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Loading... Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanaduby Laurence Bergreen
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  CymLowell | Jan 17, 2010 |  I never read Frances Wood's "Did Marco Polo go to China?", but I remember quite well the stir it caused. Bergreen makes amusing work of dismantling some of those arguments (example: Q: "Hey! Why didn't Marco Polo mention the Great Wall of China?" A: "Uh ... maybe because it hadn't been built yet?") - although, not having read her book, I can't say he dismantled all of her arguments, just some of the sillier ones, if in fact, that was one of her arguments. That said, he relates Marco's travels with enjoyable enthusiasm, taking care to highlight moments when he suspects Polo relied on hearsay as opposed to his own eyewitness account, and when he suspects that the man who put Polo's account on paper, Rustichello of Pisa, might have inserted his own editorial commentary - for which you can't hold Marco Polo accountable. A very enjoyable account of a time when very few westerners had ventured that far east. Kublai Khan in particular, seen through Marco's eyes, now looks much more generous and benevolent than he might have otherwise, and certainly, equally as interesting are the technological advances (exploding armaments, the use of coal, lacquer for eating utensils) which were in use in the East long before the west ever caught up, much MUCH later. From a personal point of view, it was nice to finally "meet" the man who had been rolling around in my memory for decades, ever since I first memorized the first five lines of Coleridge's work: "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure dome decree ..." chiara2 | Dec 20, 2008 | I have always enjoyed Laurence Bergreen's biographies. He brought to his books on Al Capone and Louis Armstrong his considerable writing ability and a reporter's ability to find a story beneath the story. In his book on Capone, one such story was the parallel tale of Capone's brother, who changed his name and became a Prohibition agent in Nebraska. With Marco Polo, however, Bergreen has to rely mainly on a single source of information -- the explorer's own account of his adventures. Bergreen cannot do independent research into Marco Polo's life, because there are no newspaper files or people to interview. The biography, therefore, lacks a bit of the revelatory spark that makes his biographies of more contemporary people so interesting. What Bergreen does in the main is take the Travels of Marco Polo and walk us through it chronologically, with some asides about the politics, history and society in Asia at the time. On the one hand, one might object that we may as well read an annotated edition of the real thing to get this information. On the other, Bergreen is a far more accessible writer than Marco Polo or his editors, and therefore this book is of great value to a general reader who has little interest in reading medieval prose. Bergreen does have one bad habit, shared by legions of biographers -- he takes a small, perhaps insignificant or doubtful bit of information and bases a central argument about his subject's life on it. In this case, Bergreen offers conjecture that Marco Polo became addicted to opium when he was treated for an illness, and this addiction caused a change in his personality after his return to Venice. The author put forth a similar theory about Capone, arguing that various events in his life were influenced by the onset of syphilis. While in Capone's case there was clinical evidence of his condition later in life, in Marco Polo's case the evidence for opium addiction is thin at best. Bergreen would have served his readers better to omit wild speculations, as it detracts from his credibility on other matters. With that caveat, however, this is a fine introduction to the life of an important figure in world history. (  ) tom1066 | Feb 17, 2008 | Full review: ( http://bachlab.balbach.net/coolread4.... ) in summary: Reconstruction of Marco Polo's 'Travels' with latest academic insights. ( ) Stbalbach | Nov 9, 2007 |  no reviews | add a review
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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. (retrieved from Amazon Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:32:35 -0500)
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The narrative of the story reads as a fascinating story of adventure in cultural diversity, geography, the court of Kubla Kahn, and the charming sexuality of various regions of the Mongol controlled Middle East and East. The young adventurer had a grand time, traveling with his father and uncle as merchants for their business, the Polo Company.
We all tend to think of ourselves as living in a modern age. Yet, as one reads this evolutionary story, it is perfectly apparent that nothing has really changed in the world except the passage of time. We still have all the same hassles, domestic economic conditions, international trade, conflict along the trade lines, war, domestic strife within the family, ad mauseum.
Marco Polo is not a history, nor is it a travelogue. Rather, it is a fascinating, well told adventure, which is brought into easily read context by Mr. Bergreen. Each of us experiences the journey of our lifetime. It is interesting to read about the remarkable journey of Marco Polo, and to think through the questions that it frames for our own lives.
For example, what must it have been like for Marco to return to the quaint Venice after the genuinely unique experiences he had on his 17 year journey to places where white men had apparently not been, or not been in recorded tomes? How would you feel if this had been you?
Marco’s travels commenced at the culmination of the Christian defeat in the last Crusade, as well as the departure of the Papacy to Avignon, France seeking to find a more hospitable environment. There was chaos in the Chistian world, in which Islam had taken an upper hand, even as the Mongols were stretching across Indochina and China.
From the standpoint of a historian or social commentator, there are many parallels to the present time.
From the standpoint of a thriller writer, it also provides rich thesaurus of relationships and challenges to be adapted for the backgrounds of international thrillers.
A salute and tip of the hat for a great read and thought-provoking ideas for adventures and conflicts that could be woven into the fabric of a new story. (