Book 28. The
Return of Tarzan, by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
This is
the second novel of the Tarzan series, and I was hesitant to tackle it without
first having read Tarzan of the Apes. But I assumed that between movies,
comic books, and general pop culture osmosis, I could jump right into the
second novel.
And I was
able to catch up very quickly. The novel starts with Tarzan separated from Jane
Porter, despite them being in love with each other. He begins this novel
feeling rootless, having sacrificing his prospects of marrying Jane. He leaves
America for Europe, and on the ship runs into a range of characters, including
the Russian Nikolas Rokoff. Tarzan breaks up Rokoff’s efforts at shipboard
crime, earning the man’s ire.
Rokoff
dogs Tarzan in his adventures across Europe and Africa, but the King of the
Apes eventually defeats the Russian once and for all. The story also details
Jane’s emotional and physical traumas during this time. The novel ends with a
pair of weddings, and Tarzan coming fully into his identity as Lord Greystoke.
He has also become the King of a tribe in Africa, with access to huge
stockpiles of gold. It is safe to say that this is a very happy ending.
There are
easy comparisons to be made between Burrough’s storyline for Tarzan and his
storyline for John Carter. Both are adventure stories with an underlying love
story. With the Carter novels, I found that the books became repetitive once
Carter and Dejah Thoris married. I hope that Burroughs did not fall into the
same trap with this series.
But there
is no reason to worry about future novels at this point. This was a fun adventurous
romp of a novel, with a deeply satisfying emotional core.
Source:
The Classic Tales Podcast. Narrator BJ Harison does a terrific job handling the
various characters and accents, as well as creating an interesting and
effective “Tarzan cry.”
