Tarzan and the Forbidden City

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2276948.html

This is a fairly rambling quest story of lost Europeans and sacred jewels in hidden cities (there are actually two of them, not one as implied in the title). Tarzan cares much more about white people than Indians, and more about Indians than apes, and more about apes than Africans, as far as I can tell; there is a telling moment when he and his friends allow a galley to sink with its slaves still chained to the oars, giving it barely a glance.

Despite all this, it's a story with an interesting history. It may have seemed familiar to me because it was adapted as the fourth episode of the animated Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle show which I watched as a child. But it originated as an adaptation by show more Burroughs, in six parts under the title The Red Star of Tarzan, in Argosy earlier in 1938, of a radio story by Rob Thompson, Tarzan and the Diamond of Asher, whose 39 episodes can be found here. It was apparently also used for a newspaper comic strip in early 1938, and adapted for the Tarzan comic in 1970. One of those stories which sums Tarzan up, in any medium. show less

Burroughs obviously was getting really sick of the Tarzan series because he didn't try to cover up some faux pas in his story, and there were a couple of hard leaps for the imagination to make. There are two groups of men who want to get the Father of Diamonds in the midst of the ForbiDDEN CITY, and who variously capture or are captured by each other. Lady Kath at one point when told she would probably be killed, says: "I wish they would do it and get it over withy. I am so tired." She ought to be. She had been stranded, found, captured, rescued, captured again, and rescued again and faced death atg least five tgimes before we end the book. Onje wag has said, a work of art is over when the artist says it is and we can just see ERB at show more his desk saying: "Okay. I'm not even bothering to get them out of the jujngle. Let's tie up the ends and throw it to the press." show less

The most farcical of the adventures yet. Girls keep getting captured by evil tribes, gorillas and cannibals. Tarzan helps hunt for a missing American and ends up under water.

Tarzan's old friend, Paul D'Arnot, asks his help to rescue a lost friend in the jungle. Their quest leads them to an underwater temple, deep in a crater lake, where priests protect a fabulous diamond that has caused war between two cities, and has the ability to cloud men's minds.

Tarzan almost loses his life in the strangest temple he has ever visited – an underwater building, deep in a crater lake – where priests protect the fabulous diamond that has caused war between Thobos and Ashair.