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Marco Polo
Price: $9.99
Description
As the first European to travel extensively throughout Asia, Marco Polo was the earliest bridge between East and West. His famous journeys took him across the boundaries of the known world, along the dangerous Silk Road, and into the court of Kublai Kahn, where he won the trust of the most feared and reviled leader of his day. Polo introduced the cultural riches of China to Europe, spawning centuries of Western fascination with Asia.
In this lively blend of history, biography, and travelogue, acclaimed author Laurence Bergreen separates myth from history, creating the most authoritative account yet of Polo's remarkable adventures. Exceptionally narrated and written with a discerning eye for detail, Marco Polo is as riveting as the life it describes.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Description
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.
The Best Marco Bio
Date: 2008-12-02 Rating: 10 out of 10
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.
BewertungenA fair intro to Marco PoloDatum 2008-11-26 Rang: 6 von 10Didn't like this as much as his Magellan bio. Seemed a little bit scattered - sometimes he would say the same thing twice in a row, other times contradict himself without explanation - and you don't get the sense he's bringing anything new to the table.
Still, he's got an enjoyable writing style. For someone looking for a quick overview of Marco Polo, this will get the job done.Historical Accuracy?Datum 2008-11-03 Rang: 6 von 10After having read only about 50 pages of this book, I am seriously questioning the historical accuracy of it. I am an amateur of Medieval, and in particular Venetian, history and I find that Mr. Bergreen oversimplifies and generalizes some events and conditions of 13th C Europe to a bothering degree. For example, he paints the Venetians as merchants bent on warfare where most historical sources show that they preferred to carry on matters peacefully since that was, indeed, more profitable for business, and only engaged in warfare when they felt their business interests were threatened. He also portrays the city of Venice itself as a sinister place ripe with disease, corruption, social inequality, intrigue and abuse of women. What Mr. Bergreen fails to do is compare the conditions in Venice with other those in other European cities and states where they were no better, if not worse. In fact, in many ways 13th C Venice was arguably far more enlightened than many other places with its functioning republican government, its strong mechant marine, its developing business acumen and its strong international ties. These are just a few of the inaccuracies I found.
My concerns being thus about the first part of the book, I am skeptical about the accuracy of what I am about to read - of which I have less thorough knowledge. I am afraid I will have to take it with the proverbial "grain of salt" and also keep in mind, as another reviewer has stated, that Marco Polo's memoirs were not intended as historical fact, but as engaging adventure tales told while he was in prison.InterestingDatum 2008-10-20 Rang: 6 von 10Marco Polo was captured by the Genoese during the Battle of Curzola in 1298 and was confined in a comfortable prison where he and the other prisoners roamed freely. Here he met Rustichello, a romance author, and together they compiled and embellished Marco's travel stories. They both profited from this endeavor by entertaining guests to while away the time, and later for monetary rewards. This collection was called "Travels."
Marco Polo's Travels, while based on his travels and the stories he heard on his travels, were never meant to be an accurate travelogue - these were stories to entertain the guests. As such, taking the Travels (of which there are several manuscripts often contradicting each other, rearranging the order of events and omitting events) as a factual account of Marco Polo's adventures is missing the point. It seems that this account is based on one of the more complete manuscripts and the text usually takes the manuscript at face value (often citing how the events could be true), except for a few well-known discrepancies.
The text itself is choppy most probably because it closely mirrors the manuscripts, which lack a coherent structure, ramble on and notoriously jump from one topic to another. The writing is repetitious and focuses on details that do not readily fit into a coherent overarching structure. While a lot of research may have gone into exploring the subject matter, the final product falls short of an engaging narrative or an insightful critique.
As far as the content is concerned, this book may be good at the high school level, but is not suitable at the college level. Unfortunately, the writing style poses additional challenges when approaching the text. A major oversight is the inexplicable absence of a single modern map. One would expect not only relevant maps, but also those showing the routes that Marco Polo claimed to have taken during his journeys. The book's attempt to add depth to Marco Polo's character, herald him as a forward-thinking globalist, pilgrim and explorer are less than convincing.
Armchair Interviews says: Heed this reviewer's commentsMarco Polo's Journeys to the EastDatum 2008-08-03 Rang: 8 von 10Laurence Bergreen's MARCO POLO: FROM VENICE TO XANADU is an interesting biography about the Venetian explorer and merchant, Marco Polo. Polo opened the doors for the Western world to sail into the Orient. Adapted from Polo's legendary journals, Bergreen revisits early western trade from Constantinople to China as well as the legendary Silk Road where Polo shared eye-opening observations that westerners may never imagined before; Polo is best known for bringing back rich spices, silk, and natural remedies to the West that greatly influenced European and Asian trade and culture. In addition, Bergreen uses references to Venetian, European, Asian, and Religious history that contributes to his narrative, which is helpful when understanding the entire scope of Polo's journeys.
One of the interesting aspects of Bergreen's interpretation of Polo's enchanting journeys is his account of the meeting with Kublai Khan. Amazingly, Polo served as a Council to the Mongols, and Bergreen reveals the seventeen years in which Polo lived and experienced the most infamous Mongol Empire of the East. The book is not a lackadaisical retelling of the history of the Mongosl, but it is rather the relationship between East and West that became unified when Polo, his father, Niccolò, and brother, Maffeo, served as ambassadors to the West, were in presence of Kublai Khan's, and participated in his high court during China's Yuan Dynasty.
Polo's journals have been considered a romanticized and sensationalized depiction of the East that has been widely read by many for centuries because of its mythical and folktale quality. However, Bergreen shows that his journeys are a symbol of early globalization that forged the way for trade and diplomacy to occur between two completely different civilizations. Polo unlocked the West's somewhat unknown knowledge of the East during the thirteenth century, which preceded maritime explorations that would occur in the fifteenth century.
Produkt InformationAutor:
Laurence Bergreen
Recording label: Knopf Hersteller: KnopfFormat: Kindle EditionDewey decimal number: 910.4Artikelzahl: 1Seitenzahl: 432Erscheinungsdatum: 2007-10-23Format: Kindle Book, Erscheinungdatum: 2007-10-23Sprache: English (Published)
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