Invisible Cities

If someone asked you to describe your hometown, what kind of details would you include? What sets your city apart from everywhere else in the world? In Italo Calvino's (1923-1985) novel Invisible Cities (1972), the characters Marco Polo and Kublai Khan discuss the attributes of 55 individual cities. Structured as a conversation between the two historical figures, Invisible Cities uses the descriptions of these fantastical cities to analyze themes like the cyclical nature of humanity and the limitations of communication and power.

Invisible Cities Structure

Invisible Cities was originally published in Italy in 1972; it was translated into English two years later. The bulk of the novel is structured as a conversation between Mongolian Emperor Kublai Khan and explorer Marco Polo. The story does not follow a strict plot line, instead revolving around the description of 55 different cities in Khan's empire.

Polo describes each of the 55 fictitious cities in the form of a brief prose poem. About every five to ten cities, Polo and Khan engage in a dialogue about the cities and their commonlaities. The chapters and themes are arranged in a highly structured, mathematical pattern, which reveals the influence of the OuLiPo movement on Calvino's work.

Over the course of nine chapters, the cities form a specific structure. As Polo narrates his travels for Khan, the cities are divided into eleven thematic categories, each containing five cities named after women. The thematic groups and their cities are as follows:

Because the novel is largely structured in terms of themes, the story does not need to be read in chronological order. As Polo is describing all of these places, he and Khan attempt to communicate and make sense of the world using various objects, including a chess board. Over the course of the novel, words begin to fail them, and the two men sit in silence, questioning if they are even real and if there is any hope to save the empire.

Invisible Cities Characters

The novel centers entirely around a conversation between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. These two men were 13th-century historical figures, who actually interacted in real life. When Marco Polo was roughly 17, he travelled to China along the Silk Road. Upon entering the Chinese court, he met Khan, who was presiding over the region as emperor. Khan enlisted Polo to help him monitor his vast empire.

Polo's experiences were later collected in a book entitled The Travels of Marco Polo (c 1300), which would make Polo famous in Europe and abroad. Calvino fictionalizes the content of Khan and Polo's conversations in Invisible Cities, but the novel is loosely based on historical events.

Kublai Khan

A real 13th-century Mongolian leader, Kublai Khan (1215-1294) became the first emperor of the Chinese Yuan dynasty. Kublai Khan was the grandson of the infamous Genghis Khan and his most powerful successor. Kublai Khan was known for completing the conquest of China and becoming the first Yuan, or Mongol, emperor of China. He was responsible for the unification of China, which was impressive at the time because the Chinese considered him a barbarian.

Fig. 1 - Kublai Khan was a real Mongolian and Chinese emperor.

In the novel, the ageing Kublai Khan is worried about losing control of his empire because it has become so large. Khan wants more control over the cities in his dominion, so he seeks out Marco Polo, hoping the traveler's stories will give Khan some insight into his people. Khan doesn't fully trust Polo and some of his stories seem too fantastical to be true. Polo, however, is the advisor Khan likes most.

Khan begins to describe his own imaginary cities, hoping some of them might actually exist. Unfortunately, Polo is largely dismissive and Khan becomes increasingly disillusioned with the state of his empire. Khan beings to feel as though he has lost all control and that attempting to control humanity is hopeless. Khan tells Polo he believes humanity is heading towards “the infernal city,” a state of destruction they will not return from.

Marco Polo

A real 13th-century Venetian merchant and explorer, Marco Polo (c. 1254 –1324) became famous for his travels along the Silk Road and his experiences in Asia under the protection of Kublai Khan. Polo was not the first European to travel to Asia. He was, however, the first to bring back a detailed account of Asian culture to the Europeans, who, at the time, hadn't had much interaction with their eastern neighbors due to geographic barriers. Kublai Khan was very impressed by Polo's intelligence and humility and invited Polo to serve as his foreign emissary. Polo spent 17 years living in Khan's lands.

Fig. 2 - Marco Polo became famous for his voyage into Asia.

In the novel, Khan and Polo struggle to communicate at first because they don't speak the same language. Polo tells Khan about his travels using objects, sounds, and movements. Eventually, Polo learns to speak in Khan's language. He enjoys making connections between the various cities he has been to but also reveals he is talking about Venice each time he talks about a different city. Polo's view of Khan's cities becomes increasingly cynical and corrupt. Polo ultimately suggests it is up to the travelers to find beauty and nurture it wherever they go.

Invisible Cities Summary

See our summary of Invisible Cities below!

After spending the majority of his life leading his army and conquering lands far and wide, Kublai Khan has begun to feel disillusioned with his vast empire. The emperor of both China and Mongolian, Khan worries his empire has become so large that he can no longer maintain control over it. He calls Marco Polo, one of his favorite ambassadors, to tell him stories about his cities so he can better understand his people. Khan doesn't fully trust Polo because the cities seem more fantastical than realistic, but Khan listens intently anyway.

Polo describes the cities one by one in brief prose poems. Many of the poems contain parables or lessons about life that Khan has to make sense of for himself. Although many cities seem fantastical and unrealistic, Khan learns concrete lessons about the human experience, including culture, language, and death.

