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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
Okay. That old world British attitude is on display in this story. I learned he's a Mary Sue character.
I grew up watching re-runs of the old Tarzan TV show at my grandparents house. I have watched the many various movies that have come along, and I must say, I think my favorite is the Disney version. So, I like the story of Tarzan and the archetype. I have never read the origin and original and I did enjoy it, but there are many problems with it.
Tarzan is a Mary Sue character. I mean, everything he tries, he's good at the first time. There is no character growth.
He grew up in the jungle and then later, in a matter of days, a Frenchman teaches him to speak French. He teaches himself to read and write English from a dictionary. He learns about money and people over a weeks time. He learns to drive and who knows what else he can just do.
The worst part of the story is how racist the story is. Because Tarzen comes from a royal line with a title, of course he can do everything. It's in his DNA. There are black tribes around him and they are horrible and he kills them and fights with them. They are barely human. He doesn't even consider himself one of them and he grew up with Apes. Strange right.
Things I didn't know in the 1st book: Jane goes back to Baltimore and she is about to marry someone for money. Tarzan gets on a back and comes to America where he learns to drive and the modern world isn't that weird to him. He saves her from a fire. I've never seen any of that in a movie or TV show.
Edgar had a grand idea, an idea that lasted more than a century. Still, the story plotting is a mess. I don't know why Tarzan didn't save Jane in Africa.
This is adventure literature to bring the jungles to people who would never see them. It's action packed and written in it's time. I'm glad this story has been remade and upgraded. The stories are now better. I still enjoyed reading it and seeing Tarzan once again. It has major issue, but I have to put it in it's historical place too and see those attitudes as how the people of the day operated, bad or good.
I don't know if I will read more Tarzan, but I'm glad I read this. I do think Edgar Burroughs wrote a racist story, but I do want to read his Mars stories. I'm interested in that.
I grew up watching re-runs of the old Tarzan TV show at my grandparents house. I have watched the many various movies that have come along, and I must say, I think my favorite is the Disney version. So, I like the story of Tarzan and the archetype. I have never read the origin and original and I did enjoy it, but there are many problems with it.
Tarzan is a Mary Sue character. I mean, everything he tries, he's good at the first time. There is no character growth.
He grew up in the jungle and then later, in a matter of days, a Frenchman teaches him to speak French. He teaches himself to read and write English from a dictionary. He learns about money and people over a weeks time. He learns to drive and who knows what else he can just do.
The worst part of the story is how racist the story is. Because Tarzen comes from a royal line with a title, of course he can do everything. It's in his DNA. There are black tribes around him and they are horrible and he kills them and fights with them. They are barely human. He doesn't even consider himself one of them and he grew up with Apes. Strange right.
Things I didn't know in the 1st book: Jane goes back to Baltimore and she is about to marry someone for money. Tarzan gets on a back and comes to America where he learns to drive and the modern world isn't that weird to him. He saves her from a fire. I've never seen any of that in a movie or TV show.
Edgar had a grand idea, an idea that lasted more than a century. Still, the story plotting is a mess. I don't know why Tarzan didn't save Jane in Africa.
This is adventure literature to bring the jungles to people who would never see them. It's action packed and written in it's time. I'm glad this story has been remade and upgraded. The stories are now better. I still enjoyed reading it and seeing Tarzan once again. It has major issue, but I have to put it in it's historical place too and see those attitudes as how the people of the day operated, bad or good.
I don't know if I will read more Tarzan, but I'm glad I read this. I do think Edgar Burroughs wrote a racist story, but I do want to read his Mars stories. I'm interested in that.
adventurous
medium-paced
After seeing the latest silver screen incarnation of the character, I thought I might revisit this book and see if Tarzan was who I remembered. It had been more than twenty years since I first read "Tarzan of the Apes." (I recall reading it in the summer then, too, at my grandparents' lake house, in a big fat Tarzan anthology with thrilling illustrations by Esteban Maroto.)
There were only a few things I recalled in detail going into it this second time: a battle with an ape that leaves Tarzan's forehead terribly scarred; a moment where Tarzan hunts a rival by noticing the remnants of a squished caterpillar on tree limbs; and the last few beats of ending. The sum total of those memories encompassed just a few paragraphs—the rest all felt pretty fresh to my eyes.
