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The Travels of Marco Polo Paperback – September 30, 1958
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For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
- Print length384 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Classics
- Publication dateSeptember 30, 1958
- Dimensions5.1 x 0.9 x 7.8 inches
- ISBN-100140440577
- ISBN-13978-0140440577
- Lexile measure790L
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Product details
- Publisher : Penguin Classics; Reissue edition (September 30, 1958)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 384 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0140440577
- ISBN-13 : 978-0140440577
- Lexile measure : 790L
- Item Weight : 9.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.1 x 0.9 x 7.8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #41,349 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6 in Cruise Travel Reference
- #82 in Travelogues & Travel Essays
- #151 in Traveler & Explorer Biographies
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Marco Polo was the original, trailblazing tourist. He was born into a wealthy Venetian merchant family in 1254 and at the age of 17 he embarked on an epic journey to Asia, as one of the first westerners to ever visit China. When he returned 24 years later he recorded his extensive travels in a book – publishing possibly the first travel guide ever – and introducing Europeans to Central Asia and China.
Marco Polo’s travels have since inspired countless adventurers to set off and see the world. Allegedly, Christopher Columbus set off across the Atlantic with a copy of Marco Polo’s original book!
It is this pioneering spirit that drives us at Marco Polo Travel Publishing to provide you with the best guides, maps and atlases possible – to inspire you to set off on your own adventures and help you travel the world. We offer a wide range of high quality travel publications to over 200 destinations, all written by local and trusted authors.
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Clear, easy-to-read cartography in a handy spiral bound format.
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As an Iranian and a native Persian speaker. When it comes to the Iranian (Persian) names and geography, both in today Iran and in places that used to be part of ancient Iran, I found Latham's translation seriously inaccurate. It is very much like a man's loose take of history; for example: Latham's frequently names Turkey, while the Republic of Turkey was born in 1923 for the first time!! In Marco Polo's era, this part of the world was ruled by local Seljuk warlords, Mongols, etc before it was called Ottoman empire almost 200 years later. There are numerous other impermissible inaccuracies throughout the Latham's translation.
Yule's introduction has many sections, is very boring and, at some points, becomes very unrelated. The text is also not complete.
Unfortunately, an ultimate edition that has a detailed but related as well as interesting biography of Marco Polo, great citations/footnotes, plentiful maps, analysis of accuracy (including estimation of the influence of Rusticello's style & words) is still missing; however, this edition is a reliable and I think most useful edition.
I was most keen this time around to Polo's descriptions of the cultures and wildlife he encountered, of the whales and lions and leopards and bears--he even describes a white bear, and the people who hunted it were surely of the group often called Eskimos. He describes dog-sledding in the far north and the cannibalistic practices of the people of Java far to the south, both of which are extant in our current era. There are also the fascinating observations of the Mongol Empire, of that group of nomadic people who somehow rose up, like an event in an Isaac Asimov novel, to conquer much of the known world.
Somewhat depressingly, though, are Polo's observations of the tensions that existed between the Islamic and Christian worlds, tensions rooted in the competition for hegemony over trade in the Far East. Seven hundred years later, these tensions are still acting themselves out.
This translation by Ronald Latham from 1958 includes an introduction that puts Marco Polo's life in context with events and includes footnotes to help the reader make sense of the myriad manuscripts that make up the travels of Marco Polo. This is a somewhat dry read; even Latham comments on the paucity of skill employed by Polo's chronicler. Once I put my mind in context with the narrative, however, I was able to roll with the repetition and sycophancy and enjoy the text.
There is only one map so far! This map was probably part of the original book but is very hard to read. Since all the commentary talks about places that no longer exist and how far they are from each other, many detailed and clear maps would really help with the historical discussion.
I am enjoying the historical discussion but would have loved to have the actual content of the original book written as a seamless section for clarity and just plan enjoyability.
Top reviews from other countries
First of all, the most notable controversy; was Maro Polo a fraud? This reader disagrees. While some regard it as suspect that he traveled to Yuan Dynasty China and did not mention the largely Han practice of foot binding, one needs to remember that he was employed in the court of Kubilai Khan, a Mongol Emperor who headed a very multicultural court.
While this reader is not a first class scholar of medieval China, the narrative through which Marco Polo describes the China of then corresponds somewhat to the cultural mosaic of today. While in the Southwest of China, he describes people of rather relaxed sexual practices, which have an eery similarity to the Naxi of Yunnan Province, he describes a religious mosaic that regularly alternates between either Christian, Muslim or, as he terms it, idolatory, he describes funerary practices, the choice of clothing, and dietary practices. Therefore, this reader rules favorably in the authenticity of Marco Polo’s account.
The book in itself is mainly a travelogue, and describes everywhere from Armenia and the Caspian Sea region, China, India, the Middle East, and in the final chapter, Russia.
Toward the end, the book becomes something of a commentary of the then current affairs, describing a conflict in what was then an area close to Russia’s frontier, and earlier parts of the book describe the conflict and intrigue in the court of the Great Khan. However, the book, for the most part, is a travelogue.
The book is an immensely entertaining and readable account. With just simple relaxation and the right approach, one feels themselves there with Marco Polo, exploring unknown lands, and traveling a greater distance traveled by no man since the creation, in the words of the introduction.
Marco Polo’s Travels, or to give it it’s actual title, Il Milione, is a timeless classic. A timeless work of inquiry and observation that is both intriguing and fascinating, and a pleasure for the soul.
Ah bon...
Il n'empêche, certaines pages sont bien intéressantes