Product Description The original story that started it all. Movie and TV versions have changed many aspects of the story. Here is the original. The novel tells the story of John Clayton, born in the western coastal jungles of equatorial Africa to a marooned couple from England, John and Alice (Rutherford) Clayton, Lord and Lady Greystoke. Adopted as an infant by the she-ape Kala after his parents died (his father is killed by the savage king ape Kerchak), Clayton is named Tarzan (White Skin in the ape language) and raised in ignorance of his human heritage.

Kritik von Amazon © I felt it would be a good idea to review the original TARZAN OF THE APES by Edgar Rice Burroughs as many are only familiar with how the character has been mishandled for the past seventy or so years. In his original form Tarzan was far from the monosyllabic simpleton as he was so often later portrayed. Instead, Tarzan was a man of aristocratic bearing who wielded great strength of both body and will, spoke several languages fluently, and easily mixed with British society.
Although Tarzan first appeared in TARZAN OF THE APES, the plot and some of Tarzan's characteristics were showcased in an earlier Burroughs work called THE MONSTER MEN. But it was the infant heir to a British title that rocketed Burroughs's fame. Tarzan begins as an infant shipwrecked on the coast of Africa. The rest of his family quickly dies but a local anthropoid ape (not a gorilla) who just lost a baby, claims pale, hairless baby and raises it as her own. Tarzan grows but is always weaker than the apes. But when Tarzan finds the hut left by his family he begins learning about his human side. With knowledge Tarzan is able to stand up to the more bullysome apes and life is good.
Years later thing change drastically when pirates maroon other humans near Tarzan's home. It is then that Tarzan learns to love Jane and she him although she first knows him as two different people. To her there is the forest god who rescues her and there is Tarzan who leaves her notes. But while Tarzan can read and write English and speak the language of the apes, French is the first human tongue he learns. A tongue that Jane does not understand. But eventually Jane becomes the force that drives Tarzan towards civilization and his birthright among British nobility.
In this first Tarzan novel, Edgar Rice Burroughs explores the idea of class as inherent. A British lord will always be a British lord and will always rise to the top no matter how far he has been pushed down. Tarzan, being raised by an unknown species of intelligent apes, has further to rise than any lord in history. But the rise he does because class will always prove itself. This is a popular theme and one that, in detective fiction, shows the difference between the British view and the American view. The British view used to hold that an aristocrat acting as an amateur, with easily best the professional laborer as in the Sherlock Holmes stories. The American view in detective fiction is that the closer to the grit you are the better you are at solving mysteries as in the Colombo or Sam Spade mysteries. But in TARZAN OF THE APES Burroughs takes the British view to its extreme.
TARZAN OF THE APES and the other early Tarzan novels are classics of adventure fiction. Lost cities, ancient civilizations, true love, heroism and other qualities of great adventures are all present in these novels. My wife really enjoys the original Zorro stories packed with romance and heroism. But when I lent her some of my Tarzan books she quickly became a fan of his stories as well. If you have never treated yourself to the original and only know what television and Hollywood have done to him, I recommend that you give Tarzan a try. I think you will be surprised.

Kritik von Amazon © The greatest adventure series of all time -- with the greatest hero. Needless to say, the books are nothing like any of the movies. Tarzan is an intelligent, independent individual, always striving to learn, with a strong sense of justice. He never gives up, no matter how hopeless the situation. He never kneels to any authority, no matter the threat.

I don't believe that there is an ounce of altruism anywhere in the stories. (He helps the innocent and helpless on occasion, but does not sacrifice himself or his goals. His goals include securing wealth, but not social approval or prestige. His self-esteem requires nothing from the opinions of others.) When in one scene he decides to give up his birth right in England for the security of the woman he loves, it is clear that her security is more important to him than the wealth and position. Indeed, it is only losing her that hurts him, for he cares little for European society.

The stories are not politically correct. As a teenager Tarzan first encounters a native tribe and realizes he is more like these apes than his life-long family. He is drawn toward them, but when one kills his ape mother, he kills the native. In one story, where Tarzan risks his life to save a man from a lion, it is only because he becomes curious as to what the white man is doing alone deep in the jungle. He does not kill the lion, by the way.

Tarzan embodies the principles of accepting what he cannot change, changing what he can, and knowing the difference. There is a negative attitude toward religion (witchdoctors and religious figures are presented as frauds). While I don't know that I realized it at the time I was reading, thinking on it now I think Tarzan represented man's noble nature, when untouched by social corruption -- either that of native tribes or Western civilization. He is not alone in this nobility, simply the most pure. There are also noble Europeans and noble natives, as well as the evil doers.

Again, while I did not notice it at the time, I read a comment somewhere that the writing conveys a more sophisticated, or more formal, use of language than most modern stories.

Written in the first part of this century, the stories are dated by their depiction of ferocious gorillas, large apes, and unexplored Africa. In this, they remind us that much of Africa was indeed unknown to Europe as late as the first half of this century. Still, these are fantasy-adventure stories, and I had no trouble slipping into the Burroughs' world of suspenseful and weaving plots.

Tarzan is a superhero of unmatched courage, who has fully developed his physical strength and agility, and fully honed his senses. The theme is that others could do so as well (given the advantages of his childhood). In fact, his son achieves much the same capabilities -- through harrowing adventures! Even Jane significantly develops her human potential, even though she begins late in life.