Invisible Cities Themes

Invisible Cities is structured as a fictional conversation between the real-life historical figures Marco Polo, a Venetian tradesman, and Kublai Khan, the emperor of the Mongol Empire. Over the course of the novel, Marco leaves to travel the empire and returns to tell Kublai about different cities in the empire, all of which are named after different women. However, Kublai begins to suspect that Marco is making his cities up and indeed, Marco…

Kublai Khan wants to hear Marco Polo’s stories—and those of his other merchants—primarily because he believes that if he can learn about every city in his empire, he’ll be able to control the empire. As Marco returns from his journeys and regales Kublai with tales of yet more cities that seem increasingly unreal, Kublai doubles down on his attempts to make definite sense of what he’s hearing. In this way, Calvino seems to suggest…

Despite the beautiful passages within Invisible Cities—and despite the only two characters being from the 13th century—the world that Invisible Cities presents is neither entirely beautiful nor a historically accurate reflection of the world as it was hundreds of years ago. Instead, the novel depicts an attempt by the powerful (as represented by the emperor Kublai Khan) to understand how the modern world came to a state that, the novel suggests, is horrific…