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 enlarge | Author: Laurence Bergreen
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $28.95
Buy Used: $7.19
You Save: $21.76 (75%)
New (41) Used (30) Collectible (1) from $7.19
Avg. Customer Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 105616
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.5
ISBN: 140004345X
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.4
EAN: 9781400043453
ASIN: 140004345X
Publication Date: October 23, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: clean tight pages! minor wear to dust cover. PLEASE VERIFY YOUR SHIPPING ADDRESS TO AVOID DELAYS! average shipping is 7-10 business days media mail. need it quicker choose expedited shipping! thanks!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great material, but flawed delivery May 3, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
A thoroughly researched account of a fascinating life. You could spend a lifetime going through the sources in the book's notes & bibliography, and the book inspires you to do just that. However, it's marred by Bergreen's writing style. His comments after quoted material-- and there is, rightly, a LOT of quoted material-- are often superfluous and give the unpleasant impression of reading a book report. A very well-researched book report, but a book report nonetheless. Still, a good launching point to learn more about an intriguing chapter in history.
lost in translation April 13, 2008
Having just read Laurence Bergreen's "Over the edge of the world", I couldn't wait to read his new work on the travels of "Marco Polo" Mr. Bergreen is a stickler for accuracy and research. I think he spends more time researching than writing. This is an excellent account of Marco's adventures and experiences traveling along and beyond The Silk Road. My only criticism is that in trying to be so factual some of the passages were difficult for me to understand. Maybe it is the translation from Medieval Italian to English. As of now, I'm just waiting for Mr. Bergreen's next book.
Marco Polo March 10, 2008
MARCO POLO: FROM VENICE TO XANADU BY LAURENCE BERGREEN: Laurence Bergreen, whose last book, Over the Edge of the World, charted Magellan's circumnavigation of the world, returns with a fresh and thorough biography on the remarkable and renowned thirteenth century traveler, Marco Polo. Marco Polo begins in a style that is becoming modern with biographies such as Caroline Alexander's Bounty, near the end of Marco Polo's life when he is a renowned traveler of noble stature and wealth; this makes the return to Polo's younger life as an inexperienced person all the more poignant.
Marco Polo was not the first to feel the urge and thrill to travel the world; it was an experience and almost expectation instilled within his family for some time. At the age of seventeen, barely a man, Marco Polo began his first journey with his father Niccolo and uncle Maffeo bound for the court of Kublai Khan in 1271. While the focus of the book is on Polo's time spent with the Great Khan, Bergreen spends time details sights and experiences on the Polos' travels across the known world to China where Marco became a personal advisor to Kublai Khan in 1275. Marco then spent almost twenty years in service to the Khan, traveling the many surrounding countries and gathering intelligence and acting as a tax collector for the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty. It is here that we see through Marco's eyes and how he views this world that is greatly different to the one he was used to in Venice: from Asbestos manufacture, to crocodile hunting, to the sexual habits of the different peoples; the practice of offering up one's wife to passing travelers was one that greatly perplexed and put Marco ill at ease.
While the book does cover Marco Polo's life, Bergreen seems almost hesitant to offer commentary of opinion on the Polo's habits, ideas, and reactions. Nevertheless, Marco Polo is a fascinating read into the life of the often misunderstood Venetian.
[...]
The Ultimate Accidental Tourist March 8, 2008
While this appears to be a biography of the history's most famous traveler, it is actually a guide to understanding Polo's adventures. While Bergreen gives us the portrait of the man, the exotic adventures and their time in history loom much larger.
Several times I have begun reading the "Adventures" but never got into them, getting lost in the stilted prose. Here, Bergreen has sifted through the "Adventures" and delivered their essence while enriching the reader by descriptions of the life and character of Marco Polo.
Bergreen advises on what is and might not be literal. He comments on Polo's youth and how his world view changes as he matures on this trip. He discusses the various renderings of the Polo story and discusses how cynically the travels were received at the time and how over many years, they (and Polo) grew in stature.
Interestingly, Marco's father and uncle, having made the first voyage, have an even greater tale to tell. Since their story was not committed to writing, the hows and wheres of their first trip are lost to history and it is Marco who is the celebrated traveler.
After reading this book, I realized I had read another Bergreen biography, Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life which is a very good book on a widely different personality in a wildy different era.
 Marco Polo's remarkable life and fascinating travels March 6, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
During the Middle Ages, most Europeans were poor peasants who never ventured more than a few miles beyond their villages. During this provincial era, Venetian merchant Marco Polo traveled almost all the known world. Like a water bug skimming across a pond, Polo journeyed to the ancient Holy Land, the Levantine, Arabia, Asia Minor, central Asia, Cathay (China), India, Southeast Asia, Africa and to other exotic lands. The captain of a Venetian ship, Polo eventually was captured by the Genoese after a brutal naval battle. He spent many long days and nights in jail describing nearly two decades of remarkable travel to fellow inmate, writer and avid note-taker Rustichello da Pisa. Polo told of serving as a trusted emissary for the fabled Kublai Khan, emperor of the Mongols. Polo's remarkable story became a hugely influential book, //The Travels of Marco Polo//. Like someone spinning a yarn of his adventures as an intergalactic warrior in the far reaches of outer space, Polo told a tale that was almost mythical - yet in most particulars absolutely true and accurate. getAbstract finds that Laurence Bergreen's fascinating biography of Polo ably describes him and his fabulous adventures in comprehensive detail and great color. You owe it to yourself to explore this delightful book.
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