Marco Polo

Laurence Bergreen separates the myth from the man as he explores the life of the thirteenth-century explorer Marco Polo--the original global traveler. Using original sources and his own travels along Marco Polo's route, Bergreen weaves a tapestry of history, biography, travelogue, and myth. (His use of sources is complicated by the fact that the explorer wrote multiple versions of his travels and his contemporaries viewed him as a teller of tales.) Paul Boehmer narrates the story with the deliberate, carefully paced delivery of a history professor. His style is dry, but when Nicolo Polo hands his 17-year-old son over to the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan, the story hits its stride. Marco was a keen observer who delighted in sharing tales of his exotic adventures. N.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine


Explorer and trader Marco Polo and his relatives brought back coal, eyeglasses, and other Eastern advances to Venice. His legend further increased with a prison stay, during which he told stories of his exotic experiences with the Mongol leader Kublai Khan. Laurence Bergreen uses historical accounts to trace not just Polo's journeys, but the events taking place in the world in which the trader lived. Paul Boehmer's reading is understated, yet it suggests the views and emotions of the explorer and others who were part of his world. Boehmer creates a sense of wonder about the Mongol culture, the sort of wonder that Polo himself must have created for those who listened to his stories. J.A.S. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine