Rating: 
Summary: Barely believable adventures.
Review: A very remarkable book written in the 13th century. Many secrets were reviled when Marco returned. And may interesting explanations of things like the origin of cinnamon.
Marco writes well enough of his travels and you feel that you are there. You can actually follow the trail if you have a map. He describes the flora and fauna of each region and describes the economics and industry of the region.
Example: "The women of the superior class are in like manner free from superfluous hairs; their skins are fare, and they are well formed."
It is interesting to see how little has changed from Marco Polo's 13th century and now.
Rating: 
Summary: Essential Travelogue, could have been better presented
Review: I have read this book while traveling in China by train. It is a very interesting description of past times, and essential reading for those interested in historical geography. Several points need to be clarified, though. First Marco Polo is not what one would call today an "unbiased observer". He traveled on the trips he wrote about while being employed as an emissary for the Mongols, and his admiration for the Mongol regime shows throughout. People and civilizations are judged by their proximity to the Mongol Khan. The point of view of the Chinese and other victims of Mongols is completely absent.Second, Marco Polo was obsessed with power, money, prostitution, and religion. Most of his descriptions center about these things, to the neglect of other aspects of human life. He divides the cities he encounters upon religious lines, even in places like China where the inhabitants themselves weren't aware or didn't care about such divisions. His admiration for Christianity and his contempt for Buddhism (whom he erroneously associates with idol worship) shows through. He often writes as if drunken with admiration for Mongol power, praising the Khan for massacring entire cities, while at the same time labeling peaceful people as "pusillanimous". Having said that, these travelogues are still interesting to read. The short-chapter format is very well-suited to reading in the bathroom. The translation by William Marsden is very well-done and easy to read. However, my edition (Wordsworth Editions, 1997) could be improved in several ways. A map for instance showing the route of his travels would go a long way assisting the reader to follow along. Otherwise one has to reconstruct the places from the crude narrative ("and then we traveled 3 days by camel heading East, then turned to left and walked 1 day ..."). Frankly, quite often I had no clue about which location he was writing. So I ended up copying a map from a history book and pasting it inside the back cover. Still one desires a more detailed map, with marks designating locations chapter by chapter. Another desperately needed improvement is a translation table. Many of the place names he used had long been ignored and replaced with new place names. In my edition there is one page glossary of place names, but that is far from adequate. For example, the glossary only translates 5 place names in China, leaving dozens other names in oblivion, and leaving me wondering whether the city of Kin-Sai, the one Marco Polo praises the most and devotes the most pages to, is modern-day SuZhou or HangZhou. This is an important deficiency that needs to be corrected. Whatever edition you decide to buy, make sure first that it has a good map and a good glossary of names!
Rating:
Summary: Essential Travelogue, could have been better presented
Review: I have read this book while traveling in China by train. It is a very interesting description of past times, and essential reading for those interested in historical geography. Several points need to be clarified, though. First Marco Polo is not what one would call today an "unbiased observer". He traveled on the trips he wrote about while being employed as an emissary for the Mongols, and his admiration for the Mongol regime shows throughout. People and civilizations are judged by their proximity to the Mongol Khan. The point of view of the Chinese and other victims of Mongols is completely absent. Second, Marco Polo was obsessed with power, money, prostitution, and religion. Most of his descriptions center about these things, to the neglect of other aspects of human life. He divides the cities he encounters upon religious lines, even in places like China where the inhabitants themselves weren't aware or didn't care about such divisions. His admiration for Christianity and his contempt for Buddhism (whom he erroneously associates with idol worship) shows through. He often writes as if drunken with admiration for Mongol power, praising the Khan for massacring entire cities, while at the same time labeling peaceful people as "pusillanimous". Having said that, these travelogues are still interesting to read. The short-chapter format is very well-suited to reading in the bathroom. The translation by William Marsden is very well-done and easy to read. However, my edition (Wordsworth Editions, 1997) could be improved in several ways. A map for instance showing the route of his travels would go a long way assisting the reader to follow along. Otherwise one has to reconstruct the places from the crude narrative ("and then we traveled 3 days by camel heading East, then turned to left and walked 1 day ..."). Frankly, quite often I had no clue about which location he was writing. So I ended up copying a map from a history book and pasting it inside the back cover. Still one desires a more detailed map, with marks designating locations chapter by chapter. Another desperately needed improvement is a translation table. Many of the place names he used had long been ignored and replaced with new place names. In my edition there is one page glossary of place names, but that is far from adequate. For example, the glossary only translates 5 place names in China, leaving dozens other names in oblivion, and leaving me wondering whether the city of Kin-Sai, the one Marco Polo praises the most and devotes the most pages to, is modern-day SuZhou or HangZhou. This is an important deficiency that needs to be corrected. Whatever edition you decide to buy, make sure first that it has a good map and a good glossary of names!
Rating: 
Summary: Acid paper problems?