The cities are grouped into 11 distinct categories, according to what can be learned from each. In the five "Cities & Memory" cities, for example, citizens and their way of life are controlled by the past. In one city, nothing is able to change, and in another, visitors to the city are forced to look at idealized postcards of the past.

In "Cities & Desire," the structure of the cities are built based on peoples' desires and can be changed on a whim. In "Cities & Signs," people are constantly trying to make sense of the world around them and find meaning in symbols. "Thin Cities" examines the effect architecture has on a population, and "Trading Cities" is concerned with how people interact among themselves.

"Cities & Eyes" examines how individual perception can impact a city's image, while "Cities & Names" concerns how people talk about a city and its values. The history of the dead collides with the reality of the living in "Cities & The Dead." Meanwhile, "Cities & The Sky" concerns the physical properties of a city. Thekla, for example, is built to resemble stars. "Continuous Cities" are cities that survive the context of space and time, while "Hidden Cities" concerns things that aren't expressed outwardly, like mood.

Fig. 3 - The cities become increasingly corrupt and dystopian.

Because Polo and Khan don't speak the same language at first, Polo communicates using objects and sounds. This allows Khan to use his imagination to better understand the cities. Over time, Polo learns Khan's language, but their communication seems to break down and the two men sit in silence often. At one point, Khan describes his own imaginary cities to Polo, hoping Polo can tell him if they exist or not. Polo is cryptic, and Khan becomes frustrated.

When Khan asks Polo about his hometown, Venice, Polo replies that he has described Venice in every city. Polo also says he worries talking about Venice will ruin his memories of it. Polo's descriptions of the cities in Khan's empire become increasingly more corrupt, until Khan wonders if there's anything he can do to save them. Khan and Polo begin to question if they are actually in Khan's garden talking, if they are somewhere else entirely, or if they even exist at all.

Khan asks Polo to use a chess board to describe the cities to make it easier to understand them. Polo obliges, but over time Khan starts to question the point of even playing chess since the board will one day be the only thing that remains. Khan attempts to record every city in his atlas, but this frustrates him as well.

The novel ends with an exhausted Khan questioning if conquering all the cities was worth it. His cities seem headed to destruction, and he has resigned himself to believing there is nothing he can do. Khan tells Polo they will end up in the infernal city, to which Polo replies that, if it exists, they are already living in it.

Invisible Cities Critical Analysis

Invisible Cities contains two primary symbols: the chess board and Khan's atlas. These symbols are important for critical analysis because each helps to develop the themes of the novel—the cyclical nature of humanity and the limitations of communication and power.

Symbols in Invisible Cities

Khan and Polo speak an entirely different language at the beginning of the novel, which makes it hard for the two men to converse with one another, let alone understand one another. Polo bridges this gap by using objects to communicate. But even this mode of communication fails as Polo's descriptions of the cities become increasingly fantastical, unrealistic, and dystopian. Khan decides to use two objects he is intimately familiar with to make sense of Polo's descriptions.

The first object is a chess board, as Khan is an avid chess player. As Polo and Khan play chess, Khan has Polo describe the cities to him in terms of chess pieces. Khan believes that, through chess, he can better understand the cities from a methodical point of view. But as the game and conversation wear on, Khan begins to believe chess itself, and in extension trying to find meaning to the cities, is futile. He realizes nothing really happens if he wins or loses the game, the game just ends. Ultimately, the chess game fails to give him any new analysis or grasp upon his empire, but he realizes the value of entertainment and storytelling through interaction.

Fig. 4 - Khan attempts to use chess, a game of logic and reasoning, to better understand his cities.

The other major symbol in the novel is Khan's atlas, in which he attempts to keep track of each of the cities in his realm and in the world. Khan records each city diligently, hoping he can conquer more cities and keep a firmer grasp on those already in his empire if he knows where they are and what makes them different from one another.

The atlas comes to represent a system of organization that Khan hopes will give him more power. But Polo argues it is pointless because no matter how much effort Khan puts into the atlas, he will physically never be able to travel to each and every city and force it into submission. The atlas thus represents the limitations of human power and planning.

Invisible Cities Quotes

The most important quotes in the novel speak to the themes of identity and futility.

Polo says this quote when he is explaining why he can't tell Khan the name or place of Khan's imaginary city. It reinforces the idea that the cities are less a physical conflict as they are an intellectual one for Khan to battle. Khan wants to know everything in strict, concrete terms, but Polo is talking about cities in terms of themes and meanings.

This quote is part of a conversation that probably takes place in Kublai Khan's head—it is unclear if it is his head, Polo's head, or neither—instead of aloud. Khan imagines Polo saying this to explain how a traveler's identity is tied to the places they have visited. Instead of staying the same, Polo (or Khan) explains, a place completely changes a person's view of the world and going to new places means a traveler's identity and sense of the world is constantly changing.

Polo says this quote after Khan gets frustrated at him for never talking about Venice, Polo's hometown." Polo responds by saying that he needs to keep an "implicit" city to be able to describe the individual qualities of all the others he has been to. To Polo, Venice is his home place, and that connects it deeply to his identity, unlike the other cities.