Travels in the Land of Serpents and Pearls

Author: Marco Polo
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141398361
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 47

Book Description
'You will hear it for yourselves, and it will surely fill you with wonder...' In this selection from Marco Polo's famous travel book, the intrepid Venetian describes the customs of India, recounts the story of the king who died eighty-four times and explains how to retrieve diamonds from snake-infested caves... Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Marco Polo (1254-1324). Polo's Travels are available in Penguin Classics.

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville

Author: John Mandeville
Publisher: Wyatt North Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 1647980542
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville is the chronicle of the alleged Sir John Mandeville, an explorer. His travels were first published in the late 14th century, and influenced many subsequent explorers such as Christopher Columbus.

The Customs of the Kingdoms of India

Author: Marco Polo
Publisher: Penguin Group
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 108

Book Description
Gleaned during his voyage along the coasts of India, Marco Polos mystified reports include the story of a giant bird that eats elephants, along with many other tales both reliable and fantastical.

The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East

Author: Marco Polo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Asia
Languages : en
Pages : 812

Book Description

Utopia

Author: Thomas More
Publisher: e-artnow
ISBN: 8027303583
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 105

Book Description
Utopia is a work of fiction and socio-political satire by Thomas More published in 1516 in Latin. The book is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. Many aspects of More's description of Utopia are reminiscent of life in monasteries.

An Ottoman Traveller

Author: Evliya Çelebi
Publisher: Eland Publishing
ISBN: 9781906011581
Category : Egypt
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Evliya Celebi was the Orhan Pamuk of the 17th century, the Pepys of the Ottoman world - a diligent, adventurous and honest recorder with a puckish wit and humour. He is in the pantheon of the great travel-writers of the world, though virtually unknown to western readers. This translation brings his sparkling work to life.

Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast

Author: Oscar Wilde
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0241251818
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 46

Book Description
'It would be unfair to expect other people to be as remarkable as oneself' Wilde's celebrated witticisms on the dangers of sincerity, duplicitous biographers, the stupidity of the English - and his own genius. One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.

Travels in China

Author: John Barrow
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : British
Languages : en
Pages : 672

Book Description

Yemen

Author: Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780719597404
Category : Yemen (Republic)
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
Our ideas of the Arabian Peninusula have been hijacked: by images of the desert, by oil, by the Gulf War. But there is another Arabia. For the Classical geographers Yemen was a fabulous land where flying serpents guarded sacred incense groves. Medieval Arab visitors told of disappearing islands and menstruating mountains. Vita Sackville-West found Aden 'precisely the most repulsive corner of the world'. Arguably the most fascinating but least known country in the Arab world, Yemen has a way of attracting comment that ranges from the superficial to the wildly fictitious. In Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land, Tim Mackintosh-Smith writes with an intimacy and depth of knowledge gained through over twenty years among the Yemenis. He is a travelling companion of the best sort - erudite, witty and eccentric. Crossing mountain, desert, ocean and three millennia of history, he portrays hyrax hunters and dhow skippers, a noseless regicide, and a sword-wielding tyrant with a passion for Heinz Russian salad. Yet even the ordinary Yemenis are extraordinary: their family tree goes back to Noah and is rooted in a land which, in the words of a contemporary poet, has become the dictionary of its people. Every page of this book is dashed - like the land it describes - with the marvellous.

Yemen

Author: Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1848546963
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 267

Book Description
Arguably the most fascinating but least known country in the Arab world, Yemen has a way of attracting comment that ranges from the superficial to the wildly fictitious. In Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land, Tim Mackintosh-Smith writes with an intimacy and depth of knowledge gained through over twenty years among the Yemenis. He is a travelling companion of the best sort - erudite, witty and eccentric. Crossing mountain, desert, ocean and three millennia of history, he portrays hyrax hunters and dhow skippers, a noseless regicide, and a sword-wielding tyrant with a passion for Heinz Russian salad. Yet even the ordinary Yemenis are extraordinary: their family tree goes back to Noah and is rooted in a land which, in the words of a contemporary poet, has become the dictionary of its people. Every page of this book is dashed - like the land it describes - with the marvellous.