I'm pretty sure I gave [b:Tarzan of the Apes|40425|Tarzan of the Apes|Edgar Rice Burroughs|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169434153s/40425.jpg|1774048] 5 stars, so I have to give this one the same. It's really one, 2 part book. It is better in one way, much of Burroughs earlier seeming racism is gone. Otherwise, it is just a continuation of the basis for a story we've all come to know so well. It relies heavily on coincidence, monumentally stupid bravery & sheer magic, but it's a heck of a lot of fun. ( )

This book resumes the story from the first, following Tarzan and Jane separately through most of the book. We Tarzan fall from his height of a sophisticated European back to the jungle animal. He maintains his morals and manages to return to his heights. All the loose ends are tied up this time, but it still leaves some expectations for the next volume. Tarzan seems too much of a superhero than the myth from comic and TV lore. He is both a cultured European with fluency in several languages, and the ultimate savage speaking with apes and many primitive tribes. He is unerring with spear and bow, tracker, spy, and what else? But it is still very enjoyable. ( )

I was a little disappointed initially when this book didn't pick up
where the cliff hanger of the first Tarzan left off and that
disappointment only grew with each successive chapter. The story
itself is fun, if not as fun at the first, but this book really
picks up at the halfway mark. That is when Tarzan and Jane begin
individually harrowing journeys that the reader knows must ultimately
lead to a reunion of the pair. I'm already looking forward the
reading the third book and beyond. ( )

The Return of Tarzan starts up where Tarzan of the Apes left off. Having concealed his true identity so as to allow Jane Porter to marry the wealthy Lord William Clayton as opposed to the destitute not-Lord William Clayton, Tarzan sails for France. On the way, the wheels of adventure begin to turn. He comes to the aid of a gentleman cheated at cards, and Olga de Coude a beautiful woman accosted by miscreants (who turn out to be husband and wife), incurring the wrath of Rokloff, their tormentor. Back in Paris, he becomes Rokloff's target, and de Coude's close friend. A complicated plot of Rokloff's results in Olga's reputation being potentially compromised, but Tarzan is such an honorable individual that Olga's husband becomes his friend and ally (apparently having a noble bloodline gives one a fully developed sense of honor and propriety without the benefit of any kind of education in such matters).

Tarzan, despite his incredible physical talents and seemingly genius level intellect has been unable to secure employment in Paris, and when de Coude offers him a job working as a spy for France he accepts and travels to Algeria to spy on an army lieutenant suspected of passing secrets. It turns out that the lieutenant's contact is none other than Rokloff, who once again tries to take revenge on Tarzan. On the way, Tarzan rescues a beautiful Arab princess, becomes friends with her sheikh father, and evades Rokloff's attempts on his life. He is abruptly called away to carry some papers for the government, and when he arrives on his ship, none other than Rokloff is there to steal them from him and toss him overboard.

And we haven't even gotten to the part where Tarzan swims to shore, finds himself near the cabin he was born in, becomes king of a tribe of Africans, defeats a gang of slavers who attack his village, journeys to the fabled city of Opar, gets captured, escapes, and then rescues Jane.

(In a parallel storyline, Jane has been sailing about with Clayton, her father, her best friend, and, of course, Rokloff. They are shipwrecked right off the coast where Tarzan's cabin is, and wind up right under his nose. Clayton turns out to have known all along that Tarzan was actually Lord Greystoke, and proves to be less than successful at braving the wilds, causing Jane to finally tell him she doesn't want to marry him. Clayton then gets sick right after Jane is captured by the simian inhabitants of Opar, and eventually dies.)

Most of the book is simply an excuse to move Tarzan from place to place so he can foil Rokloff in a variety of settings, or otherwise show how smart, strong, and brave he is. Every beautiful woman who crosses his path is smitten with him, and of course, he chivalrously declines them all pining for Jane (who for all but the last ten pages of the book he believes is going to marry Clayton) because, apparently, fidelity is something that is instinctual for those of noble birth (or maybe he learned it during the years he was living with the apes). For a man who lived in the wilds until he was twenty-three or so, by twenty-four Tarzan is improbably well-spoken and cultured: sipping absinthe, smoking cigars and spending his nights at the opera. The most hilarious episode takes place in Opar, where he has a detailed and poetic conversation with La, the high-priestess of the human-ape hybrids that inhabit the city - all in the language of the apes.

The adventures in the book are all, individually decent enough, but the book as a whole is disjointed and there is simply too much serendipity for the overall story to hold up at all. Tarzan's character is simply too much of a Mary Sue wish-fulfillment vehicle to really be taken seriously, and Jane is too dimwitted through most of the book to believe she could be the object to Tarzan's undying devotion. Even when regarded as nothing more than a pulp adventure, it never rises much above average in quality. ( )

This second book in the Tarzan series takes more liberty with reality than the first book. Tarzan beat a great ape in combat (right!), and always kills what he aims fo. The biggest faux pas, however, is the wild man speaking as well as an Exeter Don just two years after he is introduced to English ( )