Europe, General, Travel Writing, Medieval, Asia 

A fictive traveler's guide to the East, both Near and Far, The Book of John Mandeville was a late-medieval best seller, more popular in its day than Marco Polo's Travels. In addition to a fresh, vibrant translation--the first from the Middle French original since the fifteenth century--this edition of The Book of John Mandeville offers a succinct, broad-ranging Introduction to the work that touches on the question of authorship, the sources on which the text drew, and the transformation and reception of the work down to the present day. Also included are notes setting the work in its historical and cultural context and selections from related texts, including significant textual variants from William of Boldensele's Book of Certain Regions beyond the Mediterranean and Odoric of Pordenone's Relatio. - from Amzon