New Travel Book: ‘Marco Polo’
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 12.04.07 | 7:13 AM ET
Full title: “Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu”
Author: Laurence Bergreen, who also wrote “Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe” and biographies of Al Capone and Irving Berlin.
Released: Oct. 23, 2007
Travel genre: Historical footstep following
Territory covered: The Silk Road from, uh, Venice to Xanadu
Promo copy: “As the most celebrated European to explore Asia, Marco Polo was the original global traveler and the earliest bridge between East and West. A universal icon of adventure and discovery, he has inspired six centuries of popular fascination and spurious mythology…In this masterly work, Marco Polo’s incredible odyssey—along the Silk Road and through all the fantastic circumstances of his life—is chronicled in sumptuous and illuminating detail.”
Critical verdict, Zagat-style: The book is “as enthralling as a rollicking travel journal” (New York Times), and a “richly researched” and “full-blooded rendition of Polo’s astonishing journey.” (Washington Post) “The marvellous plates, which include color reproductions of medieval miniatures as well as spectacular photographs of the Silk Road and other exotic sites, enhance this unexpected feeling of immediacy.” (New York Sun)
Audio excerpt: Laurence Bergreen reads from Marco Polo
Find it: Amazon, Powells, Publisher
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
Barbara Benham 12.04.07 | 10:46 AM ET
I’m reading it right now. I must confess I either never knew or totally forgot that that Marco traveled with his father and his uncle. Is that a well-known fact? The story of how the book came to be written is one of the all-time great publishing stories, too.
Mike 12.05.07 | 2:52 PM ET
I didn’t know that either, Barbara. It’s another good reason I want to read the book.
Ireq 05.16.08 | 6:42 PM ET
I guess that all great guidebooks are written in extrordinary conditions. This is what makes them great. Thank you Barbara for sharing this fact.