1915: Edgar Rice Burroughs - The Return of Tarzan
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The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Serialized 1913, first book publication 1915
The Return of Tarzan picks up the story from Tarzan of the Apes and carries it to a conclusion such that the two novels should best be read back-to-back as parts of the same work. Once again we encounter a Tarzan far removed from the illiterate savage portrayed in the movies. As the story opens, he is a passenger on an ocean liner returning him from America to France where he plans to spend the rest of his days. He is bored, with little to do but drink absinthe and smoke cigarettes. But Tarzan soon finds himself in the middle of an intrigue involving a beautiful Russian married to a French count, and a pair of evil Russian spies who attempt to use the naive Tarzan to frame the count and his wife. His adventures will carry Tarzan to Paris, to Algeria, and eventually back to the jungles of his birth where he discovers clues leading him to a lost city of gold.
What makes Tarzan an appealing hero is his realistic fallibility. He is a boisterous, impetuous and occasionally foolish 22-year old. He can be selfish, greedy, and self-indulgent. While his heart may belong to Jane (who Tarzan believes is lost to him because she is to marry his cousin), his eyes and hands are far from immune to the charms of a Russian countess, an Arab dancing girl, or a pagan priestess. Another plus to the novel is that much (but not all) of the racism which characterized the first Tarzan novel is gone. Tarzan discovers that not all Africans are craven cannibals, and he even befriends and joins a tribe of proud, courageous hunters. He also learns that while some Arabs are thieves and slavers, others are honest and caring, and had duty not carried him elsewhere he would have gladly accepted a Bedouin tribe's offer of a home and a wife.
On the negative side, the reader must prepare for one remarkable coincidence after another. Every character in the novel will be separately shipwrecked, marooned, thrown overboard, or in some other manner cast ashore at exactly the same spot on the African coast, in some cases more than once. But Tarzan novels are something you read for fun, not for realism. Nonetheless there is occasionally a serious side to the novel. The attempt to frame the French count and his Russian bride is clearly a reference to, and commentary on, France's Dreyfus Affair. It's also noteworthy that among the corrupting influences of civilization which Tarzan, the "noble savage," escapes is that of religion. As if to emphasize this, La, the priestess of the lost city of Opar, makes the comment: "The more one knows of one's religion, the less one believes."
The Return of Tarzan is fun, escapist reading and highly recommended for those who have enjoyed its predecessor, Tarzan of the Apes.
Serialized 1913, first book publication 1915
The Return of Tarzan picks up the story from Tarzan of the Apes and carries it to a conclusion such that the two novels should best be read back-to-back as parts of the same work. Once again we encounter a Tarzan far removed from the illiterate savage portrayed in the movies. As the story opens, he is a passenger on an ocean liner returning him from America to France where he plans to spend the rest of his days. He is bored, with little to do but drink absinthe and smoke cigarettes. But Tarzan soon finds himself in the middle of an intrigue involving a beautiful Russian married to a French count, and a pair of evil Russian spies who attempt to use the naive Tarzan to frame the count and his wife. His adventures will carry Tarzan to Paris, to Algeria, and eventually back to the jungles of his birth where he discovers clues leading him to a lost city of gold.
What makes Tarzan an appealing hero is his realistic fallibility. He is a boisterous, impetuous and occasionally foolish 22-year old. He can be selfish, greedy, and self-indulgent. While his heart may belong to Jane (who Tarzan believes is lost to him because she is to marry his cousin), his eyes and hands are far from immune to the charms of a Russian countess, an Arab dancing girl, or a pagan priestess. Another plus to the novel is that much (but not all) of the racism which characterized the first Tarzan novel is gone. Tarzan discovers that not all Africans are craven cannibals, and he even befriends and joins a tribe of proud, courageous hunters. He also learns that while some Arabs are thieves and slavers, others are honest and caring, and had duty not carried him elsewhere he would have gladly accepted a Bedouin tribe's offer of a home and a wife.
On the negative side, the reader must prepare for one remarkable coincidence after another. Every character in the novel will be separately shipwrecked, marooned, thrown overboard, or in some other manner cast ashore at exactly the same spot on the African coast, in some cases more than once. But Tarzan novels are something you read for fun, not for realism. Nonetheless there is occasionally a serious side to the novel. The attempt to frame the French count and his Russian bride is clearly a reference to, and commentary on, France's Dreyfus Affair. It's also noteworthy that among the corrupting influences of civilization which Tarzan, the "noble savage," escapes is that of religion. As if to emphasize this, La, the priestess of the lost city of Opar, makes the comment: "The more one knows of one's religion, the less one believes."
The Return of Tarzan is fun, escapist reading and highly recommended for those who have enjoyed its predecessor, Tarzan of the Apes.
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