you ask. I do recommend this one for those that have an interest in this particular subject.
Fascinating details about MP's trip November 8, 2007
Wayne Price (Dallas)
22 out of 23 found this review helpful
Prof. Bergreen has written an excellent book about Marco's travels, with references collected not only from MP's journal, but also details about the history of the Mongols. Most of us western readers don't know much about the varied history of Western China and Mongolia, especially the fear these folk engendered in Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Bergreen fills in many gaps in our knowledge, and does so in a readable manner. One helpful characteristic of the book is that the chapters are divided up into short sections, marked only by the several spaces between each one. As the subjects are so mixed, this is a helpful arrangement. TWO criticisms. One, there is a good bit of repetition in the book. How often do we need to be told that MP was challenging common European knowledge of the East? Second, why aren't there more maps in the book? There is only one very small map (p. 265) that shows the route of the travels, and this one page map includes everything from Venice to China's eastern coast. A number of small maps along the way would have been very helpful to the reader. Some of the illustrations, though, are well done and interesting.
 Go East, Young Marco November 8, 2007
Pericles (Denmark, ME)
19 out of 20 found this review helpful
There may have been other adventurers who left Europe as teenagers in the thirteenth century, made their way across continents into the court of the largest empire in world history, and then made their way home safely a generation later, living in the meantime a life of risk and reward that would be unimaginable to a terrestrial today. But there was only one who told the story to an author of colorful "romances." And he, a man named Rustichello, retold the wanderer Marco Polo's story for history, or at least for author Laurence Bergreen, who has retold it better for us.
Bergreen, one of those great new creatures of modernity - a brilliant, worldly, tireless, non-academic historian and biographer - peels the onion of the impenetrable "Travels" of Marco Polo, filling in with level-headed, well-crafted reviews of the eight centuries of historiography borne of Polo's original work. Walking the walk, in part, Polo walked, testing the text against its many interpretations and criticisms and tweezing out the best modern wisdom from today's leading scholars, Bergreen has brought to us in great style the wide-eyed amazement of a 13th century European meeting the East for the first time.
Polo described in his "Travels" politics, social organizations, architecture, money and people so different from those of his home that his descriptions sometimes sound like the blind men examining the elephant. He found black, soft rocks, taken from the earth that magically burned white hot without ever flaming up. This was coal, never before known to a European as a fuel. Clinically accurate and completely without context, the "truth" of this observation makes us smile and also gives credibility to other Polo observations not so easily contextualized today.
Bergreen must have had the sense that he followed a man in someways like himself as he pieced together this fantastic story, its context and its many faces through the last 800 years. Like Polo, Bergreen has repeatedly wandered into places so disparate and opaque that only a hugely observant author of endless energy could find a reasonable proximity to the truth in each of them. He has done this in first-rate biographies of men whose names have never been put in a single paragraph before: James Agee, Al Capone, Louis Armstrong, Irving Berlin. He has also written a fine historical work on the astonishing world voyage of Magellan and of NASA's search for life on Mars. This new work is a delight to read, rich in content, easy in style, respectful but not reverent of its primary source.
The Merchant of Venice December 15, 2007
Izaak VanGaalen (San Francisco, CA USA)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
After being on the losing side of the Battle of Curzola in 1298, in which the Venetian fleet was defeated by the Genoese, Marco Polo had the good fortune of landing in a very comfortable jail. It was due to the noblesse oblige of rank that he received such favorable treatment as a prisoner. In fact, he was allowed to take with him his copious notes from his foreign travels. He also had the good fortune of sharing a cell with Rustichello of Pisa, a well-known author of romanaces. With infinite time on their hands, the two collaborated on what became known as The Travels of Marco Polo.
The Travels always were considered more fabricated than real, even before they were embellished by Rustichello. Marco Polo was considered by his fellow Venetians as a "teller of a million lies." (Il Milione was the Italian name of the book.) Down through the centuries there were many different versions of the events described in the Travels. One of the most famous - and one that added greatly to its mythical quality - was Coleridge's opium-induced hallucinations of Kublai Khan's Xanadu.
Now biographer and historian Laurence Bergreen tells us that much of the original story had historical accuracy. He has researched his subject well and indeed rewritten the story of Marco Polo's travels. Not only does he put the story in chronological order, he fills in much of the historical background.
Marco Polo left Venice for Cambulac (now Beijing) in 1271 at the age of 17 accompanied by his father and uncle, who had already made the journey before. The Polos were merchants in search of profit, and they believed large profits could be made in the lands controlled by Pax Mongolica. Kublai Khan, grandson and imperial heir to Genghis Khan, had a reputation for being leader of some of the most brutal and violent people on earth. They were known in Europe as "Satan's spawn."
To Marco's surprise he found Kublai Khan a cultured and gracious host. Contrary to popular belief, the Mongols were very tolerant of other cultures. (Read Amy Chua'sDay of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--and Why They Fall for more information on this topic.) Although merciless in their conquests they allowed other cultures to thrive as long as they subscribed to Pax Mongolica.
Marco was so enthralled by the emperor's court that he stayed for nearly two decades. His experience as a merchant provided him with the skills to become the emperor's tax assessor and special emissary. Travels to various parts of the empire were duly recorded. Though the tales of sexcapades and court intrigue seem far-fetched, it may be true, as Polo claims, that at the time of Kublai Khan, there existed 20,000 of Genghis Khan's offsspring. The reason this may have some truth is that recent DNA tests have traced 1 in 12 Asian men back to Mongolia and the time of Genghis Khan. In any event, Marco definitely became more worldly after his extended stay in the emperor's court.
Although Europeans had gone to Cathay before, there is nothing like good notes, a good ghost writer, and a stetch of time in prison to produce one of the great works of Western literature. Bergreen has done an excellent job of retelling the story and providing the historical background.
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