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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
haveanicedoge's review against another edition
2.0
Every paragraph contains quotes from the original book by Marco Polo, Travels. Might as well just read that to be honest.
dwgradio's review against another edition
5.0
Prior to reading this I was almost completely unfamiliar with Marco Polo. Upon completion of the book, my first thought was that he was somehow a companion. I've traveled the Silk Road as part of the Polo Company, sharing adventures and observations and writing them down. (Indeed I took prodigious notes throughout the reading, jotting down particularly interesting facts that I wanted to retain or research further.)
The book opens with a vivid portrait of Venice in the High Middle Ages, an advanced society for its time. Fascinating are the mundane details of daily life, the class system and the Venetian business model; a crude form of Capitalism 300 years before Mercantilism took hold as an economic model during the Age of Discovery. The opening is swift and enveloping. Bergreen's writing sucked me into the 13th century and the adventure began.
A parallel to Marco Polo's story is that of Kublai Kahn and the Mongol Empire. As he was to Marco Polo, The Great Kahn is a larger than life figure and a specter over the entire work.
Polo's observations throughout China are particularly fascinating; Tibetan marriage (and sexual) customs, the efficiency of the Mongol postal system, the Song Dynasty's adoption program for abandoned children, environmental awareness, silk as a currency standard. These are just a few examples. Comparisons are drawn between Venice - advanced by European standards - and China, advanced beyond Western Civilization's comprehension at the time. Marco Polo discovered these advances, and I was there to bear witness. (Much of my other reading on China has illustrated a polar opposite. Following the decline of the Mongol Empire, China closed itself off and fell into a technological decline. Bergreen briefly touches on this.)
The true strength of the book is its presentation of Polo's own written work in Travels. Frequent quotations from Polo surrounded by contextual explanatory passages make navigating the often quirky Travels much easier. Regarding the quirkiness, much time is devoted to explaining how Polo and Rustichello created the work, and how it evolved into what we know today from various incomplete and modified translations. Bergreen also offers examples of how Polo's accounts compare to historical record. The author acts as navigator through Polo's work - distinguishing fact from legend and embellishment.
One very minor weakness - I would have liked a more in-depth perspective on the Battle of Curzola and the events leading up to Marco Polo's capture and imprisonment. That period is summarized but in a manner lending it a sense of being overlooked. However as the subtitle of the book - From Venice to Xanadu - suggests, the book's central focus is on Marco Polo's travels through Asia.
Read this book. Join Marco Polo's inner circle and take him into yours.
The book opens with a vivid portrait of Venice in the High Middle Ages, an advanced society for its time. Fascinating are the mundane details of daily life, the class system and the Venetian business model; a crude form of Capitalism 300 years before Mercantilism took hold as an economic model during the Age of Discovery. The opening is swift and enveloping. Bergreen's writing sucked me into the 13th century and the adventure began.
A parallel to Marco Polo's story is that of Kublai Kahn and the Mongol Empire. As he was to Marco Polo, The Great Kahn is a larger than life figure and a specter over the entire work.
Polo's observations throughout China are particularly fascinating; Tibetan marriage (and sexual) customs, the efficiency of the Mongol postal system, the Song Dynasty's adoption program for abandoned children, environmental awareness, silk as a currency standard. These are just a few examples. Comparisons are drawn between Venice - advanced by European standards - and China, advanced beyond Western Civilization's comprehension at the time. Marco Polo discovered these advances, and I was there to bear witness. (Much of my other reading on China has illustrated a polar opposite. Following the decline of the Mongol Empire, China closed itself off and fell into a technological decline. Bergreen briefly touches on this.)
The true strength of the book is its presentation of Polo's own written work in Travels. Frequent quotations from Polo surrounded by contextual explanatory passages make navigating the often quirky Travels much easier. Regarding the quirkiness, much time is devoted to explaining how Polo and Rustichello created the work, and how it evolved into what we know today from various incomplete and modified translations. Bergreen also offers examples of how Polo's accounts compare to historical record. The author acts as navigator through Polo's work - distinguishing fact from legend and embellishment.
