Tarzan of the Apes: Three Complete Nivels

We all know Tarzan the Ape Man...some of us grew up with him...but how many of really know him...really, really know him...in other words,how many of us have ever read the book? Approaching 60 I read it for the first time, and found it thoroughly delightful. Escapist? Yes! Plausible? No! Escapist Fantasy? Imminently so... In reading Tarzan of the Apes for the first time, you learn how things really did come to be....and you come to a great appreciation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' ability to create a society within the animal kingdom..The names and personalities of the Apes and other animals. Neat stuff--andthe need to suspend realism here is no greater than it is for parts of Dan Brown's bestseller "Angels and Demons," the part about anti-matter or some such creation... And Tarzan--what a guy...and did you know he doesn't get the girl (Jane, of course) in the first book? Someone else does...and to be able to teach himself to read and write by studying and lookin g at books..what an IQ!!! And the best line of all may be when, after all the feelings of adolescence, he finally holds Jane in his arms for the first time..."Without training, he did what any redblooded male would do, he held her in his arms and covered her upturned lips with kisses....." Didn't know ole Edgar Rice had it in him...didn't know a lot of things until I read the book. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing...In this case, a little knowledge about Tarzan can keep you from reading and enjoying a perfectly delightful escapist fantasy, a good story.

There has been so much ink spilt over ERB and his most popular creation, Tarzan, that there is nothing for me to add. I just want to take this moment to doff my hat to ERB. What an imagination! Opening almost any Burroughs book is like peeking into a box filled with wonders. Yes, the language is difficult to take sometimes, and there are archaisms in scientific and cultural areas that make a modern reader wince, but who wouldn't want to read a book filled with all the action and adventure you could possibly desire! Books where the hero wins the heart of The Most Beautiful Woman on the Planet/Island/Core/Wherever, where by the strength of his sword arm he wins kingdoms and the devotion of other warriors, where pirates and green six-armed martians do battle, where dinosaurs walk, and great apes talk. Of course, I could go on and on. In this increasingly cynical world, it helps to escape to a place called Barsoom and fight rebel Tharks. It helps to think that somewhere, bad guys are trembling because one man carrying nothing but a knife is coming, inexorably, and when he arrives justice will be done. Sigh. I think I will take the rest of the day off and take to the literary trees.

There are certain books and authors that have an inordinate impact on our lives. Often as not, their particular significance to us as individuals extends far beyond that which they would have to anyone else and sometimes, if we return to them at a different point in our own lives, it can be hard to recapture why they should have seemed so momentous in the first place. One of the authors who really turned me into a reader was Edgar Rice Burroughs and I am ecstatic to find that his books are just as terrific in real life as they are in boyhood memories. I still vividly recall the cover of Tarzan and the Ant Men, a book which I read and reread in around 5th or 6th grade. It was one of those cheesy 50 cent paperbacks (now they would cost you at least $5.99) and it featured the Lord of the Jungle surrounded by spear wielding pygmies, It was just so ripe with the promise of adventure that, to this day, I can not imagine a human being gazing upon its glory and not being consumed by a desire to read the book. And once you read one, you were faced with a plethora of riches. There are 26 Tarzan novels and myriad movies; plus there was an excellent comic book version and a Saturday morning cartoon at that point. Then there were Burroughs's other series, my particular favorites being the Pellucidar books and John Carter, Warlord of Mars. You could practically read nothing but Burroughs and go for years before having to start rereading stuff. But, of course, the great thing about getting a kid hooked on reading is that one author leads to another. Soon I was mowing down Jules Verne books (see review of Around the World in Eighty Days) and the adventures of Doc Savage, The Avenger, The Shadow, The Lone Ranger, etc., not to mention Tolkein and C.S. Lewis (see review of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe). So imagine my pleasure when I found this old Ballantine Books paperback of Tarzan of the Apes, with a cover by Neal Adams showing an enraged Tarzan racing towards a screeching great ape who is grasping a seductively disheveled Jane by her flowing blonde locks. It's amazing, you haven't read a word yet and already your pulse is racing. Then open the book and, wonder of wonders, it's every bit as thrilling and wonderful as I remembered it. Shipwrecks, mutinies, buried treasure, lion attacks, hostile tribesmen, and most of all the ape pack and the herculean efforts of one lost little boy to survive in the forbidding wilds of Africa--what more could a reader want in a book? Tarzan is one of a small group of fictional characters--the others being Frankenstein, Dracula and Sherlock Holmes--created in the last 200 years who have acquired lives of their own, far outlasting their creators to be constantly reprised and reimagined. If we examine this quartet, they are united by one central theme; each represents man's desire to in some way control nature. Frankenstein is, of course, an expression of our aspiration towards godhood (see Orrin's review), th

I am a sophomore in high school and, while in my English 102 class at the college, our class read an exerpt from Tarzan of the Apes. I was so completely amazed at the style and wording of the author (I can't spell his last name off of the top of my head) that I bought the book and am now looking to complete the series. I couldn't put it down and finished it within about three hours. This book was a gift and I couldn't think of a better one for someone who likes a good adventure with intrigue, some romance, medium-level violence (about PG or PG-11), and great storytelling. In short, consider this book very high on your list of novels to read.

I have always been a big fan of Burroughs but had never read the Tarzan novels, just the John Carter tales of Mars series. I could not stop reading this book. The real Tarzan is very different from the Hollywood portrayal and the most recent effort from Disney. I have since read many of the other Tarzan novels and have liked them as well, even though the story lines are all very similar. The three stories in this book are some of the best. Be warned, in the first book - 'Tarzan of the Apes' Tarzan is more of an animal than a man. His transformation takes time. Enjoy this timeless classic.