During the past week, I scratched another item off my bucket
list when I finally took the time to finish reading “Tarzan of the Apes” by
Edgar Rice Burroughs. Like most people, I’ve always known about the Tarzan
character, but I’d never read the original Tarzan story. A year or so ago, I
added this book to my bucket list when I saw that it would be celebrating its
100th anniversary this year.
For those of you unfamiliar with the novel, it was
originally published in book form in 1914 and gives us the story of young John
Clayton, aka, Tarzan. The son of Lord and Lady Greystoke, Clayton is born in
the jungles of Africa to parents who are put ashore by a surly band of
mutineers. The Greystokes die while Clayton is an infant, and he’s eventually
adopted by a female ape.
Clayton is raised among the apes, who call him Tarzan, which
means “white skin.” Tarzan grows to adulthood, and has no clue about his true
origins. This all changes though when another group of mutineers put another
group of travelers ashore, a group that includes the beautiful, Jane.
Tarzan finds himself torn between his ape tribe and this new
group of humans, and he’s forced to bring his special set of skills into play
to save the day. Before it’s all said and done, he finds himself in a tale that
involves cannibals, buried treasure and a host of hungry jungle creatures. To
find out how it all ends, you’ll have to read this outstanding book for yourself.
Burroughs’ “Tarzan of the Apes” was so popular that he went
on to write 24 sequels, and his Tarzan stories have been adapted dozens of
times in film and on television. Having now read the book, I can understand
why it’s so popular. To begin with, I knew very little about the story’s plot and found myself
deep in the story before I realized it. It reads like a thriller, is very
engrossing and will leave you on the edge of your seat.
My interest in this book really ramped up after I saw it on
several recommended reading lists. One of my favorite Web sites, “The Art of
Manliness,” ranked it on two of its best-of lists. They ranked it No. 53 on a
list called “100 Must Read Books: The Man’s Essential Library” and No. 46 on a
list called “The Essential Adventure Library: 50 Fictional Adventure Books.” In
June 2012, the Library of Congress ranked “Tarzan of the Apes” on its list of
“88 Books That Shaped America.”
If you’ve never read “Tarzan of the Apes,” I highly
recommend that you check it out. Maybe best of all, you can now read it for free because the
copyright has expired and you can find copies of it for free online. The
version that I read I downloaded for free on my Kindle Fire through Amazon.
In the end, how many of you have ever read “Tarzan of the
Apes”? What did you think about it? Did you like it or not? What was your
favorite part? Let us know in the comments section below.
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