I liked it! I first heard of it in the Epiphany sermon our priest gave at church, when he read from this book about the legendary birthplace of the Three Kings, as Dalrymple backpacked through Iran. In Xanadu a quest Item Preview > remove-circle Share or Embed This Item. But this book turned out to be yet another account of a White man on a daring trip across the world in dangerous lands from whence it is next to impossible to come out alive, all while writing encouragingly of every stereotype the Whites have ever come up with of every other race apart from themselves. There's a lot of history and information to. ---SPOILERS AHEAD--- It was a pity I read this book. In this book, the author, a final year Cambridge student, tries to backpack his way through the route Marco Polo had taken - Turkey, Iran and finally China, in the Inner Mongols in Xanadu where Marco Polo ended his. À la place, notre système tient compte de facteurs tels que l'ancienneté d'un commentaire et si le commentateur a acheté l'article sur Amazon. by William Dalrymple is a personal travel memoir of his journey along Marco Polo’s footsteps from Jerusalem to Xanadu, the summer palace of Kubla Khan. This is an an-times entertaining account of a late 80's attempt to retrace the Voyages of Marco Polo (follow the author hitching a ride through the Chinese desert on the back of a coal truck while hiding from the police!) 4.02 avg rating • (3,133 ratings by Goodreads) Softcover ISBN 10: 0307948889 ISBN 13: 9780307948885. He wrote the highly acclaimed bestseller, “For two thousand years Jerusalem has brought out the least attractive qualities in every race that has lived there. In Xanadu. Some good bits but overall not "as advertised," at least to me. Along the way … --Back cover. You hear lots of exotic sounding words and place-names but are not left with much more than a glimpse of each place passed through. Welcome back. At once funny and knowledgeable, In Xanadu … There are no discussion topics on this book yet. After leaving Xanadu and seeing that his journey has come to a close he feels depressed and then quotes Sir Richard Burton who after reaching Mecca wrote about experiencing a depression. The trip and the tales told are epic and he really brings to life the people and the places. Somehow, due to a lack of understanding of the various branches of Christianity and the complex Central Asian histories, this book didn't match up to my expectations. I love reading real life accounts of travel and adventure so I was excited that this came up on our book club reading list. Impossible d'ajouter l'article à votre liste. As he and his companions travel across the width of Asia—crossing through Acre, Aleppo, Tabriz, Tashkurgan, and other mysterious and sometimes hellish places—they encounter dusty, forgotten roads, unexpected hospitality, and difficult challenges. This is an account of a quest which took him and his companions across the width of Asia, along dusty, forgotten roads, through villages and cities full of unexpected hospitality and wildly improbable escapades, to Coleridge's Xanadu itself. Dalrymple's words stink of the awareness of their wretched losses in the past. The trip and the tales told are epic and he really brings to life the people and the places. Cut to 1980s, ace … Book Condition: new. He wrote City of Djinns after living in Delhi for five years and the book is a well organized telling of that citys long and diverse history with portraits of its most famous inhabitants. Skip to main content.sg. Nevertheless, the book does improve after leaving the Arab world and it was only after passing over the first section that I was able to find the strength to complete the book and scrounge up a slightly better ranking. Dalrymple travels with two women: one as far as Lahore, the other the second half of the journey to the actual site of the ruins of the palace. Dalrymple, a student at Cambridge, came up with this idea to kill time between college terms. At once funny and knowledgeable, In Xanadu is in the finest tradition of British travel writing. Happy Women's History Month! Waste of time . Whilst I've set the dates to show just a few days for reading this book, it's actually about 6 months since I started it and abandoned it before picking it up again and being determined this time to force myself to get to the end. The non-whites in the book inevitably receive caricature-like portrayals. History claims that the Khan had contacts and, Because I am a fan of obscure literary travel memoirs, I picked up this book at a library book sale. Full of entertaining anecdotes, colorful characters and challenges. Des tiers approuvés ont également recours à ces outils dans le cadre de notre affichage de publicités. I'm surprised how much I liked this book. In 1986, Dalrymple decided to trace a similair route which Polo charted and this book chronicles his experiences. It is certainly not deserving of the label of a serious travel book. And then the officer not only lets him go but offers his services as a tour guide. This is an an-times entertaining account of a late 80's