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The Travels

by Marco Polo, Ronald E. Latham (Introduction)

3.58 of 5 stars 3.58 · rating details · 1,448 ratings · 113 reviews

Stories of Kublai Khan and Prester John, courtesans and cannibals, astrologers and warriors, and the old man of the mountain-- this classic of travel literature by the great medieval explorer has been taxing credulity and giving delight for centuries.

Paperback, 384 pages

Published September 30th 1958 by Penguin Classics (first published 1298)

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Sep 17, 2007 David added it · review of another edition Recommends it for: all y'all suckas

Shelves: summer2007

Here's a book that looks fantastic on the cover: it's the story of Marco Polo's incredible travels to the East, told by the man himself. Then you open the book and look into it a bit and realize that it might be boring against all odds. For one, it isn't the tale of his adventure. Instead, it's a systematic description of all the countries one can find east of Italy. Check that: no narrative.

Then you actually start reading and you find out that no one--not Marco Polo, not the scribe who wrote do...more Here's a book that looks fantastic on the cover: it's the story of Marco Polo's incredible travels to the East, told by the man himself. Then you open the book and look into it a bit and realize that it might be boring against all odds. For one, it isn't the tale of his adventure. Instead, it's a systematic description of all the countries one can find east of Italy. Check that: no narrative.

Then you actually start reading and you find out that no one--not Marco Polo, not the scribe who wrote down his account as they both languished in prison--could bleach the book of its wonder. I'm not kidding. Despite their best efforts to not write an adventure, the adventure shines through. I read this book in long spurts, careful not to worry about soaking up the long, listlike information on each country, instead letting the sheer weirdness of the world wash over me. I flew through reports of roads manned by bandits and directions from oasis to oasis in the deserts (much of the book reads like a seven-hundred-year-old Lonely Planet guide) so I could slow down and marvel at stories like his account of the first assassins--young men drugged and taken to a paradise of women and wine they were told was heaven. After a week there they were drugged and returned to the real world, only to be told that getting back depended on their unbending devotion to the potentate who controlled access to "heaven."

Alexander the Great shows up from time to time as well, the truth of his legacy already twisted by history. But all of that pales to what Marco tells us about the great Khan's court: I was floored. Let me put it into context for you. I always wanted to be completely dumbfounded by the great wonders of human construction--things like the Eiffel Tower or Stonehenge--and it never happened to me until I stood in the courtyard at the main palace in Seoul. Something about the wide expanse paved by huge stones, all done for the love and reverence a people had for a king, knocked me senseless. I could write an essay extolling the wonder of the place, something meant to celebrate the number of man hours and the immense wealth necessary to construct such a wonder. My essay could easily be one-upped by one explaining the pyramids or the Great Wall, pushing the immensity of human achievement to the limit. But whatever any essay totes as the end-all--skyscrapers, space shuttles, lost continents, you name it--Marco Polo's account of Kublai's empire will smash it. It was to big, too great, too much. And to top it all, the emperor seems like a decent guy.

And that's only half of the book. Polo gets to wander around for another eighty pages or so before concluding that he's covered the known world. My verdict: entirely worth it. And there's no test at the end, so you can breeze through all the geography (though having a map handy can be quite fun--I can only imagine what a dedicated Google Earthling could do) and just enjoy the feeling of peeking in on a world of culture that has more or less disappeared completely.(less)

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Feb 18, 2013 Phoebes rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Non è proprio come mi aspettavo. Io pensavo al racconto del viaggio, narrato in prima persona, invece i riferimenti all’autore ci sono solo poche volte, e tutto il libro non è altro che la descrizione dei vari popoli incontrati, che di per sé non sarebbe neanche male, se non fosse che le descrizioni sono tutte uguali, solo ogni tanto c’è qualcosa di diverso e più interessante!
Insomma, non mi è piaciuto molto, ma mi è comunque difficile stabilire quanto ha contato nel giudizio la difficoltà di l...more

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Feb 17, 2009 Liz rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

This is the narrative of one of the most famous explorers in history, describing his adventures in the Far East as a sort of emissary for the great Kublai Khan. In it he describes all of the strange cities and peoples he comes across in his years wandering through the exotic locales encompassed by the Khan’s extensive empire.

I’m sure that when this narrative was first published, it would have been considered fascinating reading by the general public, as it describes places, peoples and things th...more This is the narrative of one of the most famous explorers in history, describing his adventures in the Far East as a sort of emissary for the great Kublai Khan. In it he describes all of the strange cities and peoples he comes across in his years wandering through the exotic locales encompassed by the Khan’s extensive empire.

