Customer Reviews

Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Marco Polo (1254-1324) was not the first European to make it to China, but he was the first to bring the news back to a wider European public. As famous as he is, Marco Polo remains a mysterious and controversial figure. The author of this biography Laurence Bergreen is probably best known for his wonderful account of Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe and there is a connection - it was on that journey beginning in 1519 that one of the 18 survivors named Antonio Pigafetta, the official chronicler, had read and was inspired by Marco Polo's "Travels".

Marco Polo's "Travels" (ca. 1298) is not a single account but about 119 surviving manuscripts, each one different and none authoritative. Scholars have tried to patch the various versions together over the centuries, but in the age before the printing press, Marco kept handing out new hand-written copies with additions and subtractions, and others would make more copies adding their own embelishments or mistakes: chronology would change, ordering of events would change as if the pages were dropped on the floor and re-assembled incorrectly, specifics of events would change, places and people changed, etc.. there is no "correct" version. Bergenger bases his account on the longest version available and usually does not question its accuracy, rather, often pointing out why it must be so (except for a few well known problems).

The "Great Question" that has haunted "Travels" since it first appeared is its veracity; children are said to have followed Marco Polo chanting, "Messer Marco, tell us another lie!". Until the 19th century it was mostly seen as comparable to The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1357), an enjoyable but fanciful account. When scholars in the 19th and early 20th centuries were able to verify through Chinese records many of the details, and with the recognition of the importance of the Age of Discovery and global trade and travel in World History, Marco has become today one of the most well known figures of the Middle Ages. Yet there still remain a few critics who question if Marco Polo actually ever went, and this myth of the "faked Travels" hangs over it. Even in Colin Thubron's recent review of this very book in The Washington Post (November 4, 2007; Page BW10) he raises the question; but as Bergreen says in the "Epilouge", it would have been a more amazing feat to amass so much accurate information about Asia without actually going there, then to have made the trip and write about it (Occam's Razor).

Four stars instead of five because I think Bergreen is not able to create a convincingly strong central narrative like he did in "Over the Edge"; he shows Marco Polo develop from a naive youth to a curious sensualist, into a spiritual awakened middle aged man into a petty, cranky and aged ex-opium addict - we know very little about Marco Polo the person, it is conjecture when faced with Marcos externally orientated "Travels" - the portrait is believable but the sources are weak. Bergreen also sometimes makes allusions to current events which will dilute the books timeless appeal.

The book is organized with an Introduction, 15 chapters, and an Epilogue. Most of the issues discussed in this review are in the Epilogue and they hung over me while reading the body of the story, which is essentially an excellent re-construction of "Travels". One approach is to read the Epilogue first, putting the text and story in historical context. Then enjoy one of the most astounding snapshots of the world in time ever compiled - 13th century Asia in all its extremes, diversity and exotica.

For the most part, this was a pleasing book and a very interesting read. We have plenty of blow by blow reviews already posted here, most of them quite well done, so I won't go into the page by page details with this review which has already been done. Simply stated, the author, Laurence Bergreen, has taken many of the surviving manuscripts (there are, I understand, well over 100 variations at this time, but I suspect there have been many, many more over the years) and attempted to tell the story of the adventures of Marco Polo and his travels from Europe to China, and beyond, during the 13th century. The author has done a very nice job of this.

Polo's journey, by ship and by land, lasted well over twenty years. He became quite involved with the court of the almost mystical Kublai Khan. Now the author is quick to point out that there are many discrepancies in the Polo papers but is also quick to point out that much of what was written has since proven to be true. I am one of those that feel that Marco Polo did actually make the journey he wrote about, but also feel that there was a tremendous amount of exaggeration on Polo's part and I feel the reader must remember that the world was being viewed through the eyes of a man of the 13th century. I think the author has made a good case for Polo and has done a very good job of pointing these facts out. This was a world so different than ours, that I personally, find it a bit difficult to comprehend, at times. What is fact and logical for us, was simply not so during the time of Polo's travels. The reader must remember this.

Overall the book was quite well written and certainly held my interest, for the most part. His observations and explanations as to what Polo wrote are quite logical and well stated. The author has an easy style and can indeed hold the reader's interest. This is the first book by Bergreen I have read, so I cannot compare this work with his other works as several reviewers have. I can only judge this book as a stand a lone, and to be honest, I was impressed. If his other works are better, then they must be quite good.

I did have a couple of problems with this work, ergo, the four stars and not five. I found it quite frustrating that there were really no maps available in the book. Fortunately I have a rather large collection of period maps in my collection, but to be honest, going back and fourth from book to map, was a real pain and distracted from the reading. I feel it quite impossible to gain the full impact of Polo's travels without an intimate knowledge of the geographical areas concerned, or a set of very good maps. I feel the author should have provided these. I also felt that some of the book was just a bit repetitive at times which caused it to drag a bit.

All in all, I learned much from this book, enjoyed reading it and feel richer for having done so. What more could you ask. I do recommend this one for those that have an interest in this particular subject.

