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The Riddle and the Knight: In Search of Sir John Mandeville, the World's Greatest Traveler (Hardcover)

by Giles Milton (Author) "In the days when gods dwelt in temples, a soldier named Alban was converted to Christianity..." (more)
Key Phrases: Sir John, Holy Sepulchre, Father Nicholas (more...)

3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Sir John Mandeville, a medieval English knight, was either one of history's greatest explorers or one of its greatest liars, depending on how one reads the pages of his Travels. Christopher Columbus took his words as a veritable guidebook, using it, Giles Milton writes, to convince the Spanish crown to fund his American voyages. The Victorians were not so kind, dismissing the wanderer--who, after all, wrote that in the Indian Ocean "there is a race of great stature, like giants ... they have one eye only, in the middle of their foreheads"--as an uncritical fabulist at best, a charlatan at worst.

Giles Milton, a student of exploration history, gives us reasons aplenty to question Mandeville's accuracy at points, but he is inclined to think that the knight actually did see at least some of the things he reported in his enormously influential book. Tracing Mandeville's trail to the Middle East and beyond, he considers the historical realities that underlie Mandeville's tales, from the gems that lie strewn among the reeds of Indonesia (which Milton guesses might be crystal-like secretions from bamboo plants) to the fabulous Christian kingdom of Prester John somewhere far out on the plains of Mongolia (where, Milton reminds us, Nestorian Christians were once common). His conclusion, well argued in the course of this witty and delightful book, is that although Mandeville is not always taken literally, he really did go crusading off in distant lands, and he certainly deserves to be rediscovered today, not least for what his work tells us about the medieval mind.

Readers new to Mandeville will find this a spirited introduction, and those already fond of The Travels will enjoy following Milton's parallel voyages. --Gregory McNamee

From Booklist
*Starred Review* After embarking on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1322, Sir John Mandeville did not return to his native England until 34 years later. Shortly after his astonishing arrival back home, he wrote the story of his fantastic journey eastward. Claiming to have visited India, China, Java, and Sumatra, he asserted that his travels proved that it was possible to sail around the world. The publication of The Travels of Sir John Mandeville caused a stir in the medieval world, significantly influenced several generations of intrepid Renaissance explorers, and inspired writers as diverse as Shakespeare, Swift, Defoe, and Coleridge. The most famous voyager of his day, Mandeville, who obviously embellished his exploits, was discounted and ridiculed by sober nineteenth-century scholars. In an ambitious attempt to unravel both the personal and the professional mystery of Sir John's life, Milton sets off to follow Mandeville's original route, immersing himself in the sights, sounds, and colors of the cities and cultures he documented, resulting in a delightful travelogue as well as a long-overdue resurrection of one of the most intriguing figures in the history of geographical exploration. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st American ed edition (November 7, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0374249970
ISBN-13: 978-0374249977
Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces

Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,601,971 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
In the days when gods dwelt in temples, a soldier named Alban was converted to Christianity. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sir John, Holy Sepulchre, Father Nicholas, Holy Land, Middle Ages, Prester John, Father Isaias, Haghia Sophia, Father Baratto, John the Baptist, Middle East, Northern Cyprus, Greek Orthodox, Byzantine Empire, Sir Thomas, Father John, King Edward, Far East, Mandeville's Travels, Albans Abbey, Black Notley, Damascus Gate, Father George, Humphrey de Bohun, Marco Polo

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 26 books:

History of the Worthies of England by Thomas Fuller on page 129, and page 222
The Faerie Queene (Penguin Classics) by Edmund Spenser on page 218
The Small Back Room by Nigel Balchin on page 176
History of Eastern Christianity by Aziz S. Atiya on page 221
A History of the Crusades: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100-1187 (A History of the Crusades, Vol 2) (Volume 2) by Steven Runciman on page 223

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	67% buy the item featured on this page: The Riddle and the Knight: In Search of Sir John Mandeville, the World's Greatest Traveler 3.9 out of 5 stars (9)
	23% buy Nathaniel's Nutmeg: Or the True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History 4.1 out of 5 stars (70) $10.20
	10% buy Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America 4.5 out of 5 stars (36)

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Customer Reviews

9 Reviews

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4 star:		(2)
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3.9 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much Different Than His Other Books, November 7, 2001

By	Ricky Hunter (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Giles Milton, in The Riddle and the Knight, goes (as per the sub-title) in search of Sir John Mandeville, the world's greatest traveller. This book came out before the author's more successful Nathaniel's Nutmeg and the dazzling Big Chief Elizabeth and has been reissued in the wake of these two wonderful books. This book in much different. It stills has the spicy and, often, humourous writing but the approach is not what one might expect. This book is about the author's adventures as he travels the same ground as the medieval knight, Sir John Mandeville. It is not a history of the medieval period although the middle ages do occasionally enter into the story at times but rather a look at continuity through the ages. It is interesting to see what changes and what does not and why. Giles Milton is an entertaining guide in this adventure and despite his constant prescence, this reader never got tired of him. Those expecting a book solving the mystery of Sir John Mandeville and examining his famous book of travels in detail will be dissappointed but those looking for a guide to the remaining Christian sites in the Mid-East are in for a treat.