Review: I need to know from someone how / whether to trust Penguin / Viking, or any other publisher, regarding the use of acid paper in their editions? If this Viking edition of Marco Polo is printed on acid paper -- as was the 1972 Penguin Classics edition which I need it to replace -- then I recommend strongly that no one buy this. My 1972 edition reeks -- the fumes pouring from it now make my eyes smart and my nose tingle so badly that I can't read the book -- and the pages are so yellow that they are becoming difficult to read, and so brittle that they break just from the pressure of my thumb as I turn them. I don't want to make the same mistake again, with Penguin or with Penguin / Viking -- so before I buy their and Latham's otherwise - excellent edition, I need to know if its paper is acidic. How to find this out? If it is "acid" paper, or if I can't find out, there are other "Marco Polos" around...
Rating: 
Summary: Travels Into My Own Personal Hell
Review: I was unfortunate enough to be assigned this book as required reading for a college course of mine and boy, did it blow. The text lacks any interesting voice or information. Due to recent advances in technology, this book is no longer relevant as we are already well informed as to the geography of the planet. While the author's intentions are admirable, the translated archaic Italian is difficult at best. I rid myself of outdated texts, let's add this one to the pile.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic information from a classic read.
Review: If people really try to think back, to how things were in the ancient world, and see how improbable a journey Marco Polo and his father and uncle undertook, and then completed nearly 30 years after they started, they would probably realize how unlikely such a journey was and why so many people attack Marco Polo as a fraud. Nevertheless, simply as an historical Atlas of China, and with an incredible historical context, warts and all, it is a very illuminating book, showing Chinese cities using their ancient Mongol names (in what other context would someone serving the Mongol emperor record the city names?) and allowing the reader the opportunity to research and discover for themselves, just how fascinating and mysterious other ethnicities and other cultures were to a European of the middle ages. One of the most fascinating aspects of "The Travels" is not just some of the factual innaccuracies, but the apparent perceptions of Marco Polo, fully willing to believe he had found the final resting place of the first man, Adam, and the wizardry of other peoples, the ability to do magic, and a legend of giant "Rocs" near Madagascar, and how the Khan sent a small expedition to investigate the rumors of such. If you want a book that makes you ask searching questions about humanity, cultural bias, and the importance of lore and myth in cultures, this book is invaluable.
Rating:
Summary: This is a difficult review.......
Review: If your desire is purely technical, you can't do any better than this. However, if you plan to read this book strictly for enjoyment, then thumbtack your eyelids up. The translation is quite literal, bringing you the repetitive references, archaic descriptives, and provincial wherewithal of the time. It is brutal and requires every ounce of perserverence to read from cover to cover. I was in pain as I forced myself through countless redundancies in thickly worded prose that left me yearning to drop the book and set off on another. It was a battle to stay engaged. But, I finish the books I start and saw it through to the end. Knowledge was gleaned and that's a positive. However, the book is better employed as a reference. Godspeed, determined reader.
Rating:
Summary: "Never man explored so much as Messer Marco."
Review: In 1260, Niccolo Polo, the father of Marco Polo, and his brother Maffeo went across Black Sea in the hope of a profitable brisk of trade. So the brothers from Venice brought many dazzling jewels and set out from Constantinople by ship to Sudak and onward to Barku. A war broke out in Barka's Land forced the brothers to travel the opposite direction from which they had come. After they had crossed the desert, they came to Bukhara (in Persia) and by fortuity met a Tartar (Mongol) envoy on the way back to the Great Khan in Khan-balik (Beijing). On learning that they were merchants from Venice whom had never been seen in the country, the envoy invited the brothers to accompany him to Khan-balik to see the Great Khan. The Great Khan received the brothers honorably and welcomed them with such lavish hospitality after a year's journey. The curious Khan asked the brothers about their Emperors, about the government of their dominions, about the maintenance of justice, about the Pope and practices of the Roman Church, and about the Latin customs. He decided to send emissaries to the Pope, and asked the brothers to accompany on the mission with one of his barons. He entrusted them a letter written in the Turkish language for the Pope and asked him to send a hundred prominent men learned in the Christian religion to condemn idolaters' performances and shun devil. These well versed were to demonstrate for the idolaters their capability of doing diabolic arts but would not, because only evil spirits performed such enchantments. As the brothers approached Egypt, they got wind of the Pope's death and so they would go to Venice and visit their families pending the election of a new Pope. During the homeward voyage, Niccolo learned that his wife had passed away and left behind a 15-years-old son Marco Polo, who authored this book. After staying in Venice for about 2 years, they left for Jerusalem to get the oil from the lamp at Christ's sepulcher which the Great Khan had requested for his deceased mother, who was a Christian. The Travels chronicles the three years' journey back to Khan-balik from Venice, via the ancient trade corridor now known as the Silk Road, and details all the peculiar sights and peoples along the present Iran, Iraq, India, Tibet, Pamir, Mongolia, and China. It also records the many regions Marco Polo traveled during his numerous emissaries for the Great Khan during his 17 years in China. The Great Khan found favor with the then 21-years-old Marco Polo, who had acquired a remarkable knowledge of the letters and customs of the Tartars. Observing his wisdom and perspicacity, Khan sent him as his