Read by Paul Boehmer

Here.s a lesson in the graceful acceptance of defeat. In 1298, the Genoese
navy bested the Venetian fleet at the Battle of Curzola. Unable to live with
the disgrace, one Venetian commander, Andrea Dandolo, killed himself by
beating his head against his ship.s mast. Another Venetian leader, Marco
Polo, surrendered calmly, was taken prisoner and spent a few years writing
his memoirs in comfortable captivity. Dandolo.s fame died on the deck; Polo.s
will outlive our grandchildren. Few famous names have as much vagueness
attached to their exploits, though. Marco Polo opened Asia to European trade,
so we.re told, but we generally don.t know much else. Laurence Bergreen
remedies that by bolstering Polo.s reputation and arguing for his historical
importance in a book as enthralling as a rollicking travel journal. Bergreen,
who has written biographies of Louis Armstrong, James Agee and Irving Berlin,
turned his attention to ancient explorers with .Over the Edge of the World,.
which tracked Ferdinand Magellan.s circumnavigation of the globe. I was a fan
of that book, but .Marco Polo. far outshines it, and not surprisingly. Marco
Polo, unlike Magellan, left his biographers a masterpiece of a memoir to work
with.

Marco Polo wasn.t the first European to venture into what we now know as
China;he wasn.t even the first Polo. In 1253, Marco.s father, Niccolo, and
uncle Maffeo set off on a trading journey to the heart of the Mongol empire
established by Genghis Khan. To their contemporaries, this was madness.
Genghis Khan had established his kingdom by leading expert warriors, 100,000
strong, on campaigns marked by extreme brutality. Word got around. In Europe,
Bergreen writes, .the Mongols were considered Satan.s spawn, among the most
lawless, violent and sinful people on the face of the earth..

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