Tarzan of the Apes

Tarzan of the Apes

Hardcover - USA - 1914 printing.

Author Edgar Rice Burroughs Published 1912-10-?? Type Fiction Genre Adventure, Speculative Fiction Themes Adventure, Lost World, Wilderness Age Group Adult

Tarzan of the Apes is a novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs and first published in the pulp magazine The All-Story in October 1912, then published as a book in June 1914. It is the first book in the Tarzan series, which saw dozens more novels, a TV series, and several films.

The story revolves around a child born in an African jungle from British nobles who were marooned there by mutineers who bury their treasure nearby. The parents are killed by jungle beasts, but their son is raised by a tribe of large anthropoidal apes and named Tarzan. Tarzan grows strong and keen in the jungle environment and, while not nearly as strong as his ape-like troop, his human intellect allows him to be eventually become the most fearsome creature in the jungle, that is, until the mutineers return years later looking for the buried treasure.

Personal

Own?	No.
Read?	Audiobook read by Shelly Frasier.
Finished	2024-01-10.

I've been trying to force myself to read more of the influential classics in order to broaden my understanding of literature, and I know that this book was very influential, so, when I found an audiobook of it, I decided to read it.

Review

Overall:

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• I was surprised that the apes who raise Tarzan in the book are actually a fictional species or more advanced apes called the Mangani, not gorillas as nearly every adaption makes them out to be. This was a nice addition.
• I liked the scene where Tarzan sees his reflection in the water and not only wonders why he looks so different from the other apes, but is ashamed at his ugliness. I felt like this accurately described beauty conformity.
• I actually liked the ending. Not the dull bits leading up to it, but the final conclusion.

Bad

• The story seems pretty derivative of the tales of Mowgli in The Jungle Book, though the author denies it.
• The book was clearly written before much research was made about apes. The author describes his fictional primates as being very bestial, stupid, brutish, and violent killers. They are eager to slay every animal they can, including humans, and, despite living in a social hierarchy, they frequently murder each other. Modern animal behaviorists know that such constant infighting would destroy social cohesion and never allow for a troop. And, rather than be omnivores with focus on fruit, they are described as being primarily carnivores which doesn't fit with any known primate.
• Tarzan is frequently and severely wounded, and, with no understanding of sanitation or antibiotics, his wounds should become infected and his limbs gangrenous many times over, but this never happens.
• The author tries to make a point that humans often act worse than the beasts of the jungle, however, by describing his beasts as constantly murdering their own kind, and only applying bad behavior to the black humans and not the whites, the point is not well-made.
• The descriptions of Tarzan's strength and prowess are blown completely out of proportion. Ignoring the fact that illness, injury, and malnutrition would actually leave a person quite infirm if they lived in a jungle without parental guidance, Tarzan is often described as having god-like strength, sensory perception, intelligence, and prowess, even in his early teens. He can carry large men and beasts on his shoulders and still brachiate through the trees. In one passage he is described as being able to lift a chest full of gold without effort when four sailors struggled with it.
• Tarzan, after saving Jane, begins passionately kissing her, but kissing is a cultural act that he never learned.
• After seeing pictures of men wearing clothes, Tarzan concludes the clothes must be a badge of honor which show humans as being superior to other primates.
• The ending really meanders its way along adding in additional unnecessary and boring "adventures."

Ugly

• The characters Burroughs creates, and his descriptions of the story, are really racist.
  • Burroughs doesn't refer to white slave owners as savages, but he frequently refers to the black people savages.
  • Burroughs frequently has the African natives torturing and cannibalizing other humans, but, when Tarzan has a chance to eat one of the Natives, Burroughs trips over himself to justify why Tarzan wouldn't know any better, only to prevent him at the last second claiming his biology predisposes him to not eat humans. Apparently, such biology only applies to white people.
  • Tarzan's super-human strength, intelligence, and sense of fairness comes only partly from being raised in the jungle, the other part is described as coming from the fact that his parents are of noble blood, and therefore simply breed superior humans. Although, the pathetic description of Alice contradicts this.
  • All of the black people in the book are described as being ignorant and superstitious, attributing anything outside of their sight to capricious spirits and gods. However, Tarzan, though raised by primates and with no training in critical thinking, has no such superstitions.
  • Although often described as being honorable, Tarzan frequently robs and murders the natives and plays cruel tricks on them without guilt.
  • Burroughs describes the African natives as having "hideous lips," the eyes of "demons," and his characters refer to them as "beasts."
  • When Tarzan realizes he has surpassed the intelligence of the primates who raised him, he feels the need to find equals. So, naturally, he doesn't go to "the blacks," but rather looks for a white person.
  • Clayton protects Jane, not just because he loves her but, as the author writes, because she is the same race as he.
  • Burroughs writes, the worst thing a white man could ever see is a reception at a village of black cannibals.
  • When the French sailors and soldiers assume the natives killed and ate one of their officers, they respond by executing every man in the village leaving only crying women and children behind. Later, when Tarzan prepares to murder many African natives for the sole reason that they are black, D'Arnot tells him not to because "white men don't kill wantonly." However, the fact that his companions murdered every man in a village, doesn't add weight to his claim.
• All of the women in the story are pathetic.
  • Alice bemoans the fact that she is but a mere woman who can only think with her heart, and wishes to be a man who would think with his head.
  • Being frightened (not injured) by a large primate, Alice not only feints, but falls into a delusional, near catatonic, state from which she never recovers.
  • Esmeralda, Jane's black "servant" who is frequently referred to as a "negress," cowers and faints every time there is danger.
  • Although initially attracted to Clayton, Jane falls in love with Tarzan almost immediately after meeting him to the point where she's willing to throw away her life to stay with him.
  • When Tarzan firsts sees Jane, Burroughs writes that he instinctually knows that women were created to be protected and men were created to protect women.
• I can understand Tarzan learning to associate certain combinations of letters with the illustrations in books, but being able to learn to read and write fluently in English without knowing any of the sounds or being able to hear the spoken language seems impossible. When he later associates French sounds with English words, it seems even more far-fetched.
• The oft-repeated "tut tut" and "most remarkable" phrases of the professor gets annoying very quickly.

Media

Covers

• 

  Cover of The All-Story magazine - 1912.

• 

  Hardcover - USA - 1914.

• 

  Dust jacket - 1914.

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	Most of the women are damsels in distress, Jane thrice. As Tarzan's surrogate mother, Kala is almost strong, but she's killed just so Tarzan can take vengeance.
Bechdel test?	Pass	Jane and Esmeralda talk about the lioness.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	Every person of color in the book is vilified.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Adaptations

Tarzan of the Apes has been adapted dozens of times, but here are the ones that are important to me:

• Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
• Tarzan (1999 Disney animated film)

Links