The Tarzan Duology of Edgar Rice Burroughs: Tarzan of the Apes and The Return of Tarzan

In the wild, unexplored coastal jungles of West Africa lives a wild human boy named Tarzan, the adopted son of a tribe of fierce almost-human anthropoid apes — but in reality the unknown heir of a wealthy and titled English noble family. Then one day, a small party of American treasure-seekers is marooned on Tarzan’s beach, including a lovely Baltimore belle named Jane Porter. When she leaves, Tarzan quits his jungle life and learns the ways of civilized man, so that he can follow her. But after he arrives, he finds he must choose between his noble birthright and her future happiness ...

The two books in this duology were the world’s introduction to Tarzan of the Apes — possibly the most widely recognized character in fiction. Over the century since he was introduced to us, he has starred in hundreds of books, comics, and films, and thousands of derivative bits of pop culture such as bubble-gum cards and lunch pails. Only Bram Stoker’s Dracula has starred in more movies.

Yet the Tarzan most people think they know is far different from the original Tarzan — the Tarzan you‘ll meet in these pages. The Tarzan most of us know is a crude, powerful, primitive man, who speaks in monosyllables (”Me Tarzan. You Jane. Where boy?”) . The original Tarzan was altogether different — fluent in at least four languages (Ape, French, English and Arabic, in that order) and equally comfortable in the smoking-room of a great ocean liner as he was in the savage jungle.

This Pulp-Lit Annotated Edition of Burroughs’ first two Tarzan books tells the story of the ape-man’s origins, from his childhood adventures to his triumphant arrival as Lord Greystoke.