I’m sure that when this narrative was first published, it would have been considered fascinating reading by the general public, as it describes places, peoples and things that were vastly different from what the average person was familiar with. For those people, Asia may as well have been on another planet. Most of this narrative is broken down into sections, each focusing on a specific city, describing its notable geography and architecture, its imports and exports, and the people who live there and their customs. Since most of the cities were really not notable, and since they generally shared the culture of all of the other cities around them, this tends to get kind of repetitive after awhile. A lot of the descriptions read: “In the city of _______, the inhabitants are pagans and worship idols. They burn their dead. They have a diet of rice and millet. They are great producers of silk”, or something to that effect. Then the next city is described in exactly the same way. And the next one. And the next one. Occasionally there would be a comment thrown in like: “The women here are very beautiful” or “The country produces fine cattle”. Which is all well and good, as this served to create a record of places that had never been recorded before. However, it makes for some dry reading. What made it interesting for me were the little anecdotes thrown in about the exploits of this king or that king who waged this war and used this trick to make his enemies surrender, and so on and so forth. I think personally it would have been fascinating if the work had been more autobiographical, including more of Marco Polo’s personal exploits. Though the main gist of what he did is outlined, it doesn’t go into any details. I’m sure, given as much as he did in his life, they would have been really interesting reading. Ah well, I’m sure many proper historians have said the same thing to themselves. The veracity of this work has been questioned by some, who say that Marco Polo was a fake and never actually went to any of these places. There was a guy, I think around the same timeframe, who wrote a book and said he went places where people had dog’s heads and mouths in their stomachs (or something to that effect, I’m remembering this all very vaguely). It seems to me that if Marco Polo were going to just make something up, he would have made up something more creative than “The people worship idols, and burn their dead, and eat millet”. Not that I’m a professional historian, here, but that’s just a thought that crossed my mind. Anyway, I think it was a good book to read once, just to be able to say I did it.(less)

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Aug 19, 2012 Arwen56 rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biografie-diari-viaggi-storiepers

Libro decisamente anomalo, direi, per diversi motivi:

1) In primo luogo, non è stato neppure redatto nel volgare italiano, bensì, a quanto mi risulta, principalmente in francese antico (lingua d'oïl). Di conseguenza, il testo che leggiamo è una delle tante traduzioni esistenti. Quanto possa essere fedele all’originale è da vedersi.

2) Non è neanche stato scritto dallo stesso Marco Polo, ma dettato a Rustico da Pisa nel carcere in cui entrambi allora si trovavano. Quanto sia possibile attribuire al...more

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Oct 02, 2011 Christoph Rehage rated it 4 of 5 stars

Author: Marco Polo (with Rustichello da Pisa)
Title: Description of the World
Time: 1271-1295
Destination:
Venice to Beijing and back (alleged)
Length: around 23 years
Type: overland and by ship
Rating: 7/10
Slow but good.

A slow read. The 434 pages of my German edition are divided into 224 chapters, each dealing with a place or phenomenon. There is no storyline and no strict chronological order of events. Instead, MP tells the reader about the things that he has either seen or heard about, and which he...more

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Jan 31, 2010 Cym Lowell rated it 5 of 5 stars

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...more 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.(less)

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Apr 11, 2013 Etienne Mahieux rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

C'est quand même une belle opération de littérature commerciale. Prenez un mec qui a pas mal d'expériences à raconter mais qui n'est pas exceptionnellement cultivé ; payez-lui une résidence d'écriture (dans une prison génoise) avec un auteur un peu raté de romans arthuriens un peu ratés. Il en sort un livre d'entretiens, écrit directement en français pour tâcher de dépasser le public classique des scriptoria abbatiaux.
Si Rustichello (le plumitif) a du mal à varier les formules pour raconter les...more

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Nov 09, 2011 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One tends to picture man in ages past as a rather stationary critter, clutching tight to one little piece of earth. Marco Polo's story knocks that theory neatly on its ass. Presented in this edition strictly for its value as a travelogue, Travels chronicles Messr Polo's journey from Italy to China and back again. It's wondrous stuff, even if the narrator's eye tends to an extremely mercantile view of the world. (When he waxes eloquent on the beauty of a certain species of Chinese crane, you rat...more

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Aug 31, 2011 Erwin rated it 4 of 5 stars

When I first came to China in October 2003, this was one of the ONLY books on Audible.com that had anything to say about China, home to 1/5th of the earth people. I vividly remember thinking how awkward it was --- but I had certainly not anticipated the massive shift in this trend, and how quickly it would follow. In fact, before coming to China, my only expatation was based on some notes by Jim Rogers followed by Marco Polo's story...

