The Travels of Marco Polo

De: Marco Polo, Rustichello da Pisa

Narrado por: Peter Wickham

The Travels of Marco Polo is the classic account of Marco Polo's journey to China from Venice, and his discoveries as an emissary to the great Kublai Khan. Polo explores everywhere from Baghdad, Armenia and Russia to the Caspian Sea, the Gobi Desert and the small fishing villages of China, describing the geography, architecture and customs of these exotic places. He tells stories of assassins, cannibals, fantastical animals, feasts and battles, and gives a fascinating account of the multicultural empire of Kublai Khan. The Travels is said to have inspired the voyages of Magellan and Columbus, the latter having kept an annotated copy among his belongings. It remains one of the most entertaining travelogues in existence.

Download the accompanying reference guide.Public Domain (P)2018 Naxos Audiobooks

 A classic that lends itself listening

 This is one of those books that you hear a lot about me and listen to other peoples opinions about but never read. Which is more than enough reason to actually read or listen to this book. There’s so many excellent details in there that’s how you watch about the world that was, and gives you some insight into the world that is.

The culture of China & India in the 13th century

Very informational. It's split into 4 books, The 1st 2 are on China. The 3rd is on India and most of the Indies. The last book depicts a war. You'll learn a lot about the people's beliefs customs resources and also a lot about the the great Kublai Khan.

Map

I enjoyed the book, but needed a map to grasp some portions. Overall though worth the listen in conjunction with Amazon prime video called Marco Polo where two NYC guys in the 1990s actually took two years to follow his exact journey. Fascinating.

Without audible I wouldn't have finished this book

The narrator is excellent and the recollections of Marco Polo are interesting but sometimes the narrative seems to get muddled. It is worth the time if only to learn about Marco Polo's experiences and the fascinating people of this time period.

Disappointing

Like everyone, I have heard about this travel narrative all my life. There are certain portions that are interesting, such as the many years Marco Polo served at the court of Kublai Khan, but most of the travel narrative reflects the world view and interests of the 1200's. There is not enough substantiated detail that the modern travel writer or the anthropologist would provide. So many of the "stories" are one and two line statements about religious beliefs or cultural behaviors. You long for more specifics and more comparisons to Italy or Europe. But that's not the writing style of the that time. You should read the book with an historical atlas, because many of the named locations aren't called what they were.