The Travels of Marco Polo · Character
John Ranking
Also known as Ranking
- Supporting
- First seen · Book 1 · Ch. 98
Ranking comes across as a scholar drawn to the curious details that make history feel tangible: an old custom, an image on a coin, an unusual arrangement of elephants. His brief appearance suggests a mind that delights in connecting distant evidence.
- Gender
- male
- Age
- Not specified
- First appears
- Book 1 · Ch. 98
- Books
- 1
John Ranking is cited as an author discussing the battle between Kublai and Nayan and the reported Persian custom of arranging four elephants abreast. He also draws attention to a Roman Senate decree concerning Gordian III, whose triumph was represented in a Persian manner with a four-elephant chariot. The book presents him as a source for historical comparison, not as a character with a personal arc.
Description
No physical description of Ranking is supplied. As an author writing in the 19th-century scholarly tradition, he may be portrayed in sober formal dress such as a dark coat, waistcoat, and high collar, but these are contextual rather than textually established details. His face, hair, eyes, complexion, and build remain unspecified.
Story so far
BOOK 1The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1
Appearances
Meet John Ranking in Bookworm
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