There are few portraits as sharply drawn as that depicting (or considered to depict) Lucretia Borgia: smart, beautiful, edgy and dangerous. The illegitimate daughter of Roderigo Borgia, who reigned as the most notorious Spaniard of the High Renaissance, Pope Alexander VI, she spent her most adult life (and great swathes of her childhood) being ferried from fiancé to fiancé, husband to husband and lover to lover as the Borgias sought to establish an Italian dynasty. Originally written
in the 50s, this is the leading biography and is fairly sympathetic to both Lucretia (whom it paints as romantic, literate and cultured) and also Alexander (whose worst abuses are excused as acts of an oversolicitous father). There is no sympathy whatsoever for Cesare Borgia, who is ascribed responsibility not only for murdering Lucretia's
lovers but also his (and her) own brother.

This is a hard review to write, I wish I had an option to give this 3 1/2 stars, but I can't quite give 4 and I can't quite stomach 3. This book is great if you wish to glean facts about 13th century Europeon male's point of view of the middle and Far east. There are some tales that are completely stupendous, and cannot be believed at all and then there are some great, anecdotes, a favorite of mine is one were Marco challenges the ability of Kublai Khan's empire to function using a paper monetary system, at which Polo is completely incredulous, a monetary system, everyone in the world uses today. There are some excellent recounts of native islands, unspoiled back lands and an excellent feeling for the travels of a trader that took that original silk route over 600 years ago. It's an easy read though, short chapters, and fanciful tales make it flow fast, so even if the fantastic tales annoy your need for historic fact, it's probably worth the few days this takes to thumb through.

Marco Polo appertains to an exeptionally small group of historical personalities widely known on all continents. Such knowledge in the first place is based on the passing from generation to generation tales of adventurers and marvellous riches of the Asian World in the Middle Ages. To evaluate in this way of Marco Polo's book is the result of a renaissance interpretation of above all a rational text. No matter how interesting, such an image has made that text to reader of all ages over the past seven centuries, it has concealed its values: understanding of the reality and connection of numerous people and their cultures present on the extended Euro-Asian area. Colonel Henry Yule, himself a great admirer of these infinite diversities; such as geographical, climatic, ethnic, cultural and what else not, has unselfishly made available his great experience of a scientist and researcher, talent and good will in verifiying the saying of Marco Polo and presented it to the scientists and public. The summary of this extremely complex, professional and meticulous work is laid out on these 1680 pages (vols. 1 & 2). Numerous illustrations and detailed descriptions of itineraries and places from the Mediterranean to the Pacific and India, an area of abundant testimonies of great cultures; where great armies have roamed; obstinate missionaries and merchants, diplomats and spies have operated and what we called The Silk Roads, introduce the reader into the great world of Marco Polo and are a valuable source of information for everyone who intends to see these wordless testimonies and numerous fascinating landscapes of vast deserts and their oasis, mountain ranges and green valleys, where life runs slowly but with dignity as Marco Polo has seen and described it. Marco Polo and his work have been in the focus of many individual researchers and teams before and after Mr. Henry Yule, giving valuable contributions. However, for the overall knowledge, vision and comprehension of Marco Polo and his achivements, the book written by colonel Henry Yule "The Book of Marco Polo" has maintained the very top position won by its first presentation to the public in the distant year of 1871.

Marco Polo's memoir of his life and travels in the medieval Asian empire of Kublai Khan is the ultimate adventure tale, a true one-of-a-kind. As a teenager, Marco Polo, scion of a Venetian trading family, embarked on a two-decade adventure into the remotest corners of the known world through his family's connection with the Great Khan and his court. Year later, (after dictating his story in a prison back in civilized Europe), Polo published a dazzling account of sights he witnessed in lands little known to Europeans of the Middle Ages. So extraordinary and exotic were his reports, that Polo's tales both fired imaginations and inspired skepticism. For the modern reader, the book offers a fascinating picture of a lost world and a sense of ultimate adventure. One element that makes this an appealing edition of an opt-published classic is the use of 32 woodcut illustrations by Witold Gordon originally created for a 1930 edition of the book.