Tarzan of the apes - Rambling Readers

189 pages

English language

Published Nov. 20, 2015 by Digireads.

ISBN:: 978-1-4209-5172-1
OCLC Number:: 964500131

(1 review)

First published in the pulp magazine 'All-Story Magazine' in October, 1912, 'Tarzan of the Apes' is the first novel in a series of adventure novels that was so popular that it would spawn some two dozen sequels. It is the coming of age story of John Clayton, the son of an English couple, Lord and Lady Greystoke, who are marooned in the western coastal jungles of equatorial Africa. When his father is killed by the savage king ape Kerchak and his mother dies of natural causes when he is just one year old, Clayton is adopted by the she-ape Kala and renamed Tarzan, or 'white skin' in the ape language. As Tarzan grows up he begins to recognise that he is different from his ape peers, a realisation that stirs within him feelings of alienation and drives him to discover his true heritage. Tarzan discovers his true parents' cabin and …

First published in the pulp magazine 'All-Story Magazine' in October, 1912, 'Tarzan of the Apes' is the first novel in a series of adventure novels that was so popular that it would spawn some two dozen sequels. It is the coming of age story of John Clayton, the son of an English couple, Lord and Lady Greystoke, who are marooned in the western coastal jungles of equatorial Africa. When his father is killed by the savage king ape Kerchak and his mother dies of natural causes when he is just one year old, Clayton is adopted by the she-ape Kala and renamed Tarzan, or 'white skin' in the ape language. As Tarzan grows up he begins to recognise that he is different from his ape peers, a realisation that stirs within him feelings of alienation and drives him to discover his true heritage. Tarzan discovers his true parents' cabin and there, in books, he learns of others like himself.

43 editions

Arbieroo reviewed Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Review of 'Tarzan of the Apes' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I read some books because they have entered the culture, spawning multiple versions of themselves in other media and I just want to find out what the original story and concepts were and if they were any good. Examples would be Frankenstein and Dracula. Tarzan is also such a one.

It was interesting to discover that Tarzan was indeed raised by apes, but not any real species, instead by a made up one existing somewhere between gorilla and human in capabilities and appearance. Also interesting to discover that Burroughs wrote 22 sequels!

It's a fast paced and easy read but I'm not inclined to hunt down even the first of those sequels...

Subjects

Fiction
American Adventure stories