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In response to a radio plea from Abner Perry, a scientist who with his friend David Innes has discovered the interior world of Pellucidar at the Earth's core, Jason Gridley launches an expedition to rescue Innes from the Korsars (corsairs), the scourge of the internal seas. He enlists Tarzan, and a fabulous airship is constructed to penetrate Pellucidar via the natural polar opening connecting the outer and inner worlds. The airship is crewed primarily by Germans, with Tarzan's Waziri show more warriors under their chief Muviro also along for the expedition. show lessTags
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TARZAN AT THE EARTH'S CORE is unique in being Burroughs' only authored "crossover" between two of his major book series. In the prior Hollow Earth novel, TANAR OF PELLUCIDAR, David Innes discovers a north polar Arctic Ocean opening from the outer world that explains how the 15th-16th-century buccaneer society of the Korsars of Pellucidar, who now hold him prisoner, came to be founded. In this new story, Tarzan and Jason Gridley lead a crew on a specialized dirigible through the polar opening to rescue David Innes.
The story's strengths are in
(1) expanding the Pellucidarian map, exploring new - if otherwise familiar due to their repetition from the earlier series' books - areas of Pellucidar's dinosaur and stone age inhabiting geography, show more
(2) the introduction of, yet again, a new "monster race" in the reptillian Horibs to add to those previously noted: the Mahars, Sagoths, and Buried People, and
(3) the presence of Tarzan who has to overcome the challenges of his ingrained outer world expectations of Time and Distance in a timeless world of eternal noon, and the challenges of pitting his superhuman strength and skills against prehistoric beasts, all but one completely new to him.
The weaknesses (for me) in the story are (1) its repetition of old, too-often-repeated, standard ERB story plots which I found inhibited my desire to continue reading -- especially since I have been binge reading ERB:
The most egregious being a romance foiled by misunderstanding between the lovers that is finally resoved by the male's declaration of love,
(2) while a goal is clearly set - in this case, the rescue of David Innes, the actual rescue comprises the very last pages of the novel and is rather perfunctory, quickly accomplished with little development as something that needed to be done to finish the work. Yet again, it is the depiction of Pellucidar itself and its challenges, geographic and prehistoric, for the story's protagonists that compose the near entirety of the novel. Pellucidar itself is the main character of the novel.
(3) the extensive occurence of coincidences where characters widely dispersed by events somehow stumble, or in this tale, when inadvertantly Tarzan falls into an escape tunnel dug by the long lost Jasion Gridley (CH. XVI), literally fall upon one another. Or when Tarzan and his companions just happen to meet up with a Pellucidarian Empire rescue fleet and then, almost immediately after, the 0-220 dirigible of their friends (CH. XVII).
(4) ERB is not the best at creating character or new species names. In this case, the use of "Horibs" seem, intentionally or unintentionally, a lazy derivative of "horrible."
(5) Acknowledging that Burroughs and the novel are products of their time of 1929, the modern reader need be prepared for unease from the unintentionally racist "Uncle Tom" caricature depiction of the very minor and unessential character, I surmise ERB included for "comic relief" despite the respect the other characters show him, of the "Negro" (yes, the other "n" word is also present), good-natured, former WWI POW Robert Jones. E.g. quote: "No suh, Ah ain't seen nothin' o' Massa Ta'zan sence yesterday." show less
The story's strengths are in
(1) expanding the Pellucidarian map, exploring new - if otherwise familiar due to their repetition from the earlier series' books - areas of Pellucidar's dinosaur and stone age inhabiting geography, show more
(2) the introduction of, yet again, a new "monster race" in the reptillian Horibs to add to those previously noted: the Mahars, Sagoths, and Buried People, and
(3) the presence of Tarzan who has to overcome the challenges of his ingrained outer world expectations of Time and Distance in a timeless world of eternal noon, and the challenges of pitting his superhuman strength and skills against prehistoric beasts, all but one completely new to him.
The weaknesses (for me) in the story are (1) its repetition of old, too-often-repeated, standard ERB story plots which I found inhibited my desire to continue reading -- especially since I have been binge reading ERB:
The most egregious being a romance foiled by misunderstanding between the lovers that is finally resoved by the male's declaration of love,
(2) while a goal is clearly set - in this case, the rescue of David Innes, the actual rescue comprises the very last pages of the novel and is rather perfunctory, quickly accomplished with little development as something that needed to be done to finish the work. Yet again, it is the depiction of Pellucidar itself and its challenges, geographic and prehistoric, for the story's protagonists that compose the near entirety of the novel. Pellucidar itself is the main character of the novel.
(3) the extensive occurence of coincidences where characters widely dispersed by events somehow stumble, or in this tale, when inadvertantly Tarzan falls into an escape tunnel dug by the long lost Jasion Gridley (CH. XVI), literally fall upon one another. Or when Tarzan and his companions just happen to meet up with a Pellucidarian Empire rescue fleet and then, almost immediately after, the 0-220 dirigible of their friends (CH. XVII).
(4) ERB is not the best at creating character or new species names. In this case, the use of "Horibs" seem, intentionally or unintentionally, a lazy derivative of "horrible."
