Tarzan of the Apes

So silly I kinda liked it.

Oh, the racism. Plus, other problems.

The imperialism and racism is pulling this down.

It’s sort-of fascinating in an awful way that Burroughs manages to get in two completely different stereotypes of black people: the African cannibal and the American mammy.

Also, that the size and armament of the French »search party« makes it an invasion force, and thus the attack by the natives self defense. But i guess that falls under “imperialism and racism”, too.

Then, there is one giant plot hole. (I’m surely not the first to notice it, but still.) How did Tarzan know to write his name? He was supposed to not even know the connection between writing speech. How could he pick letters for the sounds in his name when he didn’t know that sounds and letters are connected?

In general, a “classic”.

Tarzan is one of those stories that caught the popular imagination and has been retold so often that many people are unaware of the original. This is the original, and everyone who thinks they know what Tarzan is should read it.


Despite Burroughs' fanciful and factless imagination of jungle life, his attachment to the natural superiority of aristocracy, and his rather sexist views of women, it's still a fast-paced, highly entertaining read. I devoured these books as a child and was rather upset at my parents for failing to abandon me in a jungle when I was a baby. Rereading them now I see the flaws, but they're still classics by a master of pulp fiction.