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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars P.T. Barnum, Ripleys Believe It Or Not and the nightly news, December 31, 2001

By	William Prestwidge (South Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews

A fairly irritating book about an important subject, this book is loaded with a collection of traveling non-sequiturs that are collated and vaguely related to findings of the author as he makes the same trip that Sir John Mandeville made starting in 1322. Mandeville wrote a book after his 34-year journey called The Travels that influenced many important people after him. For example, Christopher Columbus, influenced by Mandeville's book, proposed his voyage to the new world to Queen Isabella of Spain and was turned down. Months later, after Isabella had read Mandeville's book she was approached again by Columbus and she changed her mind, funding his history making voyage to the new world. Mandeville's book was used by many others as a reference for hundreds of years until somewhere in the 1800's when he and his book were discredited and Mandeville generally became known as a fraud, never having actually traveled to the places he claimed to have visited. In The Riddle and the Knight, Milton's trip to all the same places starts off with the promise of getting to the bottom of a very old debate, "Did Mandeville actually take the trip he claimed he took? By actually making the same trip today, what could be found to either prove or disprove Mandeville once and for all?" That's a great idea but the writer got bogged down including almost everything that happened to him on his 20th century journey whether it added to proving Mandeville's journey or not. On page 189, Milton is staying in a monastery in Egypt and two U.N. peacekeepers stumble upon the ancient institution. One of them is an American who is remarkably like Gomer Pyle. Halfway through this jewel, I paused and thought, "This episode will have no bearing whatsoever on what Milton is doing with his story." True enough, it didn't. It was simply a loud and colorful, intrusion into the quiet life of the monastery Milton was staying in. "What the heck. Let's put it in the book." Milton was fair in citing the frequent number of times that almost every ancient author would plagiarize one another and that Mandeville was not much different. Unlike the book's title, The Riddle and the Knight, any references to a riddle somewhere in the book were sparse, casual, and hugely unfulfilled. The author also missed the opportunity to properly observe that all early discoverers and travelers were at some point liars who all knew that keeping the attention of those who listened would sometimes require mention of the strange men foreign lands who have no heads, or really giant women from another distant land or strange elixirs that have remarkable healing powers. It's all part of giving the audience what they want or need to hear, from P.T. Barnum to Ripley's Believe It Or Not to the nightly news.

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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Riddle .....Still left Wondering, December 30, 2001

By	Andrew Wye "andrewwye" (Auckland New Zealand) - See all my reviews

What a disappointment . After reading one of Milton's other books I was excited to get this for Xmas. The book is a soft introduction to some of the history of both the Middle Ages, the Middle East, but thats it . I felt that the author had stumbled onto a possible winner but in the end it didnt pan out but had to publish a book to justify his travels ( and perhaps his advance ). Best I can say about the book is the bibliography. This alone was worth one star , otherwise I would have only given a rating of one star. Not a recommended buy

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Travelling through history
In some ways, it reads more like a travellogue that a history book, which is certainly in keeping with it's subject: a book written by 14th century knight Sir John Mandeville, who... Read more

Published 6 months ago by Fernando Battaglia

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book from Giles Milton....
This book was awesome! So much adventure and neat information. I liked how Giles Milton included his travels in following Sir John's book to find things -- it was like being on a... Read more

Published on September 6, 2005 by Anya K. Sherwood

5.0 out of 5 stars A trip worth taking...
A fascinating read! The satisfaction comes not in finally putting to rest the historical debate whether Sir John Mandeville ever made his epic pilgrimmage but rather in going... Read more

Published on December 16, 2002

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining -- but what's new? --
This book wears two faces: 1) a travel book, and 2) an attempt at some serious historical research. The author, Giles Milton, a professional writer/journalist, sets out to retrace... Read more

Published on February 22, 2002 by V. N. Dvornychenko

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating
Even more than Marco Polo, Sir John Mandeville was considered the most renowned traveler and chronicler in medieval Europe. Read more

Published on December 3, 2001 by Harriet Klausner

5.0 out of 5 stars an earlier winner from Mr. Milton
Though once one of the most famous men and influential authors in all of Christendom, Sir John
Mandeville's reputation has been in decline for roughly five hundred years. Read more

Published on November 16, 2001 by Orrin C. Judd

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