The Travels Of Marco Polo

Marco Polo went out for spices and came back with a global franchise. The Travels of Marco Polo (1971) as retold by the ever-curious Cottie A. Burland (published by Michael Joseph) is your passport to the original long-form travel influencer: camels, courtyards, and court intrigue, with a side of “you won’t believe what I saw in Cathay.” Burland acts as the unflappable fixer, shepherding Polo’s wild itinerary into crisp English, adding context where the maps give up and the myths get loud. You get the Great Khan’s court served with a garnish of anthropology; you get deserts measured in days, not miles; you get silk that practically crackles off the page. Think Lonely Planet meets illuminated manuscript, with footnotes that wear sensible shoes.

The pleasures here are many. There’s the joy of logistics—salt caravans, river barges, mountain passes named with a shrug—and the even greater joy of watching medieval commerce behave exactly like modern commerce, only with more bells. There’s polite wonder at paper money (yes, it works), sideways glances at questionable marvels (unicorns that are clearly rhinos doing their best), and plenty of room to argue about which city truly invented the fabulous hat. Burland’s voice gives Polo the benefit of the doubt while keeping an eyebrow permanently arched: respectful, readable, and never bored.

Our copy is Condition: Very Good, which at Crappy Old Books means it has travelled far less than the text inside it—but with the same poise. The dust jacket is tidy, the spine stands to attention, and the pages are clean enough to use as a map (do not attempt). You may spot the lightest touch of shelfwear, the kind acquired while waiting serenely for a ship that will absolutely arrive, any century now. No sand in the gutter, no camel hoofprints—just an eminently presentable volume ready to take tea and then take you to Xanadu.

Inside you’ll find:

• The Silk Road rendered as a believable highway of ideas, textiles, and passive-aggressive border officials.

• Court scenes with the Great Khan that twinkle like lacquerware and run on impeccable protocol.

• City after city described with the confidence of a man who measured the world in market stalls and miracles.

• Burland’s commentary guiding like a discreet local—no selfie stick, all substance.

The ISBN, for those who collect numbers as souvenirs: 0718108205. Whisper it to a stern librarian and watch a secret door open (it’s the reading room, but still). File it under “grand adventures you can hold with one hand,” or “things that make modern travel seem underdressed.”

Recommended for:

• Armchair explorers who believe good luggage is a bookmark.

• Historians who enjoy the moment a myth puts on sensible boots.

• Anyone who thinks the world is big, strange, and occasionally embroidered.

Adopt this Very Good traveler and let it upgrade your sense of distance—and your living-room geography—without asking you to pack. Crappy Old Books: lowering your standards just enough to raise your horizons.

Keep browsing: See more Travel books Other books by Cottie A Burland