A few months ago, while digging through some boxes full of old things in the garage, I came across a large stack of books. Their yellowed pages and well-worn, detailed covers immediately attracted me, and, after my packed schedule finally allowed me time to read, I began Tarzan of the Apes, the first of 24 books in Edgar Rice Burroughs’s 1914 series.
The book chronicles approximately the first 22 years of the life of Tarzan, son of John Clayton — the English Lord Greystoke — and his wife, Lady Alice.
The story of Tarzan begins when Clayton and his pregnant wife are marooned off the coast of Africa following mutiny on the Fuwalda, the ship they were sailing on. There, Clayton is able to construct a strong cabin to house himself, wife and new baby boy.
Unfortunately, John and Alice pass away, and Tarzan is taken in by Kala, a great female anthropoid ape whose child was killed when a male ape fell into a fit of rage. The child grows up among a fearsome tribe led by the bull ape Kerchak, battling the apes’ vicious natural enemies.
Over time, he masters weapons such as his father’s knife, handwoven grass nooses, spears and bows and arrows filched from a local cannibal tribe.
When Tarzan is around twenty years old, he sees white people for the first time since his parents’ death. Professor Archimedes Q. Porter and his group are abandoned by mutineers of the Arrow, who steal the treasure that Professor Porter and his party had found. Tarzan comes across Archimedes’ daughter, the beautiful Jane, and eventually falls in love with her.
After some time, a small French cruiser brings the Arrow back to the bay where the Porters’ party was. There, Lieutenant Paul d’Arnot and his comrades discover that Jane has been abducted by the great ape Terkoz in an act of revenge for a past defeat at Tarzan’s hands. In the subsequent rescue attempt, d’Arnot is captured by the cannibal tribe. Tarzan, having safely returned Jane a day after her rescue party set out, then rescues d’Arnot and nurses him to health.
When they return to the cabin on the beach, it is deserted. Everyone else thought them dead, but remain seven days at Jane’s insistence before departing. Tarzan and d’Arnot become good friends, and the Frenchman teaches his primitive comrade how to speak French before they begin a long journey to America to find Jane.
One of the first things I noticed while reading Tarzan was the major difference between the book and the 1999 Disney rendition. Where was the evil Mr. Clayton, trying to steal all the animals? And why was Tarzan not surfing on the tree branches and swinging on vines?
Burroughs’s Tarzan was far different — a true beast of the jungle. His enormous feats of strength were often in fierce battles to the death, and not only against Sabor the lioness. Many times, he was forced to defend himself from other apes by killing them. In the book, it is Tarzan who kills Kerchak.
The writing also details Tarzan’s hunting and diet, which includes the meat of animals as well as humans (he ceases consuming the latter after he becomes somewhat-civilized). Though rather gruesome, it shows his truly bestial mindset and instincts of a man raised by apes.
The animated film also does no justice to the ape-man’s intelligence. After gaining entrance to his father’s cabin, Tarzan trains himself to read and write English by looking at the books left there. He also weaves grass ropes and used them as deadly nooses, and teaches himself the use of a bow after seeing it wielded only once.
Aside from misrepresenting the novel’s Tarzan, the movie twists the roles and personalities of Jane and Clayton. Clayton is presented as a gruff, self-centered and greedy man, entirely contrary to the gentleman of Burroughs’s writings. Clayton, according to the book, is polite, handsome and chivalrous. He also loves Jane, and makes no attempt to capture the animals or injure Tarzan, only doing everything within his power to protect her.
In another major difference, Jane does not teach Tarzan how to speak, nor do they even have a conversation while she is stranded on the African coast. While she speaks to Tarzan in the few days they spend together after he rescues her, he is unable to comprehend her words. Jane and her father are very close, as in the movie, but are not on a scientific expedition as in the film.
I found the interactions between Tarzan, the people and the animals of the book’s world far more interesting than those of the movie. All 257 pages drew me into the tale of the orphan growing up as an ape, and I found myself silently cheering at his success and worrying when he was in danger.
The book itself is incredibly detailed and intricate, with thorough plot development that makes readers attached to the characters and sympathetic to their plights. The author draws his readers in through his vivid descriptions and sub-plots, and unique relationships between characters. All of the new information about Tarzan’s upbringing that never occurred to me previously were interesting and surprising.
Overall, I found Tarzan to be a great read that I would recommend to all of my friends. Burroughs weaves an engaging, almost believable story that will please readers and leave them wanting more.
Tarzan of the Apes is available on Amazon and most local bookstores for about $7 paperback and $12 hardcover.
For more book reviews, read the March 22 article, ‘Ender’s Game’ exhibits futuristic, compelling plot.
