Kathleen Krull (author)
Robert Byrd (illustrator)
Kubla Khan: The Emperor of Everything
Viking, 2010
New biographies of Marco Polo seem to come out yearly; by contrast, books about the emperor he visited, Khubilai Khan, are far fewer in the English language. So, I was quite hopeful when I stumbled on this one. I was disappointed, however, in both the text, which drew more inspiration from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem than from modern scholarship, and the illustrations, which were likewise rather fantastic concoctions. These aspects of the book can be substantiated in the notes, which feature Coleridge and claim erroneously that "no definitive likeness of Kubla Khan exists." Below, I add the well-known painting (probably a preparatory work for a tapestry) in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, collection, executed by court painters during the emperor's lifetime, along with that of his consort, Chabi. I did appreciate, however, Kathleen Krull's attention to the substantial power and influence of Mongol women such as Khubilai's mother and Chabi.
Surprising that this book came out in the same year as the major exhibition "Khubilai Khan" at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC.
ReplyDeleteAlthough we've been warned not to judge a book by it's cover, the non-standard spelling of "Kubla" blazed across the front should alert us in this case.