Tarzan's Quest (1935)
Tarzan the Magnificent (1936)
Tarzan and the Forbidden City (1938)
Tarzan and the Foreign Legion (1947)
Tarzan and the Madman (1964)
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
fantasy, adventure
copyright 1935 to 1964, read in June, July 2015
rated 6/10: read to pass the time
Read to pass the time. Or... read these stories because Tarzan is a classic hero... Even if the stories are just a bit dated. Just a bit ? Well...
Well, just read Tarzan stories because they are a lot of fun :-) A lot of fun. Plenty of action. Very little literary merit.
It's almost stream of consciousness writing... A series of actions, one after another. Captured by savages, rescued from savages, captured by great apes, rescued from great apes, captured by... Well, you know what I mean. Never a dull moment.
Even the romantic triangles tend to be solved rather simply: by a spear or a gun or a charging lion ! Not even by a heroic sacrifice.
The native villages all have a palisade which is easily scaled. There is always a large tree beside the chief's hut, a large enough tree to hide Tarzan so that he can mysteriously throw stones at the chief... Except that in Malaysia the native huts are up on stilts... Still the palisade to be climbed but Tarzan has to hide in the shadows underneath the chief's hut...
Every jungle path has a stalking lion -- or tiger, in Malaysia. And a tree from which Tarzan can leap onto the back of the lion... or tiger.
In the depths of every jungle is a mysterious tribe of primitive white men. Though in the later books, they range from white to pale brown... Mixed marriages !
In these later books, Burroughs has moved with the times. In one book he recognises the social issues of a white man marrying a black woman. (Luckily enough it turns out that she is actually white.) There are primitive natives -- and there are primitive but intelligent natives.
Burroughs also edges into simple social commentary. Such as marital relations with the light humour of, say, The Flintstones.
One point that is made -- regularly and heavily -- is that Burroughs... sorry, Tarzan... is disgusted by human behaviour. Animals may kill but they kill for a good reason, for survival. They do not start wars. Nor do animals lie and cheat.
Foreign Legion is set in World War II. It is very much an anti-Japanese pro-American story. Lions leap out of the bushes in an attempt to kill the beautiful girl. Yet it is very much a "human" story. There are heroic humans... yet overall, the humans fare very badly. Burroughs is willing to support American heroism -- but he still points out that humans have the capacity for evil which does not exist in animals.
There's cliche, there's sameness, there's weak writing... But these are still very enjoyable books !
Tarzan is magnificent. Heroes win, baddies lose. And it's action, from go to whoa.
Great character. Great adventure. Great fun :-)
"If your plan is for 1 year, plant rice. If your plan is for 10 years, plant trees. If your plan is for 100 years, educate children." Confucius
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