attempt to retrace the Voyages of Marco Polo (follow the author hitching a ride through the Chinese desert on the back of a coal truck while hiding from the police!) Des milliers de livres avec la livraison chez vous en 1 jour ou en magasin avec -5% de réduction . Not sure I’d recommend it for non-writers though. As an avid traveler, William spends his summer break from Cambridge to take an overland journey from Jerusalem to Aleppo, to Eastern Turkey, across Iran and Pakistan, and finally through China until his final destination – Xanadu. a new quest begins in xanadu next on windows pc The Nihon Falcom RPG, Xanadu Next is currently available worldwide on Windows PC via Steam, GOG.com, and the Humble Store by Humble Bundle. Book Review: Xanadu, A Quest by William Dalrymple Have you ever dreamt of tracing the path once walked by someone you truly look up to? In this book, the author, a final year Cambridge student, tries to backpack his way through the route Marco Polo had taken - Turkey, Iran and finally China, in the Inner Mongols in Xanadu where Marco Polo ended his voyage. In way too many passages, Dalrymple speaks less like a historian and more like an inflated Cambridge spoiled brat and the pages are full of his whining. There are a number of books about the Silk Road or Persia in particular(Robert Byron's In Oxonia) that may be worth considering as an alternative to this book. Sacred to three religions, the city has witnessed the worst intolerance and self-righteousness of all of them.”, “Mongols were uneducated tribesmen who believed in enjoying life’s simpler pleasures. For the first half of the trip he is accompanied by Laura, whom he met at a dinner party two weeks before he left; for the second half he is accompanied by Louisa, his very recently ex-girlfriend. In the second half he has his by-now-ex Louise along - and handles this deftly too - giving enough of the potential awkwardness, and not mulling on the challenges of travelling with someone who dumped him a couple of months earlier for another bloke. Dalrymple is impressively knowledgeable about ancient history, texts and architecture, but is uninformed about the people who actually live in the places he's visiting in the present day, frequently relying on obsolete guidebooks. His mission is to take holy oil from the Church of the Holy Sepulcre, just as Marco Polo did, when he was deputized to deliver it to Kubla Khan. This is an account of a quest which … At the age of twenty-two, Dalrymple left his college in Cambridge to travel to the ruins of Kubla Khan’s stately pleasure dome in Xanadu. In Xanadu, is funny in most parts, but also has loads of clumsy, non-sequitur and cultural misappropriation bits in significant measure. This was amazing. Site of Xanadu (China) No 1389 Official name as proposed by the State Party Site of Xanadu Location Zhenglan Qi and Duolun County, Xilingol Meng Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region The People's Republic of China Brief description The remains of Kublai Khan’s legendary capital rise from broad grasslands at the south-eastern edge of the Mongolian Plateau. Having read and loved his City of Djinns (a must-read if you're a Dilliwala), Nine Lives and White Mughals, I have loved this first book of his as well. With him we experience the creation of history, the readiness to savor the unexpected and the realization of why humans through centuries have been driven by wanderlust for the unknown - because, more often than not, it is quite literally the journey and not the destination that matters. I've never read any William Dalrymple before and saw the relatively high number of positive reviews by those who rated the book really highly. Paperback. Hello Select your address All Hello, Sign in. The history is incorporated very well, the journey documented is fascinating and the captured bits of dialogue are unbelievably great. © 1996-2021, Amazon.com, Inc. ou ses filiales. There's a lot of history and information to digest, alongside his own tales and those of Marco Polo as well as other travellers that had gone before. But this book turned out to be yet another account of a White man on a daring trip across the world in dangerous lands from whence it is next to impossible to come out alive, all while writing encouragingly of every stereotype the Whites have ever come up with of every other race apart from themselves. Share to Twitter. Cart All. Une erreur est survenue. Comment les évaluations sont-elles calculées ? And when he quotes the poem by Coleridge with his girlfriend I was kind of embarrased for the author. I've read other books he's written, and he's a top class author - and appears thoroughly nice bloke too. Pour calculer l'évaluation globale en nombre d'étoiles et la répartition en pourcentage par étoile, nous n'utilisons pas une moyenne simple. At best, this book is comical in its approach. Get this from a library! But the vacation he plans is no light-hearted student jaunt - he decides to retrace the epic journey of Marco Polo from Jerusalem to Xanadu, the ruined palace of Kubla Khan, north of