(5) Acknowledging that Burroughs and the novel are products of their time of 1929, the modern reader need be prepared for unease from the unintentionally racist "Uncle Tom" caricature depiction of the very minor and unessential character, I surmise ERB included for "comic relief" despite the respect the other characters show him, of the "Negro" (yes, the other "n" word is also present), good-natured, former WWI POW Robert Jones. E.g. quote: "No suh, Ah ain't seen nothin' o' Massa Ta'zan sence yesterday." show less
All right, I admit, this is not great literature, but it is a terrific Tarzan adventure. Scientists discover a super light super strong metal, and don't waste their time figuring out the ways it could completely transform society - that would be boring, I guess. Instead, they build a giant blimp and head out on a high risk adventure to explore the earth's core. And, being wise, they invite Tarzan along to help out. It's amazing - the earth turns out to be hollow with a mini sun suspended in the middle, and animals from all sorts of eras running around. Apparently gravity is reversed inside the earth's hollow skin, so there is no fear of falling to your death. There are the usual excellent battles, awkward love story, and embarrassingly show more racist attitudes (although Burroughs seems to have toned it down in this one).
It was the stegosaurus episode that clinched that 5th star. A vicious stegosaurus decides to attack and eat our hero, so he spreads his plates flat, leaps from the top of a cliff, and glides down in a deadly flight. Paleontologists may object on many counts, but it is my favorite dinosaur description ever. show less
It was the stegosaurus episode that clinched that 5th star. A vicious stegosaurus decides to attack and eat our hero, so he spreads his plates flat, leaps from the top of a cliff, and glides down in a deadly flight. Paleontologists may object on many counts, but it is my favorite dinosaur description ever. show less
One must remember there were years between the books in this seven-book series, thus the poor rating and reading of the previous book disappears as ERB hits his stride with Tarzan and Pellucidar thrown together. Pellucidar triumphs over Tarzan in the story-telling, though, as we are inundated with several tribes of humans and some new beasts. Probably the most interesting are the Hibibs, the "snake people," who have taken another path on the evolutionary ladder. the Habib are cold-blooded, egg-laying scaly-skinned, chameleon color changing creatures in human form. The other interesting draw in this book is the Red Flower girl. She sounds like someone I'd like to meet,and so far in ERB's writings, I haven't come up with any female that show more has the devil in her such as Jana does. show less
One of the more outlandish Tarzan adventures, postulating a hidden world beneath the Earth's crust, Pellucidar, where Tarzan sets off in a dirigible with Jason Gridley to rescue explorer David Innes. Pellucidar is lit by its own central sun and populated by gigantic primitive beasts. Fairly routine but exciting adventures; a refreshing moment is when Tarzan discovers he is lost in Pellucidar, with its eternal central sun and a horizon which stretches up in all directions.
Good action, seems very confused in theology vs. evolution and somewhat racist, but perhaps it just reflects the attitude of the times. Not really a book I would recommend to my boys, but it wouldn't hurt them, I just found myself very impatient with all the evolution theory.
The author's literary style is well developed and he set up and interesting story line in which for the first time Tarzan is lost. An American name Jason Gridley is set on rescuing David Innes from a lost world that lies under ours. A world with its own sun that never sets and the author can play with his ideas of evolution with the introduction of the snake people. And as in other “Lost Worlds” we have read about Tarzan has to fight prehistoric animals that the author claims are the ancestors to the creatures of Tarzan's jungle up above. With what seems like an entire world bent on the destruction of this intruder, Tarzan must persevere if he is to be successful in his rescue.
In response to a radio plea from Abner Perry, Jason Gridley launches an expedition to rescue David Innes from the Korsars. He enlists Tarzan, and a fabulous airship is constructed to penetrate Pellucidar. Tarzan and Jason are separated. They have dangerous adventures. They face wild men and beasts. Tarzan makes alliances. Jason meets a beautiful girl. They rescue David.
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Edgar Rice Burroughs was born on September 1, 1875, in Chicago. His father, George Tyler was a distiller and a battery manufacturer. Early in life Burroughs attempted to support his family in a variety of occupations, including railroad policeman, business partner, and miner. None of these proved successful. However, Burroughs had always enjoyed show more reading adventure fiction and decided to try his hand at writing. His first attempt, written under the pseudonym Normal Bean, sold very quickly and Burroughs' career took off. Although critics and educators have not always been supportive of Burroughs' writing, the characters in his stories have entertained readers for many years. Tarzan was the most popular, earning Burroughs enough money to start his own publishing house and a motion picture company. Another character, John Carter, is the hero of Burroughs' Mars adventure series. The continuing popularity of these characters has led some critics to reconsider the value of Burroughs' writing and to acknowledge significant themes in his stories. Burroughs died on March 19, 1950. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Tarzan a föld mélyén
- Original title
- Tarzan At the Earth's Core
- Original publication date
- 1929; 1929-09; 1930; 1930-11-28
- People/Characters
- Tarzan; Jason Gridley; David Innes; Abner Perry; Jana the Red Flower of Zoram; Lieutenant Von Horst
- Important places
- Pellucidar; Anoroc
- First words
- Tarzan of the apes paused to listen and to sniff the air.
Forward:
PELLUCIDAR, as every schoolboy knows, is a world within a world, lying, as it does, upon the inner surface of the hollow sphere, which is the Earth. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"I am going to Sari with the man I love," replied The Red Flower of Zoram.
- Original language*
- English
- Disambiguation notice
- Please distinguish Edgar Rice Burroughs' At the Earth's Core from his Tarzan at the Earth's Core. The first is the beginning of Burrough's “Pellucidar” series; the second is a cross-over between Pellucidar a... (show all)nd Tarzan. Two entirely different, but connected, books.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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