Upon finishing this book, I found myself wondering what a different experience the events told by Marco Polo must have been compared to the western life he was used to in 14th Century Italy. The culture shock that he would have experienced coming into the "Land of Serpents and Pearls", or as I suspect 14th century India, due to the population being completely against eating ox, which is an inherently Hindi tradition, as with the worshipping of many idols.
The book itself speaks of many traditions that would have been considered strange to a western man at the time, even today when you do go to the eastern part of the world, many of the habits will be entirely strange to the people living there, though some will still be practiced. Marco Polo speaks of the King of the land that war many jewels, and used them as a currency, almost, paying twice their value to any who found them, which is seen to be a very similar way of life to that of the western kings at the time, who would also wear many jewels, and keep many more in their castle, as with the Crown Jewels of England, which are still considered to be a very important sign of the English Monarchy.
Marco's style of writing is also one that is somewhat antiquated, and is strange to read, his grammar, though correct, being used in a very different manner than the way that it is used in today's times.
In conclusion, I would like to say that I very much enjoyed the book, and thought that it was very interesting to delve into the world of nearly a millennium ago, and through the eyes of someone who is unused to the culture as well, and seeing how my personal perception of that eastern world is different from that of Marco Polo.
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