Tarzan

[Fried Egg]

I've read the first two Tarzan novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs and I have noticed that there are many others. What I'm wondering is that are they all worth reading? Does the quality of the books deteriate or are they all of the same high standard of the first two?

[j. d. worthington]

They vary considerably. As the novels progressed (as I recall) the quality dropped a fair amount over time. However, some of the Tarzan books are made up of collections of shorter works which were written throughout Burroughs' career, and some of those are rather good. (Some, of course, suffer from the same problem as the later novels.)

However, it's been a good long while since I last read any of the Tarzan novels (save the first), so someone with a fairly good critical opinion in general, who has read them more recently, might be of more use to you at this point....

[Perpetual Man]

Like J D I read the Tarzan novels many years ago. I can remember really enjoying them to the extent that I read the first one twice! (Back in the days when I had time to read one book, let alone the same one twice!!!)

The earlier ones were filled with a sense of wonder, and you could almost believe that this man had grown up in the wild with animals, and there is a lot of iconic imagery being put in place; but as the books went on I found they began to get repetative - and you get the feel that Burroughs had no real plan to keep writing more, or as many as he did. Tarzan ages very quickly and is soon an old man doing deeds that he really shouldn't be doing!

It was rectified with son of Tarzan when the offspring took over the adventuring, but by this point I had found the books to be not the same and stopped. But looking back, the early ones were really something quite special - they must have been I suppose to spawn such an icon!

[Fried Egg]

Would anyone then know which ones (besides the two I've already read) that I should seek out? How far should I go in the series before stopping?

[Perpetual Man]

Now that's a question and a half. It's going to be a real stretch of my memory to rember which ones aI really enjoyed. For some strange reason I seem to recall the number 8, so perhaps I read the first 8 and then stopped enjoying them!

[j. d. worthington]

As noted, it's been a long, long time ago now, but yes, the first several were quite enjoyable; Jungle Tales of Tarzan I remember finding something of a mixed bag, though there were some great things in there, and nothing I recall being really bad... just one or two which were a bit of a let-down compared to others. Also, Tarzan at the Earth's Core (which ties in with Burroughs' Pellucidar books) is also worth a read. I recall thinking several of the others were at least worth reading, often rather enjoyable... but unfortunately, titles escape me at present....