Marco Polo: The Journey that Changed the World

There have been many translations and editions of Marco Polo’s writings. The story is of a fantastic journey from thirteenth century Italy to the fabulous court of Kublai Khan in China. This book makes sense of a lot of those writings. The author retraces Marco’s steps, telling and reconciling many of the references and happenings. He is quick to give Marco the benefit of doubt, but studiously draws the line at tall tells and exaggerations; a city Marco describes that was twelve hundred miles out of the Polo’s path is one example. The book is great good fun, though. The legends that Marco quotes, descriptions of animals and plants, the names of the cities, the lands and peoples–some still virtually unchanged in eleven hundred years and some almost unrecognizable today–are explored by the author. It is much easier reading than the flowery prose of Marco and covers the subject more completely. The best thing is the author cultivates the sense of wonder in describing unknown lands and unknown peoples; making it easy to imagine being at the court of Kublai Khan, the most powerful man of the time, and experiencing the wonders of another time and place.