Prof. Bergreen has written an excellent book about Marco's travels, with references collected not only from MP's journal, but also details about the history of the Mongols. Most of us western readers don't know much about the varied history of Western China and Mongolia, especially the fear these folk engendered in Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Bergreen fills in many gaps in our knowledge, and does so in a readable manner. One helpful characteristic of the book is that the chapters are divided up into short sections, marked only by the several spaces between each one. As the subjects are so mixed, this is a helpful arrangement. TWO criticisms. One, there is a good bit of repetition in the book. How often do we need to be told that MP was challenging common European knowledge of the East? Second, why aren't there more maps in the book? There is only one very small map (p. 265) that shows the route of the travels, and this one page map includes everything from Venice to China's eastern coast. A number of small maps along the way would have been very helpful to the reader. Some of the illustrations, though, are well done and interesting.

On page 350 Bergreen mentions that Antonio Pigafetta, who served as chronicler of Magellan's voyage around the world was inspired by his hero and fellow Venetian, Marco Polo. No doubt this is one reason Bergreen's latest project is this biography of Marco Polo. In Bergreen's wildly popular and outstanding "Over the edge of the world". he created a page turning popular history based on Pigafetta's writings. Unfortunately, with Marco Polo Bergreen had to rely on relatively little, being as there are numerous different versions of Polo's book "Travels" and for the most part it was dictated in jail to Rustichello who embellished the text with fiction and exaggeration. Bergreen's "Marco Polo" is an interesting read but no where near as compelling and interesting as his earlier Magellan book. Much of this volume I am afraid to report is a boring read. One other thing that is missing is a good map which would allow the reader to follow along with the narrative of Marco's Journey. You don't find a map until page 267 as the title page for Part three. I stuck with the text and did finish but would have a hard time recommending the book to anyone, especially if they had not yet read "edge of the world". Now that is a book not to be missed.

There may have been other adventurers who left Europe as teenagers in the thirteenth century, made their way across continents into the court of the largest empire in world history, and then made their way home safely a generation later, living in the meantime a life of risk and reward that would be unimaginable to a terrestrial today. But there was only one who told the story to an author of colorful "romances." And he, a man named Rustichello, retold the wanderer Marco Polo's story for history, or at least for author Laurence Bergreen, who has retold it better for us.

Bergreen, one of those great new creatures of modernity - a brilliant, worldly, tireless, non-academic historian and biographer - peels the onion of the impenetrable "Travels" of Marco Polo, filling in with level-headed, well-crafted reviews of the eight centuries of historiography borne of Polo's original work. Walking the walk, in part, Polo walked, testing the text against its many interpretations and criticisms and tweezing out the best modern wisdom from today's leading scholars, Bergreen has brought to us in great style the wide-eyed amazement of a 13th century European meeting the East for the first time.

Polo described in his "Travels" politics, social organizations, architecture, money and people so different from those of his home that his descriptions sometimes sound like the blind men examining the elephant. He found black, soft rocks, taken from the earth that magically burned white hot without ever flaming up. This was coal, never before known to a European as a fuel. Clinically accurate and completely without context, the "truth" of this observation makes us smile and also gives credibility to other Polo observations not so easily contextualized today.

Bergreen must have had the sense that he followed a man in someways like himself as he pieced together this fantastic story, its context and its many faces through the last 800 years. Like Polo, Bergreen has repeatedly wandered into places so disparate and opaque that only a hugely observant author of endless energy could find a reasonable proximity to the truth in each of them. He has done this in first-rate biographies of men whose names have never been put in a single paragraph before: James Agee, Al Capone, Louis Armstrong, Irving Berlin. He has also written a fine historical work on the astonishing world voyage of Magellan and of NASA's search for life on Mars. This new work is a delight to read, rich in content, easy in style, respectful but not reverent of its primary source.

Interesting in places, but only by fits and starts. Other reviewers have mentioned the lack of maps, an incomprehensible editorial decision. Granted, much of Marco's route is speculation, but it would have helped immensely to have some sort of graphical representation. Furthermore, many points are made over and over again, indicating slapdash editing. I found myself skimming large chunks of it; often the details weren't interesting enough in themselves: they needed to be incorporated into a larger and more cohesive structure. As it is, there's a patchwork, unstructured quality to the book that probably mirrors Marco's own work. You can see this in the way the text is chopped up into little sections, often with little connection to each other. A discerning editor could have made something out of the considerable research that Bergreen has done, but as it stands, the book is a disappointment.

After being on the losing side of the Battle of Curzola in 1298, in which the Venetian fleet was defeated by the Genoese, Marco Polo had the good fortune of landing in a very comfortable jail. It was due to the noblesse oblige of rank that he received such favorable treatment as a prisoner. In fact, he was allowed to take with him his copious notes from his foreign travels. He also had the good fortune of sharing a cell with Rustichello of Pisa, a well-known author of romanaces. With infinite time on their hands, the two collaborated on what became known as The Travels of Marco Polo.

The Travels always were considered more fabricated than real, even before they were embellished by Rustichello. Marco Polo was considered by his fellow Venetians as a "teller of a million lies." (Il Milione was the Italian name of the book.) Down through the centuries there were many different versions of the events described in the Travels. One of the most famous - and one that added greatly to its mythical quality - was Coleridge's opium-induced hallucinations of Kublai Khan's Xanadu.

