Product Description

Chosen as one of the ten best adventure books of all time by National Geographic Adventure. Liveright is proud to reissue a facsimile of its classic 1926 edition of The Travels of Marco Polo. Beginning from the traditional lyrical Marsden translation, editor Manuel Komroff corrected it against Henry Yule's magisterial two-volume work, including a chapter missing from the Marsden. The artist Witold Gordon created thirty-two two-color woodcut illustrations for the original edition, published again here for the first time in over fifty years. The Travels of Marco Polo remains a wondrous adventure narrative. Chronicling the thirteenth-century world from Venice, his birthplace, to the far reaches of Asia, Marco Polo tells of the foreign peoples he meets as he travels by foot, horse, and boat through places including Persia, the land of the Tartars, Tibet, India, and, most important, China. There he stays at the court of Kublai Khan, venturing to the capital of Beijing and to Shangtu, made immortal in Coleridge's poem "Xanadu." This is a gripping look at a legendary place and time. Two-color illustrations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22279 in Books
• Published on: 1958-09-30
• Original language: Italian
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Library Journal
A timeless addition to any travel collection.

Language Notes
Text: English
Original Language: Italian

Download Description
IN a western direction from Pi-an-fu there is a large and handsome fortress named Thai-gin, 1 which is said to have been built, at a remote period, by a king who was called Dor. 2 Within the walls of the fort stands a spacious and highly-ornamented palace, the hall of which contains paintings of all the renowned princes who, from ancient times, have reigned at this place, forming together a superb exhibition. A remarkable circumstance in the history of this king Dor shall now be related. He was a powerful prince, assumed much state, and was always waited upon by young women of extraordinary beauty, a vast number of whom he entertained at his court.

Customer Reviews

Barely believable adventures.
A very remarkable book written in the 13th century. Many secrets were reviled when Marco returned. And may interesting explanations of things like the origin of cinnamon.

Marco writes well enough of his travels and you feel that you are there. You can actually follow the trail if you have a map. He describes the flora and fauna of each region and describes the economics and industry of the region.

Example: "The women of the superior class are in like manner free from superfluous hairs; their skins are fare, and they are well formed."

It is interesting to see how little has changed from Marco Polo's 13th century and now.

Marco's journey
Marco Polo purportedly spent 17 years travelling to the courts of Kublai Khan and, as an emissary for Kublai Khan, then throughout the Far East. Whether it actually happened or not is up for debate. I went into this text with an open mindset and have accepted that Marco Polo did indeed go on this trip with his father and uncle, but not to the extent as surmised. Instead he travelled and added stories he collected from traders and others to fill in gaps or points of interest to him. The book is broken into four sections now. Part One is his trip to the Great Khan's courts in Cathay (China). Part Two is his travels throughout the provinces of Cathay. Part Three concerns going to Japan, Southern India, and the Islands of the Indian Sea (Java, etc). Part Four is travelling into the 'northern countries' (Russia, etc).

In general, Polo gives very brief descriptions of most regions, accounting for their religious beliefs, money used, fealty to the Great Khan Kublai. There's some intriguing customs (visitors will be taken into a home and the man of the house leaves until they are gone but the visitor has full access to the household including the wives, daughters, sisters, nieces), talks of cannibalism, dress, unfamiliar animals they encountered, and contributes to the whole messy history of Prestor John. It does get repetitive and dry after a while. Polo's talk of Kublai Khan is almost obsessive and he was obviously completely enamoured of this new culture. Overall, it was fascinating to read although I had to push myself through some parts due to repetitive descriptions. Any history buff should read this story about one of the purported most well-travelled explorers ever, not to mention he was possibly the biggest best-selling authors before the printing press was invented.

You are going where?
I believe I got what I paid for. There were much better books of great detail, but they cost much more. I would suggest saving your money until you can buy a much more comprehensive book. The reading and information provided in the book was light and was gone over very fast. I question some of the facts contained there in.