One very minor weakness - I would have liked a more in-depth perspective on the Battle of Curzola and the events leading up to Marco Polo's capture and imprisonment. That period is summarized but in a manner lending it a sense of being overlooked. However as the subtitle of the book - From Venice to Xanadu - suggests, the book's central focus is on Marco Polo's travels through Asia.
Read this book. Join Marco Polo's inner circle and take him into yours.
darth_vader's review against another edition
4.0
I still amaze myself that I am so ignorant in different historic occurrences of the world. Marco Polo was more than a discoverer, more than a traveler. Marcos record miraculously survived the annuls of time to create an amazing adventure equaled by the fictitious Hobbit. His detailed evaluation of things never before seen helped me realize how Isaiah struggled to put in to words things he saw in our day restricted to his current knowledge and experiences. Marco was not appreciated when he returned, even imprisoned much like early astronomers who saw the universe in a more correct way.
psoglav's review against another edition
2.0
UKUPNA OCENA (overall rating) - 3
Radnja (story) - 3
Likovi (characters) - 3.5
Pripovedanje (writing style) - 3
Okruženje (setting) - 3
Radnja (story) - 3
Likovi (characters) - 3.5
Pripovedanje (writing style) - 3
Okruženje (setting) - 3
josh_paul's review against another edition
5.0
This is a super interesting book, at least if you're you're the sorta person who's interested in this sorta thing. Bergreen uses Polo's book as a jumping-off point but cross-references it with local sources and the work of modern historians.
The story itself reads like a novel. Or perhaps a sitcom. My favorite episode was the one where Kublai Kahn invited the pope to send 100 missionaries to spread the word of Christ in China.
This seems like it would be an attractive offer: to convert something like 1/3rd of the known world's population with the support of their ruler. It wasn't going to be easy, though. The theological armada would need to be prepared “to show plainly to him [Kublai] and to the idolaters and to the other classes of people submitted to his rule that all their religion was erroneous and all the idols that they keep in their houses are devilish things.” If that wasn't clear enough, he added, "The pope’s emissaries 'should know well how to show clearly by reason that the Christian faith and religion is better than theirs and more true than all the other religions.'"
Later in his list of stuff he wanted the Polos to bring him from the West, Kublai noted that he "believed Christ to be in the number of blessed Gods.” Bergreen interprets this to mean that he wasn't interested in becoming a Christian; he just wanted to add Jesus to the Mongol pantheon alongside Tengri and the rest of the heavy hitters. He's probably right about that, though I reckon even getting Jesus added to the pantheon would have been a coup.
In any event, now I need to go watch to the TV show.
The story itself reads like a novel. Or perhaps a sitcom. My favorite episode was the one where Kublai Kahn invited the pope to send 100 missionaries to spread the word of Christ in China.
This seems like it would be an attractive offer: to convert something like 1/3rd of the known world's population with the support of their ruler. It wasn't going to be easy, though. The theological armada would need to be prepared “to show plainly to him [Kublai] and to the idolaters and to the other classes of people submitted to his rule that all their religion was erroneous and all the idols that they keep in their houses are devilish things.” If that wasn't clear enough, he added, "The pope’s emissaries 'should know well how to show clearly by reason that the Christian faith and religion is better than theirs and more true than all the other religions.'"
Later in his list of stuff he wanted the Polos to bring him from the West, Kublai noted that he "believed Christ to be in the number of blessed Gods.” Bergreen interprets this to mean that he wasn't interested in becoming a Christian; he just wanted to add Jesus to the Mongol pantheon alongside Tengri and the rest of the heavy hitters. He's probably right about that, though I reckon even getting Jesus added to the pantheon would have been a coup.
In any event, now I need to go watch to the TV show.