A sparkling new translation of one of the greatest travel books ever written: Marco Polo's
seminal account of his journeys in the east in a collectible clothbound edition. Marco Polo
was the most famous traveller of his time. His voyages began in 1271 with a visit to China
after which he served the Kublai Khan on numerous diplomatic missions. On his return to the
West he was made a prisoner of war and met Rustichello of Pisa with whom he collaborated on
this book. His account of his travels offers a fascinating glimpse of what he encountered
abroad: unfamiliar religions customs and societies the spices and silks of the East the
precious gems exotic vegetation and wild beasts of faraway lands. Evoking a remote and
long-vanished world with colour and immediacy Marco's book revolutionized western ideas about
the then unknown East and is still one of the greatest travel accounts of all time.For this
edition - the first completely new English translation of the Travels in over fifty years -
Nigel Cliff has gone back to the original manuscript sources to produce a fresh authoritative
new version. The volume also contains invaluable editorial materials including an introduction
describing the world as it stood on the eve of Polo's departure and examining the fantastical
notions the West had developed of the East.Marco Polo was born in 1254 joining his father on a
journey to China in 1271. He spent the next twenty years travelling in the service of Kublai
Khan. There is evidence that Marco travelled extensively in the Mongol Empire and it is fairly
certain he visited India. He wrote his famous Travels whilst a prisoner in Genoa.Nigel Cliff
was previously a theatre and film critic for The Times and a regular writer for The Economist
among other publications and now writes historical nonfiction books. His first book The
Shakespeare Riots was published in 2007 and shortlisted for the Washington-based National
Award for Arts Writing. His second book The Last Crusade: Vasco da Gama and the Birth of the
Modern World appeared in 2011 and was shortlisted for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize.