I believe I enjoyed the book more during this read than I did when I read it back in the late 80s. Tarzan was, as I recall, too much id for my somewhat puritanical adolescent mindset, and his jungle was never as thrilling to me as Mars or Venus or Pellucidar, so I never read all the character's books, just the first few.
But this reading really made me admire Burroughs's imagination and ability to make me believe in the character. Yes, his Tarzan is superhuman, but more interestingly he's also incredibly curious. He wants to figure everything out, from the secrets of his parents' cabin to the rituals of the local cannibals to the actions of the Porter family when it arrives on Africa's coast. This was a trait I'd not remembered, and it really endeared me to the character.
I liked Tarzan the character to much, that when Jane and her father show up half-way through the story and the novel switches to their point of view, I grew a bit bored. I wanted to be with Tarzan more, not these bumbling treasure hunters. (But, thankfully, it did not take long for Tarzan to show up again. It is his book, after all.)
Anyway, Burroughs proved again to be just as fun to read now as he was when I was a kid, which gives me a sense that, just maybe, all is right with the world.
There were only a few things I recalled in detail going into it this second time: a battle with an ape that leaves Tarzan's forehead terribly scarred; a moment where Tarzan hunts a rival by noticing the remnants of a squished caterpillar on tree limbs; and the last few beats of ending. The sum total of those memories encompassed just a few paragraphs—the rest all felt pretty fresh to my eyes.
I believe I enjoyed the book more during this read than I did when I read it back in the late 80s. Tarzan was, as I recall, too much id for my somewhat puritanical adolescent mindset, and his jungle was never as thrilling to me as Mars or Venus or Pellucidar, so I never read all the character's books, just the first few.
But this reading really made me admire Burroughs's imagination and ability to make me believe in the character. Yes, his Tarzan is superhuman, but more interestingly he's also incredibly curious. He wants to figure everything out, from the secrets of his parents' cabin to the rituals of the local cannibals to the actions of the Porter family when it arrives on Africa's coast. This was a trait I'd not remembered, and it really endeared me to the character.
I liked Tarzan the character to much, that when Jane and her father show up half-way through the story and the novel switches to their point of view, I grew a bit bored. I wanted to be with Tarzan more, not these bumbling treasure hunters. (But, thankfully, it did not take long for Tarzan to show up again. It is his book, after all.)
Anyway, Burroughs proved again to be just as fun to read now as he was when I was a kid, which gives me a sense that, just maybe, all is right with the world.
adventurous
It's cool to know the story. Tarzan's upbringing is all really cool; how he learns and grows beyond the apes, transitioning into a "man". However, reaching the point where he interacts with other people becomes a lot less interesting. With the exception of D'Arnot, who we see make an effort to "civilize" Tarzan, and the complications therein, the interactions with people hold a lot of melodrama, and so the conclusion had little impact.
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I was reading Edgar Rice Burroughs books from the school library in the 70s. I bought some of them in the 80s when I started visiting bookstores regularly. I recently read some of them before tossing them in the recycle bin. I probably would have given them more stars when I first read them in the 70s
A classic adventure with themes of sacrifice, love, from a intelligent wild beast at heart.
Tarzan is an infant shipwrecked on the coast of Africa with his family. His family dies but an ape who just lost her baby, finds Tarzan and raises him as her own. When Tarzan finds the hut left by his family he begins learning about his human side.
When other humans are marooned near Tarzan's home, he learns to love Jane. At first, she thinks he is two different people--the savage who rescues her and the man who leaves her notes. Jane eventually motivates Tarzan to become civilized.
In this first Tarzan novel, Burroughs explores the idea of nature versus nurture and chooses nature. Tarzan was born a British lord and he will rise to the top.
Don't miss this classic adventure.
When other humans are marooned near Tarzan's home, he learns to love Jane. At first, she thinks he is two different people--the savage who rescues her and the man who leaves her notes. Jane eventually motivates Tarzan to become civilized.
In this first Tarzan novel, Burroughs explores the idea of nature versus nurture and chooses nature. Tarzan was born a British lord and he will rise to the top.
Don't miss this classic adventure.
This was ridiculous, and frustrating, and fantastic.