Peking. Dalrymple, William. I'm surprised how much I liked this book. The beginning of his journey reveals him as one whose ego cannot seem to accept the fact that the Byzantines lost and the Ottomans won in the years past. This is an account of a quest which took him and his companions across the width of Asia, along dusty, forgotten roads, through villages and cities full of unexpected hospitality and wildly improbable escapades, to Coleridge’s Xanadu itself. Reading it felt like yet another narrative about a white man and his conquests. But no reader of travel books will mistake Dalrymple for Burton. The journey at times feels more like an endurance challenge than anything else. Xanadu itself lies within a weapons development zone. It is an anticlimax but their trip is all about the journey they have endured rather than any romance of reaching their destination. It's just a meandering classless essay. Share to Reddit. In Xanadu: A Quest. Retrouvez In Xanadu: A Quest et des millions de livres en stock sur Amazon.fr. At the age of twenty-two, William Dalrymple left his college in Cambridge to travel to the ruins of Kublai Khan's stately pleasure dome in Xanadu. Took the book with all the reviews about the author. And Age of Kali full of excellent reportage and gives you detailed glimpses of the different regions of India. BRAND NEW, In Xanadu: A Quest, William Dalrymple, One of the most successful, influential and acclaimed travel books of recent years from the author of 'Return of a King', which has been shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize. Veuillez renouveler votre requête plus tard. BRAND NEW, In Xanadu: A Quest, William Dalrymple, One of the most successful, influential and acclaimed travel books of recent years from the author of 'Return of a King', which has been shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize. Dalrymple, William, In Xanadu: A Quest, Dalrymple, William. ISBN 13: 9780307948885. His mission is to take holy oil from the Church of the Holy Sepulcre, just as Marco Polo did, when he was deputized to deliver it to Kubla Khan. Je m'inscris Toute l'aide Les librairies Decitre Événements Contact Service client. The modern day adventure seems more dangerous than it may have been for Marco Polo who as a merchant traveled the then well supplied Silk Road with its caravanserai and inns. This one comes across as childish and more than a bit bigoted at times. I love reading real life accounts of travel and adventure so I was excited that this came up on our book club reading list. I suspect the review that put me onto this hyped the book more than was justified. Sorry, there was a problem loading this page. Anyone who is not a British is either dangerous, "stupid", uncouth, imbecilic, unfriendly and hostile or subservient to the White man in a servile way. Such writing, any author would probably not get away with as easily today. Only saving grace is some humour here & there. Presumably the quasi academic cover was in some way necessary, and the intermittent references to … He's a good writer, but after so many miles, I was ready for Xanadu already. This is the most famous university in the world." Dalrymple's construction of William as a travel writer throughout the work is pure self fashioning, as during the journey undertaken for In Xanadu he is not yet a travel writer at all. Stylish, witty, and … Originally released in Japan in 2005, this is the first time global audiences will be able to experience the complete PC release of this distinguished entry in the long-running franchise. Share to Pinterest. If anything, "In Xanadu: A Quest" it shows that much of the older Kubla Khan Empire has now been taken over by China, where ethnic minorities remain greatly isolated from the rest of the world. But disappointingly, the book is betrayed by frequent forays into casual racism. Though uneven in its writing, Dalrymple includes interesting detail of everyday observation and encounters. I first heard of it in the Epiphany sermon our priest gave at church, when he read from this book about the legendary birthplace of the Three Kings, as Dalrymple backpacked through Iran. Dalrymple is impressively knowledgeable about ancient history, texts and architecture, but is uninformed about the people who actually live in the places he's visiting in the present day, frequentl. Any positive comment that the reader comes across is only when Dalrymple has run out of anything negative to say, and even that is immediately followed by a passage with disparaging humour that negates what came previously. Pretty disappointing. Paperback. Nous utilisons des cookies et des outils similaires pour faciliter vos achats, fournir nos services, pour comprendre comment les clients utilisent nos services afin de pouvoir apporter des améliorations, et pour présenter des publicités, y compris des publicités basées sur les centres d’intérêt. Liked it, but wish there was a bit more of Polo. I will never understand the really ridiculous orientalist approach that never seems to die in the world. 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