(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)The CCLaP 100: In which I read for the first time a hundred "classic" books, then write essays on whether or not they still deserve the labelBook #25: Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1914)The story in a nutshell:Set in the last great days of the British Empire (i.e. the first decades of the 20th Century), Tarzan of the Apes is the story of one John Clayton, Viscount of Greystoke, actually born in the jungle on the western coast of Africa after his parents were marooned there by a mutinous ship crew, while they were passengers and bystanders on a long sea voyage. Ah, but it turns out that his parents both die while he's still a newborn, prompting a hasty "adoption" by a local ape named Kala and a childhood raised not as a human, but rather as the palest, weakest, least hairy ape of the entire region. The first half of this book, then, is an examination of tribal life itself, as "Tarzan" (his ape name) navigates the tricky politics and graphic violence of the animal society he finds himself in, even while slowly coming to realize during his puberty just how different he actually is. (See, he ends up stumbling across his parents' old jungle homestead while a teen, a surprisingly domestic setup because of the mutineers letting the Claytons unload all their worldly possessions before being abandoned; and thus does Tarzan end up just naturally learning how to read and write on his own, how to use a weapon and more, eventually using these things to bloodily conquer all his foes and become the famed "King of the Apes" we know today.)The plot's pace picks up again in the second half, though, after yet another wreck by a ship full of lily-white Europeans; and who should this party include but none other than the evil William Clayton Robert Canler, who's been using his personal fortune to bully into marriage our adventurous heroine Jane Porter, a Victorian with a wild streak who ends up enjoying their impromptu African adventure much more than the nerdy French scientists American professors also along for the ride. Needless to say, Tarzan ends up saving their lives numerous times; has a chick-lit-esque wordless romantic night of vine-swinging with the clearly "Jungle Fever" infected Jane; and of course somehow manages to be the catalyst behind not only Robert's fall from grace but a surprise financial windfall for the Porter family, thus erasing the debt that was forcing Jane into a marriage of convenience to begin with. And thus does our "origin tale" end in the rural farmlands of Wisconsin (the rural farmlands of Wisconsin?), with the baddies punished and the goodies rewarded and with a now-civilized Tarzan ready for the two dozen official sequels that would soon follow.The argument for it being a classic:Even this book's fans admit that it's not the quality of the prose itself that makes this a classic, but rather its place in artistic history; for as most people know by now, Tarzan turned out to be an insanely loved character by the public at large, prompting one of the first-ever "character franchises" in the history of the entertainment industry. (In fact, Burroughs himself started one of the first artist-owned production companies in history as well, the still-existing "Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc.," which has overseen each and every one of the thousands of Tarzan books, movies, TV episodes, comics and more that has ever been made.) And besides, its fans say, even the writing itself isn't as bad as some make it out to be; sure, some of the later sequels get awfully cheesy and formulaic, but this first novel is surprisingly sophisticated for its time, deliberately avoiding many of the lazy racial stereotypes that defined this age and even offering up a refreshingly independent female lead too. Add up all of these things, its fans argue, along with the fantastic snapshot of its times that it provides (a look at an overextended British Empire first seriously questioning the ethics of colonization), and you have yourself a book that still easily deserves to be revisited by a whole new generation of readers.The argument against:Oh, and did I mention the CRAPPY, CRAPPY WRITING on display in Tarzan? Because that's certainly the first thing this book's critics will bring up, many of whom openly laugh at the entire concept of this being considered a "literary classic." That's like giving a Best Picture Oscar to a Will Smith movie, they argue, merely for it being the biggest moneymaker that year; just because Tarzan himself has become entwined into our entire popular culture, they say, doesn't make any of the actual projects better in quality than they were when they first came out, i.e. not very good at all. In fact, it could be argued that today's title perfectly illustrates the challenges inherent in defining what exactly the word "classic" even means, the issue that inspired this "CCLaP 100" essay series to begin with; that although this title is certainly historically important, it might be better at this point to actually study the "Tarzan Phenomenon" and its impact on culture than to read the literal books themselves. It's something that can be said these days of more and more popular old genre novels from the Victorian and Edwardian ages, and Tarzan they'd say is no exception.My verdict:So first, let's quickly admit that this book's critics are right about its quality, and that Burroughs' own attitude about his ouevre while alive profoundly supports this: turns out that the Chicago-born author never cared much about being a "good" writer at all, and only stumbled into the profession in the first place after a failed career in the US Cavalry (weak heart) and a decade of demeaning odd jobs in the Manifest-Destiny-era western territories. It was while mired in such circumstances that he was first introduced through a friend to the adventure serials of the pulp industry, at which point the non-writing Burroughs famously declared that if this was the kind of crap that sold pulps, he could do such stuff in his sleep and never have to be a day-laborer again; and that's exactly what he did, forging a 75-book "literary career" that for him was much more about simply paying the bills than about any artistic considerations. So is its overwhelming commercial success enough, then, to declare the book a "classic?" Certainly, for example, it almost single-handedly set the tone for the way Hollywood still works even to this day, not just from a "franchise-building" aspect but even in the way this genre-actioner's plotline is set up: there is the main "A" story of the title (Tarzan's struggles both in the wild and among "civilized society"); then a "B" romantic story featuring two good-looking airheads (in this case, Jane and the suave French sailor Paul D'Arnot William Clayton, Tarzan's cousin -- note that the infamous "Me Tarzan, you Jane" love affair isn't explored in the original books until much later in the series); and then a humorous "C" story featuring a pair of bumbling nerds, existing for almost no other reason than