Tarzan of the Apes

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

This first Tarzan book has spawned many sequels and movie adaptations. Tarzan has become a key cog in the pop culture ethos. However, this has gone way beyond the original work. "Me Tarzan, You Jane" is nowhere to be found. Tarzan in fact has taught himself to read by looking at some old books. He came from an aristocratic family and was adopted by apes after his parents had died. He was seen as having his elite tendencies even though he was brought up in the jungle. He is strong and compassionate. He helps fight humans that are being cruel. 

In this book, he meets Jane. However, she is engaged to another man. Tarzan's ancestry is later proved and he should have the inheritance that Jane's fiance does. However, Tarzan allows him to keep it.

The book feels different than what I was expecting, and feels very cliché - because it invented many of the clichés.

Return of Tarzan, Beasts of Tarzan, Son of Tarzan

Return of Tarzan, Beasts of Tarzan, Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rixe Burroughs

[july 2009] Return of Tarzan is great escapist entertainment. Though it stands alone as a story, it is best to read after reading the first book (Tarzan of the Apes). The book reads like any entertaining summer movie, and has enough plot elements to fill at least a dozen films. Tarzan finds himself a french secret agent, an "Indiana Jones" gold hunter, an African King, and of course an "Ape Man". In all, he seems to posses just enough 'superhuman' ability and uncanny luck to get out of the most dire predicament.

The story is always quick paced, and exposes the early 20th century view of "Western European superiority" while at the same time being sympathetic to many of the "savages".

Beasts of Tarzan, the third Tarzan book, starts out with Tarzan settled in to English life. Of course, its not too long before he finds himself in the jungle again, this time accompanied by a motley crew of jungle animals. This book was not as good as the first two, though it was still quite entertaining. It also seemed to be a little shorter. The best image I remember from this is the thought of a boat with apes and a panther cruising through the water.

"Son of Tarzan" hardly has Tarzan in it at all. Instead it focuses on his boy as he grows from a tween to a married man - spending most of that time in the African jungle. This is a great book, and the "love story" between Korak and Meriem is touching, and is better developed the that between Tarzan and Jane in the initial books. The book does, however, seem to have some of the more violent moments. Perhaps my only complaint was that the book seemed to drag on a bit at the end. Two-thirds of the way through it becomes fairly clear what is going to happen, however, a number of plot twists are thrown in there, dragging out the novel.
What I also find interesting is that the novels seem to be filled with many elements that I've seen in movies that have come out well after the Tarzan books. It seems that the influence of the books has been well felt in hollywood (even if not in the Tarzan movies themselves.)
In the copy I have, page 208 ends in the middle of a word, while 209 starts a new paragraph. The story seems to still flow properly, but I'm wondering what is missing from the "printers error".

Tarzan the untamed

A group of German army-men ransack Tarzan's home while he is away. When he returns, he discovers he dead bodies of his mate and her bodyguards. With this, he discovers that he has no more need of civilization, and returns to his savage state to seek revenge. He finds the supposed killers of his mate and summarily executes them. He then decides to kill other German's and help out some of the Brits. He eventually decides to leave the war effort, but he ends up with a beautiful young female German spy.

Today the story is ridiculously politically incorrect. Black Africans are mere savages, less sophisticated (and more brutal) than the apes. Whites are superior, though Germans are demonized. (during the time this was published it would probably have been hard to portray them in a positive light.

The story seems rather artificial. The plot elements are mere excuses to connect the action sequences. The characters are all fairly shallow, after all it is the action that is important. The end has a couple big twists. However, I was already expecting these early on in the story. This seems a case of Burroughs running out of originality, and just giving the readers plenty of action.

A Princess of Mars

The hero is off in Arizona digging for gold, when he runs from Apaches, and next thing you know it, he is surrounded by some Martians on the red planet. Luckily, with lower gravity, he can do some great jumping and impresses his captors. The martians are warsome buglike creatures. However, there is another slightly more civilized race of martians that they battle. One they capture just happens to look like human woman, and of course he falls in love.

The hero then has all sorts of adventures where he uses his strength, cunning, and "powers" to defeat plenty of enemies, unite warring groups, save the princess, and possible even save all life on the planet.

It's pure escapism, though it feels more in the vein of Gulliver's Travels than Tarzan. Mars is portrayed as an ecological basket case that is barely limping along due to intervention of some of the residents. The "science" part is based on the theories of its time, though it still seems fairly plausible today. It is however, still a mystery as to how he got to mars and how he returned. In the end it is about entertainment; unfortunately, I didn't find it as entertaining as some of Burroughs other work.

Land That Time Forgot

Edgar Rice Burroughs is a master of escapist adventure stories. The Land That Time Forgot lives up to his standard. The story is the relation of a story found in a bottle in Greenland.

The story from the bottle describes the adventures of s submarine builder from California. The ship he was sailing on was sunk by a German U-boat. The narrator and a girl are only survivors. (Thanks to lifeboat that flies out of the water and just that right time.) They get rescued by British ship. However, the same sub then sinks their boat. However they manage to capture the sub before they are sunk. The captain of the sub just happens to be the ex-fiance of the girl.

In spite of hoisting the union Jack, no friendly boats want to get near. So they set sail for elsewhere. Meanwhile, one of the Brits is a German spy who throws out communication and navigation equipment and attempts to kill the narrator and poison the water.

All this makes for a great adventure (and a good chunk of novel). However it is not until well in to the novel where the "title" becomes apparent. Eventually they find an uncharted and seemingly inaccessible landmass. Luckily there appears to be a subterranean stream and they happen to have a sub.
In the land they encounter dinosaurs, saber tooth tigers, neanderthals, and various other humanoids and ancient animals. The various groups of people appear to 'evolve' by moving from one tribe to another ( though the author seems to have given up before pursuing this extensively). The different groups seem to show some views of 1910s views of race and evolution.
The actual experience in the land is somewhat rushed and is almost a letdown from the ship voyages. (Though there are two more books in this series, so it may be well worth it.)
In the end, the Germans sneak away in the sub, many graves of the Brits are found, and the hero marries the girl right before sending his story off in a bottle.
The novel depends heavily on chance encounters. This makes it fairly unbelievable, but does not distract from the adventure of the story.