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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
I've been on a quest for several years now to read old fiction books, particularly (but not exclusively) American and British novels, that have been around for so long and are so famous that no one reads them anymore, because they've been made into movies or TV mini-series (often many times over), or because they've entered into our pop culture references so frequently that people *think* they know them without having to actually read them. They don't have to be great novels -- just really, really famous ones.
I found an unread paperback version of Tarzan of the Apes in a ramshackle, completely unorganized used book store in Washington, DC. The book turned out to be a treat. It's no Elmer Gantry , but it is quite a lot of fun. The foreword by Gore Vidal really put the book into perspective, helping me to enjoy it even more. I knew that one of its messages, delivered through the continual killing of animals, would be "Man is the true king of beasts." But what I wasn't expecting was some rather insightful social commentary -- like that one of the African tribes engaging in particular cruelties learned such from their Belgian "colonizers." And that, in hunting, you use all that you kill, and you respect what you kill. Tarzan is a fascinating character. I particularly liked his thoughts to a group of learned men, centering around "There is as much individuality among the lower orders, gentlemen, as there is among ourselves." And, no, none of the filmed versions have been even remotely faithful to the book -- I know 'cause I've seen them all. And that's a huge shame, because the exchanges between Professor Archimedes Q. Porter, Jane's father, and Samuel T. Philander, are hilarious.
I found an unread paperback version of Tarzan of the Apes in a ramshackle, completely unorganized used book store in Washington, DC. The book turned out to be a treat. It's no Elmer Gantry , but it is quite a lot of fun. The foreword by Gore Vidal really put the book into perspective, helping me to enjoy it even more. I knew that one of its messages, delivered through the continual killing of animals, would be "Man is the true king of beasts." But what I wasn't expecting was some rather insightful social commentary -- like that one of the African tribes engaging in particular cruelties learned such from their Belgian "colonizers." And that, in hunting, you use all that you kill, and you respect what you kill. Tarzan is a fascinating character. I particularly liked his thoughts to a group of learned men, centering around "There is as much individuality among the lower orders, gentlemen, as there is among ourselves." And, no, none of the filmed versions have been even remotely faithful to the book -- I know 'cause I've seen them all. And that's a huge shame, because the exchanges between Professor Archimedes Q. Porter, Jane's father, and Samuel T. Philander, are hilarious.
An enjoyable read, but very Victorian in sentiment. It is hard to blame people for the ideas of their time, but some of the underlying racism and sexism was pretty annoying.
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A fun read! Extremely racist, sexist, and elitist but if you can ignore that, it's a great book. Very different from the Disney movie.
The classic story everybody knows; this original version proves to be gorier, darker, and, in my opinion just as fun, though different, as the disney version. Decidedly for a different age group (maybe 14 and up?), grittier, and with some racist undertones that date it to the time it was written, the story of Tarzan is beautifully descriptive, as Burroughs wonderfully draws the setting with his words. Best read if you forget the implausability of it all.
Utter. Disappointment. As someone who usually enjoys adventure books, I delved into this one with relatively high hopes, even though I only saw the movie a few times as a kid and wasn't particularly fond of it. This is a terrible book. I will put aside all the racism and sexism, that may be explained by the epoch it was written in (even though it is particularly terrible in that book compared to quite a few authors of the same era), but the whole thing is lazy. It lacks finesse, all the characters are under developed and are caricatures of themselves. Tarzan is so immaculate that he might as well be a god (an is even referred to as a semi god), he is so intelligent that he teaches himself to read and write perfectly long before he ever heard human languages. He saves the day EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. The native tribes of Africa are all savage cannibals, unable to understand what happens to them and are cruel beyond words. Jane's father and his colleague are so self absorbed that they put themselves in impossible situations and don't even seem to realize it. All the women are either here to belong to men, to be pretty or are just good enough to faint every single time something happens to them. Credibility and reader engagement suffers from this lazy writing so much it is frustrating. I pushed through the whole novel to make sure I wasn't missing anything and for my general knowledge, since it is considered a classic (don't ask me why), but if you haven't started it, I wouldn't recommend it. Also, I read the French translation and I don't know how good the original was but from what I read, even the writing is nothing out of the ordinary.
I was really surprised by how much I loved this. Yes, it's a classic so it has obviously been well loved (not to say that everyone likes all classics), but I was a little on the fence, even if I wanted to read it. Glad to say that I was in no way disappointed. It ended up being really good in the plot and characters - and the overall vibe of the book was excellent.
holy fuck. are there really 26 other books to this goddamn series??
