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TLW Literature 01: Marco Polo
I have always tried to keep brand names and products out of this blog. Now here’s the exception: the following series entitled “TLW Literature” is going to be about books related to travel.
I am going to say it right away, I am not a great fan of travel guides like Lonely Planet, the Rough Guide, Eyewitness and the likes:
- They help create a boring illusion of original travel: Ever been to one of the backpacker bars in 阳朔 (Yangshuo)? Or run into the same fellow traveler in EVERY one of your destinations?
- They have their own subculture and lingo that I find very annoying: “Tuck into fiery Indian curries, get adventurous with a local dish from a road side stall and gulp down a hearty bowl of Japanese ramen” – WTF??
- They simplify the world: But the world has never been simple. It’s NOT there for the dumb and the lazy to conquer.
…
That being said, here is my first TLW Literature find:
| Author: | Marco Polo (with Rustichello da Pisa) |
| Title: | Description of the World |
| Time: | 1271-1295 |
| Destination: |
Venice to Beijing and back (alleged) |
| Length: | around 23 years |
| Type: | overland and by ship |
| Rating: | 7/10 |
Slow but good.
A slow read. The 434 pages of my German edition are divided into 224 chapters, each dealing with a place or phenomenon. There is no storyline and no strict chronological order of events. Instead, MP tells the reader about the things that he has either seen or heard about, and which he finds noteworthy. Some parts consist of mere fable and hearsay, while others seem fairly correct and paint a vivid picture of the world at the time.
The famous 卢沟桥 (Lugou or Marco-Polo bridge) is one of those examples: Even if MP possibly only recorded what other travelers had been telling him, and even though the structure itself has undergone substantial renovations over the last 8 centuries, still… the bridge that MP describes in chapter 58 is really there, and one can almost feel the stories flow along the ancient Silk Roads serveral hundred years ago.
That being said, the book is still a slow read: I struggled with the boring stuff, the place names and with the historical figures. Also, I felt a bit distant from MP himself, except for the parts where his humour shines through (like in chapter 106, when he tells us of an area where all young girls are promiscuous and says: “That is a fine country for young men from sixteen to twenty-four to go to!”)
The historical moments and the humorous parts gain this book a favorable rating.
A slow but good read.
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May 18th, 2010 at 15:57
Will you write about Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy? On 25th is Towel day… ;)
May 18th, 2010 at 20:14
Can’t help but agree with your opening paragraphs. So true.
Have you ever read anything by Peter Hopkirk?
‘Trespassers on the Roof of the World: The Secret Exploration of Tibet,
Foreign Devils on the Silk Road,
The Great Game’.
Espionage, intrigue, adventure, travel, at times when the world was….
Another world for those early pioneers.
May 18th, 2010 at 22:20
您好，我在您2008年9月的日志”Nothingness”中留了言。如果您能抽空回复，我将倍感荣幸。多谢！
-李大心
May 18th, 2010 at 23:28
Frank: Haha, I actually never read that one! Shame on me!
Anto-San: Thanks a bunch for the hint, I will check him out once I have finished some of the other worthy stuff on my bookshelf!
Kristian: 刚刚给您回了，不好意思用了那么久！
May 19th, 2010 at 01:56
Ob Sie sich auch für Patrick Leigh Fermor (Die Zeit der Gaben, Zwischen Wäldern und Wasser, Eine Höhle am Schwarzen Meer) interessieren könnten?
R. Hollerbach
May 19th, 2010 at 14:48
Reni Hollerbach: Ja, P.L.F.s große Fußreise durch Europa steht bereits in meinem Regal, und ich freue mich schon sehr darauf, sie zu lesen! :)
May 20th, 2010 at 14:06
@Christoph: Solltest du wirklich mal tun. Viele Sachen, denen man im Netz so begegnet werden dann viel klarer ;)
July 8th, 2010 at 06:31
[...] it’s a bit hard to enjoy. While the book is not quite as anecdotal (and slow) as the one by Marco Polo, it’s still weighed down by an overload of detail about warfare, diplomacy and political [...]
January 28th, 2011 at 06:19
[...] is an interesting book, but there is something to consider before reading it: JS, much like Marco Polo or John of Mandeville, whom I will be reviewing later, is a writer of the late Middle Ages. This [...]
March 8th, 2011 at 10:51
[...] on the feeble argument that we can never be sure that any travel writer has been anywhere. Take Marco Polo for example: many people believe that he made it all up. But does that make him less of a travel [...]
March 27th, 2011 at 10:29
[...] the next three decades will take him almost everywhere in the known world – he is much like Marco Polo, or Johann Schiltberger, Fernão Mendes Pinto or John Mandeville (about whom I will write [...]
May 18th, 2011 at 21:56
[...] story: Much like Marco Polo before him or Johann Schiltberger shortly after, JDM also claims to have traveled around much of [...]
August 1st, 2011 at 11:35
[...] Literature 53: Guillaume de Rubrouck // After reading Marco Polo, Jehan de Mandeville, and Ibn Battuda, one might think that medieval travel writing was mostly [...]