On my flight over to Hong Kong, and eventually my ferry ride...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Douglas Summers.Stay rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is an amazing book. It is the original travels of Marco Polo, with annotations explaining where the various places mentioned in the text are, and photographs of places mentioned and illustrations from medieval editions.
The book was originally written in Italian in 1298. The translation they've used keeps a lot of archaic language and phrasing-- If you've ever read Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur, it's similar in language.
Marco Polo was recognized by Kublai Khan as a bright young man with a gift...more

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Aug 10, 2008 dbd rated it 4 of 5 stars

Very interesting historical account of Polo's travels to Mongolia and China, He spent much more time there than I had known, not all of it by design. He was highly regarded by Kublai Kahn for his knowledge of western culture which was of great interest to the Kahn. Polo was surprised, as was I, by the sophistication of the Mongolian culture.

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Jul 09, 2007 Nate rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone

Well, there is debate over whether or not Marco Polo ever went to what is now known as China. Some say he bridged together pieces of tales from other travelers whom had been to distant lands. We'll never know for sure. This travelogue is still somewhat interesting. I can see why it would've been more so during its time.

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Nov 07, 2009 Tlsmith rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A translation of Marco Polo's account of his travels through the Middle East and Asia. I have spoken to some people who think that this book is too dry (which may make sense since Polo was a merchant and the stated purpose of his book is to let other merchants know what products and resources were available in these new lands). It could be the translation that I read (I chose the right one here) but it was in no sense dry or boring. Imagining Polo traveling through Baghdad, across the Gobi Deser...more

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Mar 04, 2013 Ben rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Great historical source containing lots of (often literally) incredible first-hand information on the Mongol Empire, Kublai Kahn and large swathes of the Orient during that period. I really enjoyed reading Marco Polo's European perspective on the exotic and advanced cultures to the east and the detailed and vivid descriptions of the curious things he encountered. Its structure makes it fairly tiresome in places, with dozens of consecutive chapters dealing purely with descriptions of various citi...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Owen Spencer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Marco Polo is, no doubt, an important historical figure and world-traveller, and this book is an excellent historical document; but, if you are like me, you may struggle to finish it, or to read more than a few pages at a time, because much of it is not very compelling, mostly due to its matter-of-fact, unartistic prose which provides for a somewhat dry reading experience. Having said that, sprinkled throughout the narrative are brief stories, and little details, about oft-forgotten civilations...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Amerynth rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, exploration, memoir, nonfiction, read-2011, asia

"Travels of Marco Polo" -- a ghostwritten account of Polo's travels around Asia-- was a really difficult book to get into. Many of the descriptions become tedious (countless people are described merely as idolators who eat flesh and drink milk...) The most interesting bits, which are sprinkled throughout the book, focus on Tartar military history -- the conquests of Kublai Khan and his relatives. I also really enjoyed Polo's retelling of various legends (such as the diamond encrusted fish...) Ov...more

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Nov 04, 2011 Sorcha rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, audiobook, audible, dnc, non-fiction

Have attempted to listen to this audio (downloaded from audible.co.uk) several but so far have had difficulty getting very far into it.[return][return]The narrator is distant and badly recorded - it sounds like he's recorded it down a phone line. The most animation in his voice comes when he stumbles over words he seems not to know but should have practised before recording. Italian in particular seems to be his sticking point - definately an issue when recording a narration of an Italian travel...more

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Oct 15, 2009 Will rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read this as I was travelling through Mongolia. There are some entertaining gems tucked away in this book: colourful and unique descriptions of cities and peoples now changed beyond recognition, but to get to these one must wade through long sections of drivel, endless repetition of the same stock phrases and a somewhat haphazard narration. I don't know why but I'd assumed that a writer almost contemporaneous with Dante might have had a better grasp of style. Still, this is a unique book and h...more

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Jun 13, 2012 M. Milner rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: good-history-stuff

The product of several different relationships, all of which happened at just the right time, The Travels of Marco Polo is an interesting document of one of the first men to really travel. Marco was the son of a merchant and travelled across Europe, Asia and the Indian Ocean in a time when most people never left their hometowns. He met with people on the coast of Africa, travelled as far north as the Arctic Ocean and spent years living in China in the court of Kublai Khan. And later, in a prison...more

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Dec 08, 2011 Isabel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In the country are many wild elephants and rhinoceroses, which are much inferior in size to the elephant, but their feet are similar. Their hide resembles that of the buffalo. In the middle of their forehead they have a single horn; but with this weapon they do not injure those whom they attack, employing only for this purpose their tongue, which is armed with long, sharp spines, and their knees or feet; their mode of assault being to trample upon the person, and then to lacerate him with the to...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Guy Grobler rated it 4 of 5 stars