emissary to Kara-jang (Yunnan) in the far southwest, a mission Marco polo fulfilled brilliantly. When he went on his mission, being well aware of mistakes of previous emissaries, he paid close attention to all the novelties and curiosities that came his way, so that he may report them to the Great Khan. On his return Marco Polo would present himself before the Khan and first gave a full account of the business on which he had been sent. Then he went on to recount these remarkable things he sighted on the way. In The Travels, one will find detailed account of interesting, if not bizarre, customs and practices at which Marco Polo marveled, the very same stories that entertained the Khan who became well disposed to the young lad. For 17 years, Kubilai (the sixth khan in the Yuan dynasty) was so well satisfied with Marco Polo's conduct of affairs that he held him in high esteem and showed him such favor as keeping him so near his person. He observed more of the peculiarities of China than any of his contemporaries, because he traveled more extensively in these outlandish regions, and not to mention he gave his mind more intently to observing and recording them. The Travels reflects the stupendous extent of his travel, as Marco Polo often bypasses many places that were of no particular interest to him. Emissaries sent Marco Polo all over Manzi (southern China) and Cathay (northern China), rendering a vivid delineation of the native people, customs, cultures with amazing verisimilitude. For example, he marveled at the funeral customs in which the deads were provided with horses, slaves, camels, clothes in great abundance - all cut out of paper (a tradition that still prevails among Chinese) and burned alongside. For the Chinese believed the deads would have all the money in gold and all the necessities in the next world, alive in fresh and bone, and that all the honor they did while he was burning would be done to the deads correspondingly in the next world by their gods and idols. Marco Polo also wrote a detailed account of India and its practices of diabolic arts and similar funeral customs. From other historical resources, he probably acquired his knowledge partly when he was there on the Khan's business, partly on his return trip with the bride for Arghun, and that he derived some of it from first-hand observation, some from reliable testimony, and some from mariners' charts. He also wrote about the life of Sakyamuni Buekhan, who was revered founder of the Buddhist religion, for he refused to be the successor of his king father but continued to lead a life of great virtue, chastity, and austerity. In 1293, the Great Khan reposed such confidence in the brothers that he entrusted to their care not only the princess of Kokachin but also the daughter of the king of the Manzi, so that they might escort them to Arghun, Khan of all the Levant. The Polo brothers' adventure in the East thus completed on the note of a successful escort to Kaikhatu. The Travels, also known as The travels of Marco Polo, chronicled all wonders of Marco Polo's encounters in the East for 33 years. 2004 (42) ©MY
Rating:
Summary: The best presentation of Marco Polo's travels
Review: Marco Polo appertains to an exeptionally small group of historical personalities widely known on all continents. Such knowledge in the first place is based on the passing from generation to generation tales of adventurers and marvellous riches of the Asian World in the Middle Ages. To evaluate in this way of Marco Polo's book is the result of a renaissance interpretation of above all a rational text. No matter how interesting, such an image has made that text to reader of all ages over the past seven centuries, it has concealed its values: understanding of the reality and connection of numerous people and their cultures present on the extended Euro-Asian area. Colonel Henry Yule, himself a great admirer of these infinite diversities; such as geographical, climatic, ethnic, cultural and what else not, has unselfishly made available his great experience of a scientist and researcher, talent and good will in verifiying the saying of Marco Polo and presented it to the scientists and public. The summary of this extremely complex, professional and meticulous work is laid out on these 1680 pages (vols. 1 & 2). Numerous illustrations and detailed descriptions of itineraries and places from the Mediterranean to the Pacific and India, an area of abundant testimonies of great cultures; where great armies have roamed; obstinate missionaries and merchants, diplomats and spies have operated and what we called The Silk Roads, introduce the reader into the great world of Marco Polo and are a valuable source of information for everyone who intends to see these wordless testimonies and numerous fascinating landscapes of vast deserts and their oasis, mountain ranges and green valleys, where life runs slowly but with dignity as Marco Polo has seen and described it. Marco Polo and his work have been in the focus of many individual researchers and teams before and after Mr. Henry Yule, giving valuable contributions. However, for the overall knowledge, vision and comprehension of Marco Polo and his achivements, the book written by colonel Henry Yule "The Book of Marco Polo" has maintained the very top position won by its first presentation to the public in the distant year of 1871.
Rating:
Summary: Bonus Points for Visual Style
Review: Marco Polo's memoir of his life and travels in the medieval Asian empire of Kublai Khan is the ultimate adventure tale, a true one-of-a-kind. As a teenager, Marco Polo, scion of a Venetian trading family, embarked on a two-decade adventure into the remotest corners of the known world through his family's connection with the Great Khan and his court. Year later, (after dictating his story in a prison back in civilized Europe), Polo published a dazzling account of sights he witnessed in lands little known to Europeans of the Middle Ages. So extraordinary and exotic were his reports, that Polo's tales both fired imaginations and inspired skepticism. For the modern reader, the book offers a fascinating picture of a lost world and a sense of ultimate adventure. One element that makes this an appealing edition of an opt-published classic is the use of 32 woodcut illustrations by Witold Gordon originally created for a 1930 edition of the book.
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