Evening star., 1934-01-03
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Margaret Cermond.
THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO.
Revised and edited. with an intro

THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO.
Revised and edited, with an intro
duction by Manuel Komroff. Deco
| rations by w A. Dwiggins. Roch-
| ester: The Printing House of Leo
, Hart.
This year of 1924 will mark the 680th
anniversary Of the advent into the
world of a man-child upon whose brow
| the crown OF immortal fame was even
tually to be placed. 1t was in Venice,
| in the year 1854, that the infant Marco
! Polo first looked upon a small section
! Of the vast world which he was later to
! traverse, to study, and to describe to
those Of his fellow men who were will
ing to listen to his tales of far-of lands
| and of strange peoples
| Remembering the numerous instances
! OF stark tragedy suffered only few
decades ago by men Of genius through
| the mercileSS incredulity of the Ameri-
can public, it is not to be wondered at
| that Marco PolOswas discredited by his
own people. Yet with every reading of
the story Of his travels and his eXpe-
rienceS, comes the wonder that there
were any who diSbelieVed him.
Marco was probably not an unusually
remarkable child, and had crcum-
stances prescribed that he spend his
youth in the land Of his birth he might
have lived and died in the obScurity
! OF nonentity. He possessed KEEN ana
lytical mind, he was an ardent observer
OF nature, and he undoubtedly inherited
from his merchant father a full sense
of appreciation Of human frailties and
commercial values. Resourcefulness is
the gift OF nature to every normal child,
and the development of this quality to
remarkable degree is usually more
rapid in an orphan. In his prologue
Marco states that his mother died
| shortly after his birth. which occurred
during the absence of his father on
| trading Journey. He was fifteen years
old when his father returned.
What would Marco Polo have accom-
! pllshed in his own name had his father
| remained at home? Or what If his
! father and his uncle had set out on
/ their second great journey and left
! Marco to carry on the traditional busi-
| ness Of the family? He might navc be-
come famous merchant, an illustriouS
/ politician, or perhaps writer What
| ever he may have undertaken as a
career, it IS certainty that he would
have made 1t successful. But the world
| would have lost an invaluable master
| piece of literature and the greatest
| travel book ever written.
When Nicolo Polo and his brother
| Mafteo returned from trading eXpedi-
ton to the Crimea. which had extended
| into the domain of the great Kublai
| Khan, they had been unable to COM
/ plete certain commissions assigned to
/ them by the great Khan. After two
| years at home they determined to make
! another journey TO Peking to report on
/ the endeaVors in which they had been
! successful and to explain their failures.
! They took Marco with them, and it was
! tWenty-siy years before they returned
/ again to their native Venice.
A quarter of a century is a long time
/ to retain an accurate memory Of those
/ who are absent, and when the three
Polos came again to their old home
they found the task Of identifying
! themselves to relatives and neighbors
! extremely difficult. And no wonder, for
/ their clothes were in tatters, their c0un-
| tenances were bronzed and bearing the
/ traces Of hardship and suffering, and
! their entire manner snd speech were
| distinctly foreign. The distant relatives
| who were occupying the house refused
| adrnittance to the three shabby and sus-
| piciouS looking men who claimed to be
the Polos for they had been believed to
have died long ago.
A display Of wealth does strange
! things to the human race. However
| foreign or bedraggled an individual may
! be, or however unWelcome relative or
guest if possessions Of value are pa
raded, q hearty demonstration Of hos
pitality invariably follows. 1t was so
! with the Polos. When they opened their
! bundles of treasures and ripped their
| ragged clothing TO release fortune in
fine jewels, their relatives and neigh
/ bors accepted them, and at least pre-
| tended to recognize them.
/ Not much is known of the life Of
| Marco Polo after his return from his
I travels, except that for a time he en-
gagged in merchandising When the
war between Venice and Genoa oc-
CURED in 1898. Marco became the
gentleman commander Of a galley,
and with the defeat of the Venetian
fleet Marco was taken prisoner. Dur
/ ing the months of his Imprisonment
/ he engaged the services of a fellow
! prisoner and scribe named Ruaticien.
! The accounts Of his travels were die
/ tated by Marco Polo from his volumi-
nous notebooks and written on parch-
ment.
! 1t seems incredible that practically all
/ of his contemporaries believed him to
be a weaver Of fairy tales, or the victim
! VI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. anu lIldI lOE wears
after his death he was held up to ridi-
cule and cariCatured as a clown. Yet
1t is quite belieyable that We're it not
! for the means of communication which
| exist today, the recent unprecedented
tour of more than half of the world by
Col. and Mrs. Charles Lindbergh would
be equally diScredited.
*
| But why all of this comment upon
| Marco Polo when it is a new edition of
his travels that claims attention? What
is known of his life, and the numerous
translationS of his writings are familiar
to most people. it is true. But a new
generation Of readers is at hand, and
! the designers OF this publication have
! endeavored to produce an edition which
Is both handsome and convenient.
The making OF this book has been
| task Of devotion to the most eminent
authorities on the various original VOL
umeS and their tranSlationS. number
Of manuscripts of Marco Polo'S book are
| preserved in various libraries and mu-
| seums, and no two of them are alike
! Some of them are in French, some in
Latin and some in Italian. One of the
earliest printed editions on record was
made by Ramusio. Marco Polo's first
editor, and published in 1859. It was
from this Italian version that Mars
den's classical English edition was
translated and published in 1918, and
it is from this translation that the
present volume has been produced
1t has been the purpose Of the de-
signers of this work to give the entire
/ spectacular narrative in as accurate a
manner as possible, and to make Marco
Polo more readable. The errors in
the MarSden classic have been correct
ed by a careful comparison with the
! famous Yule translation, and all en-
cumbering notes and material have
been discarded. Where the text re-
quires it, occasional short notes have
been supplied. long sentences have been
adjusted, and archaic words and ex-
| nreSSiOnS have been given equivalent