Its not an easy book to get into as its a translation and its old, but it is a very good read. It has a slow beginning but then picks-up. Marco Polo is very descriptive in his collection of memories of what he saw. There are a number of things to consider - like context, Marco Polo will almost always state for each town or country he visits - which religion is dominant (or if the locals are idol worshippers), what trade is dominant and so on. There is also a hidden message, and that is - that th...more

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Mar 14, 2010 Chilly SavageMelon rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An important historical document, according to the afterword - the second most influential ghostwritten work after the bible, unfortunately a rather dry read. Polo dictated the tales to another while imprisoned by the Genovese and the style is objective: I saw this, the people are like this, my impressions are stated as fact without feeling etc. In a way, he was one of the luckiest teenagers in history, as his father Niccolo and Uncle Maffeo had already gone east, met and befriended Kublai Khan...more

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Sep 06, 2009 K.D. Oliveros rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel is among the 501 MUST READ BOOKS and it was written in 1298. So, next to the Holy Bible this is now the 2nd most oldest book that I've ever read.

In fact, in the travel book that I read last month about the travels of Ferdinand Magellan, this book was mentioned several times as the Magellan fleet brought this book. It was the same case for Christopher Columbus because both the world navigators came after the travels of Marco Polo, his father Nicolo and his uncle Maffeo that happened i...more

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Apr 13, 2009 Dan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-memoir, history

Interesting for both it's accuracies and inaccuracies and the insight provided on the medieval point of view of foreign cultures. Unfortunately, Polo tends to simplify nearly every culture he encounters into one very large pot. In example, he seems to be under the impression that all 'idolaters' (read non-christians, non-muslims, non-jews) all follow one giant pan-asian religion. These kind of assumptions make a lot of his observations nearly useless, revealing more about the author than the sub...more

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Aug 22, 2012 Gijs rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: middle-ages, non-fiction, travel, italian

Marco Polo's eigen reisverslag zoals deze die heeft gedicteerd aan ene Rustichello tijdens zijn gevangenschap in Genua. Hoewel dit verslag begint met een opsomming van zijn lotgevallen en die van zijn vader en oom, bestaat het grootste gedeelte uit een nogal anonieme reisgids langs streken en steden. Deze bevatten veel herhalingen (heel veel steden bevatten 'onderdanen van de grootchan' en 'afgodendienaren'), veel extreme superlatieven (de grootste/mooiste/bloederigste/zoals je nooit gezien hebt...more

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May 28, 2010 Kent rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: geography, history-world

In some of the books I read this past year about European explorers discovering the world, etc., this work by Marco Polo was referenced as having been inspirational to many of them, such as Columbus and Vespucci. So, I wanted to experience it myself. However, the reading became too tedious and many times just plain unbelievable. I skimmed the latter half of the book and had to stop. I suppose if I had read this in, say, 1450, I may have been inspired, too. But, in 2010, it was just disappointing...more

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May 05, 2011 Federico Salinas rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is interesting mainly because it casts light on China during the European Middle Ages, but the man who wrote this down for Marco Polo was not a great story teller. While we are lucky that Marco Polo committed some of his travels to writing through the accident of meeting a scribe while in prison, narrative does not make this great literature. Rather, the merit in this book is that it is a product of its times and a unique window into a European perspective of Asia. This is a book that...more

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Jul 17, 2010 William Newsom rated it 4 of 5 stars

I wrote the chapter on The Travels for Omnibus V (Veritas). Fascinating details, and a wealth of stories and legends from Messer Marco. C.S. Lewis said this book should be on everyone's shelf, and I don't disagree. Marco also has some interesting lessons to teach Christians living in a multi-cultural world.

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Jul 07, 2010 Ned rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: background

pretty much a waste of time. You'd think it'd be great but it ain't. He saw so many things he had to turn it into a catalog of one place after another after another, and it turns into an itinerary instead "...and these people burn their dead and are idolators. The next place we came to to was also very rich having many opportunities for trade, particularly in rice wine and birds. All manners of game are found in this place and the people on the whole are thought of as mild of temperament. But wh...more

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Mar 10, 2009 Ingrid rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Again, how can you give history less than a 3? The book was initially disappointing to me, because I thought Marco had high tales of adventure and wonder, when actually his book is more like a journal. But, that's why you read, correct? WHAT a life - he walked from Italy to the edge of China a back - discovering people and places that no one in Europe had ever heard of - and upon returning, no one was even impressed. And even after the story was written, his renown is relegated to a childhood sw...more

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About Marco Polo

Marco Polo was supposedly born in Venetian Republic, in what is now Venice, Italy. There are also stories and various documents which point to his ancestry originating in Korčula, Croatia.
He was a well known trader and an explorer. He recorded his adventures in a book published as "The Travels of Marco Polo". The original copies of his works are lost.

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