Xanadu: Marco Polo and Europe's Discovery of the East Paperback – November 1, 2010

This was an excellent review of what's currently known about Marco Polo and his journey. The author has a direct writing style with sense of humor that I appreciated. Some nonfiction can be very dry and hard to follow, but not so with this book; I found myself devouring this book, as curious to know what would happen next as if I was reading fiction! The author clearly describes Marco Polo's journey and some of the conflicts in the research with his analysis - all in perfectly understandable language. I didn't know much at all about Marco Polo before I read this (only the game and that he went to China!) but I feel I have a pretty comprehensive knowledge about his journey now. I would highly recommend this book to anybody who has the least curiosity about history. I am not a history buff, by any means, but I found this book extremely interesting and informative.

Interesting but not much information on Marco. Appreciate the historical record on him is sparse but it would have helped the story to describe the contemporary cultural biases and commercial motivations underpinning the trading strategies of the many diverse parties involved. With details, where known, of any particular contemporary transactions that had particular significance to history. Not much background on the Mid East and Asian nations perspective.

Very enjoyable. It is a pleasure to read a history of Marco Polo's Journey in the language of today instead of ancient times. John Man has made it so enjoyable and corresponds with other histories of the Silk Road with Peter Hopkirk's two books Foreign Devils on the Silk Road and Trespassers on the Roof of the World as well as describing China in that time.Glenis

Amazing discussion of Marco Polo, his life, his book, and how his book opened up the mind of Europe to China, the Far East, and to the adventure into the New World of North and South America. The Marco Polo book itself is essentially unreadable except by academics, and it is easy for a modern, nonscholastic reader to dismiss it as an erroneous account of events that occurred long ago--which is literally an accurate assessment--but John Man manages to explain the intricacies of the book and put the book, and the civilization, people and places it describes into context. I feel culturally enriched by the experience of reading this book.

Very interesting and I learned many facts I was unaware of.

I loved that John Man made the effort to verify bits of the history by visiting the actual locations described in Marco Polo's narratives. Well done.

Book sucks

Marco Polo The Journey That Changed The World is well worth reading. It objectively reviews the facts associated with Marco and the I'm pact he had not only on his generation, but generations that followed. Highly recommend for those interested in history.

This well written and researched book isbasically an analysis,interpretation and discussion of Marco Polos book "Description of the World" of which there are 150+ veersions. Polos book was written in the late 1290s by a cellmate while he was in prison. It finally saw the light of day in 1299 when he was released and it had a massive impact on society.Marco was not the first to visit Xanadu the base of Kubali Khan -his father and uncle got there in 1266 as did other travellers in the 1250s but Marco was the first to write about it.Marco Polos account is the story of a 24 year journeey from 1271-1295 but it is vague,inaccurate and contradictory in places and subject to variation depending on which version is examined.The author makes a good effort to unravel all this and in the process make a most readable book.the pictures are good but the map-pages 28-29 is hopeless.

This is a very interesting account of the Marco Polo's travels and the veracity or otherwise of the tales he told. The book is easily read, informative about China and Venice in the 13th century, and thoroughly enjoyable

Good read

Good book. Thank you.

It was a great read and informative. At times a bit long winded