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A review by dwgradio
Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu by Laurence Bergreen
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.