Now biographer and historian Laurence Bergreen tells us that much of the original story had historical accuracy. He has researched his subject well and indeed rewritten the story of Marco Polo's travels. Not only does he put the story in chronological order, he fills in much of the historical background.

Marco Polo left Venice for Cambulac (now Beijing) in 1271 at the age of 17 accompanied by his father and uncle, who had already made the journey before. The Polos were merchants in search of profit, and they believed large profits could be made in the lands controlled by Pax Mongolica. Kublai Khan, grandson and imperial heir to Genghis Khan, had a reputation for being leader of some of the most brutal and violent people on earth. They were known in Europe as "Satan's spawn."

To Marco's surprise he found Kublai Khan a cultured and gracious host. Contrary to popular belief, the Mongols were very tolerant of other cultures. (Read Amy Chua'sDay of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--and Why They Fall for more information on this topic.) Although merciless in their conquests they allowed other cultures to thrive as long as they subscribed to Pax Mongolica.

Marco was so enthralled by the emperor's court that he stayed for nearly two decades. His experience as a merchant provided him with the skills to become the emperor's tax assessor and special emissary. Travels to various parts of the empire were duly recorded. Though the tales of sexcapades and court intrigue seem far-fetched, it may be true, as Polo claims, that at the time of Kublai Khan, there existed 20,000 of Genghis Khan's offsspring. The reason this may have some truth is that recent DNA tests have traced 1 in 12 Asian men back to Mongolia and the time of Genghis Khan. In any event, Marco definitely became more worldly after his extended stay in the emperor's court.

Although Europeans had gone to Cathay before, there is nothing like good notes, a good ghost writer, and a stetch of time in prison to produce one of the great works of Western literature. Bergreen has done an excellent job of retelling the story and providing the historical background.

First, the reason for four stars - no maps! How can a book of this magnitude, of a journey that these three men take over a span of years, not contain a single map! This is a pet peeve of mine when I am reading non fiction; why there is this hesitation to include at least one decent map baffles me. Fortunately I have a good atlas to use when I am reading, but the reader shouldn't need that.

Now to what I loved about the book: It took me a while to read this, not because it was difficult to read, but because the author fills it with so much from the Travels, as well as with what we know of the history, culture, and mores of the places and time. This book is not just an historic account, but a travelogue and an antropological journey. I appreciated the amount of research that he did on this book (the bibliography is a wealth of information to anyone interested in the subject) But dont be put off by that - its not overly academic, in fact I found it very readable. Very much recommended.

Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu, by Laurence Bergreen (Vintage Books 2007)

This is a fascinating review of the travels of Marco Polo, which is distilled from his actual Travels as transcribed during his incarceration in Genoa following his epochal return to Venice from his travels. He had assumed the position of captain of a warship in the nacy of Venice in its periodic war with Genoa for control of the trade routes.

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.
[...]

There may have been other adventurers who left Europe as teenagers in the thirteenth century, made their way across continents into the court of the largest empire in world history, and then made their way home safely a generation later, living in the meantime a life of risk and reward that would be unimaginable to a terrestrial today. But there was only one who told the story to an author of colorful "romances." And he, a man named Rustichello, retold the wanderer Marco Polo's story for history, or at least for author Laurence Bergreen, who has retold it better for us.

Bergreen, one of those great new creatures of modernity - a brilliant, worldly, tireless, non-academic historian and biographer - peels the onion of the impenetrable "Travels" of Marco Polo, filling in with level-headed, well-crafted reviews of the eight centuries of historiography borne of Polo's original work. Walking the walk, in part, Polo walked, testing the text against its many interpretations and criticisms and tweezing out the best modern wisdom from today's leading scholars, Bergreen has brought to us in great style the wide-eyed amazement of a 13th century European meeting the East for the first time.

Polo described in his "Travels" politics, social organizations, architecture, money and people so different from those of his home that his descriptions sometimes sound like the blind men examining the elephant. He found black, soft rocks, taken from the earth that magically burned white hot without ever flaming up. This was coal, never before known to a European as a fuel. Clinically accurate and completely without context, the "truth" of this observation makes us smile and also gives credibility to other Polo observations not so easily contextualized today.

Bergreen must have had the sense that he followed a man in someways like himself as he pieced together this fantastic story, its context and its many faces through the last 800 years. Like Polo, Bergreen has repeatedly wandered into places so disparate and opaque that only a hugely observant author of endless energy could find a reasonable proximity to the truth in each of them. He has done this in first-rate biographies of men whose names have never been put in a single paragraph before: James Agee, Al Capone, Louis Armstrong, Irving Berlin. He has also written a fine historical work on the astonishing world voyage of Magellan and of NASA's search for life on Mars. This new work is a delight to read, rich in content, easy in style, respectful but not reverent of its primary source.

Bravo, Mr. Bergreen. May he keep wandering into places we all want to read about, making us all a little less blind to their wonders.