---
product_id: 1441546
title: "Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu Paperback – Illustrated, October 21, 2008"
brand: "laurence bergreen"
price: "A$40"
currency: AUD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 6
url: https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/1441546-marco-polo-from-venice-to-xanadu-paperback-illustrated-october-21
store_origin: AU
region: Australia
---

# Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu Paperback – Illustrated, October 21, 2008

**Brand:** laurence bergreen
**Price:** A$40
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu Paperback – Illustrated, October 21, 2008 by laurence bergreen
- **How much does it cost?** A$40 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.au](https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/1441546-marco-polo-from-venice-to-xanadu-paperback-illustrated-october-21)

## Best For

- laurence bergreen enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted laurence bergreen brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

Full description not available

## Images

![Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu Paperback – Illustrated, October 21, 2008 - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91k2dG45hjL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Take your first trip across Europe and Asia
*by J***N on June 7, 2025*

Amazing! So well written like a series you just can't stop binging online. It was hard to put this down. Everything I had read previously about Polo insisted he was a liar but the truth really is stranger than fiction. Just because the people of his time and after could not comprehend what he experienced and the places he lived, many of us have been deprived of the great tales of adventure, courage, ingenuity, ambassadorship, and wonders this young man saw for the first half of his life. It's too bad he succumbed to bitterness and an obsession over his wealth later in life. Great flow, fantastic study to reconcile truth from fiction and a fair reasoning of the actual events that made up Polo's fascinating life.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Learning a Lot You Did Not Know
*by C***N on May 2, 2016*

Had a decent but odd background for this. I had previously read "Over the Edge of the World," and had traveled through Patagonia, hence was eager for Bergreen's account of the other side through the eyes of its most noted early European observer. Too, in my canon of touchstone texts is Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities," strangely never mentioned by Bergreen, in which Marco arrives at the court of Kubla and entertains him with fantastic brief tales of human settlements he (Marco) had never really visited, but which make for playful musings on urban design and life. What Calvino does is in both letter and spirit of Marco's own embellishments and enhancements of reality. Then, too, Coleridge was a major player in my doctoral dissertation. All that said, I learned a lot from this very well researched account, one which saves the reader the task of wading through one or more versions of the original (well, there were a lot of originals). You learn a lot you did not know, and Bergreen's narrative gloss is neither intrusive nor jarring. Contemporary references do not detract, either. Yes, as other reviewers have noted, maps spaced through the narrative would have been helpful.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Best Marco Bio
*by J***R on December 2, 2008*

Marco Polo is something of a hero of mine. I think of him as an archetype of the "Intrepid Merchant" figure that travels through both real life and literature and still exists today in some of the more dangerous parts of the world. People like Marco brought knowledge and wealth back and forth and could be credited with a great part in the develpment of democracy.In the old "eat your spinach first" tradition I will deal with the faults first. The first is simply presumption. The author makes so many guesses about Marco's personality that one might wonder if he was writing a novel. Moreover much of his guesswork looks suspiciously like wishful thinking. That is pardonable when doing a biography of someone for whom there are so few real records. But the author takes it way to far and occasionally even questions the authenticity of versions of "Travels" because they disaggree with his preconceptions. The second fault is the author's preachiness. The author seems to like to paint a "deliverance from ignorance" morality tale, and tends to be shocked, shocked that medieval people did not in fact think like a twenty-first century academic's version of Political Correctness. This is a fairly conventional fault too and again, any historian should be pardoned a little preachiness-it kind of goes with the vocation. However the author hammers on it enough to take away some of the fun. Both of these faults are in fact conventional to the Marco tale. But the author takes these quite far.So much for flaws. Now to the virtues. These are many and mighty. The book is not just a biography. It is a panorama of the Medieval world. From the ambitious, shrewd, and sometimes ferocious merchant princes of Venice. To the splendours of the Khan's court. To the conquered but ultimatly unconqurable vastness of China. Not to mention the hardships of the trade routes and the romantic cities whose very names give visions of glory. The author has the love for his subject and the epic sensibility that is an asset to a history writter. Nor is detail neglected and there is plenty of detail to go around. A surefire attraction to those like me who have a taste for romance and a love of detail-and appreciate when they are combined.Some may be annoyed by the frequent tendency to drift aside from the plain narrative. To me they are the most interesting part. While I sometimes imagine myself hearing coffeehouse tales from Marco in heaven(of course they have coffeehouses in heaven-who could doubt it!)on Earth there is little to work with besides the simple Idea of his journey. However the side drifts are knowledgeable, and well-researched as well as entertaining. There is more then enough to take delight in.I have a personal story to go with this. One of the reasons I like my Kindle is that it allows me to have a vast diversity of subjects at my grasp. But I felt it somehow incomplete because it did not have anything on the great Silk Road that I was satisfied with. Well now it has and this book is a great addition to my collection.

---

## Why Shop on Desertcart?

- 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016
- 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories
- 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price
- 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members)
- 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection
- ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews

**Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/1441546-marco-polo-from-venice-to-xanadu-paperback-illustrated-october-21](https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/1441546-marco-polo-from-venice-to-xanadu-paperback-illustrated-october-21)

---

*Product available on Desertcart Australia*
*Store origin: AU*
*Last updated: 2026-03-04*