to provide comic relief. This has been the basic framework of nearly every Hollywood action movie since, so much so that most of us take these tropes for granted by now; and we have the original Tarzan to thank for this, because of it just happening to be a runaway bestseller at the same exact moment in history that the nascent Hollywood was first starting to write the formulas and rules of its industry, the story conventions that thousands of lazy hacks have leaned on ever since.So what I'm arguing today, then (and it's rare that I argue this, so enjoy it), is that maybe this is enough to label Tarzan of the Apes a classic, and to encourage people to keep reading it to this day; not for the quality of the writing itself, but rather the overwhelmingly important role it played in the history of both the film industry and popular culture in general. The "summer blockbuster" wouldn't be nearly the thing it currently is if not for Tarzan; and given how important in our modern times the summer blockbuster is to the overall history of the American arts, this alone I feel makes the original slim novel still worth reading. And besides, what its fans say about the book's quality is true too, that ultimately it's not much worse than most of the other serialized genre-actioners that were churned out at the end of the Victorian Era (yes, Jules Verne, I'm looking at you), and in some ways is actually much better than typical; just to cite one excellent example, as mentioned Burroughs goes out of his way to avoid metaphorical comparisons between black people and the ape society on display here (a major point of many of the other eugenics-obsessed genre-actioners of the period), instead deliberately showing through the characters' actions that the shipwrecked white people and local black villagers possess exactly the same amount of intelligence, in both cases way above what even the smartest ape is capable of.Certainly no one is going to mistake this book for the Early Modernist masterpieces that were coming out at the same time; but maybe a book doesn't always have to be such a thing to be considered a classic, or to argue that people should still continue to read it to this day. Maybe sometimes it's simple competence combined with extraordinary historical significance that justifies such a label; like I said, it's not an argument I make often, but in the case of Tarzan of the Apes is one where I will. Although caution is advised, it's ultimately a title I recommend everyone checking out.Is it a classic? Yes
There were several elements of this book that I highly enjoyed. For one the writing was at times vibrant and rich. For another it was an entertaining adventure novel. Although I fail to see why this is on the 1001 list and Fahrenheit 451 is not. Come on list makers pick up your game.There is little need to talk about the synopsis. Tarzan has been parodied so often and been turned into a television and movie star. The idea of the ruler of the apes has become a kind of modern legend along with similar tales like The Jungle Book and the legend of Romulus and Remus. What I do want to pick up on are the elements of the novel that are often forgotten in the overall legend. And which on the whole take away from the story. The racist and sexist elements of the novel. As it was pointed out to me. Tarzan is the all conquering British imperialist gentleman of the time. He claims his girl, he defeats the African 'savages' and rules the jungle by might of strength alone. While novels such as Disgrace and Heart of Darkness have been labelled as racist they appeared to be addressing how the racism of the eras they depict was unacceptable. However Tarzan of the Apes is a dated product of its times. It features highly stereotypical characters and shows a subtle support for imperialism. Which today is frowned upon as a negative aspect of our western history. However I do not take Burroughs to task for his views. Firstly such views are mainly the product of the society he was living in. It is his society which is more at fault and rather through this novel we can see the ideas which were negative and permeated such times. And still affect us in minor degrees because every single person is to some degree a kind of racist. Or rather we all tend to isolate and separate other people into a group of the 'other.' To add to that I believe that we in society hold many views which will later be seen as immoral and vile and as such we should not judge those in the past from the moral high-ground. Until we learn from their mistakes I don't believe we are qualified to call Burroughs a racist and stereotypical 'bigot' and even when we learn I don't believe anyone is righteous enough to judge another human in such a degree. At least consciously. Secondly the reason why I don't judge the author is because he's a fine writer. Yes his work is dated and holds old fashioned ideas but he writes great action tales. And that allows me the chance to excuse his opinions as I can ignore the same in Edgar Allan Poe's writing. Now if it were bad writing perhaps I would be harsher because then this work would seem to be nothing more than an attempt to reveal British superiority but it seems more to be an action novel with such themes resulting from the social pressure behind the author.Tarzan's adventures are worth reading I found. This was not a particularly long read but neither was it as short as say reading your average graphic novel. This was not the best classic. Neither was it the worst classic. It fell in between as a decent novel full of misinformed ideas. To end on that note for instance the author didn't even travel to Africa for research unlike Conrad. And as such he wrote about how lions were in the jungle along with wolves from a slightly mistaken viewpoint as we now know. But then again a man couldn't really grow as strong as an ape or live like Tarzan so who knows. Perhaps Tarzan lives in a completely made up world and it's really an epic fantasy (hang on, Tarzan isn't real?)
What do You think about Tarzan Of The Apes (2003)?
I feel like I've been waiting for a book like this my entire life, and here it was all this time, published long before I was even born.Is the light cast upon race and gender in this novel wrong and inappropriate? Most definitely. However, I read this book ignoring these things, not out of ignorance as the word would imply, but with an acceptance of the flaws, and deciding instead to fall in love with the adventure and the horrible violence of Tarzan's growing up in the jungle. I didn't read this looking for a realistic survival study on apes and men either. I was not expecting the gritty and gruesome nature of the story, as my only experience of Tarzan prior to reading this novel is with the Disney animated movie version. There is no child-friendly telling of Tarzan winning the love of the great ape Kerchak and Jane teaching him how to read, or Tarzan gallivanting around with his ape buddy Terk (view spoiler)[ Terkoz is actually an antagonist here (hide spoiler)]
—Celise
Several factors went into me picking up ERB's TARZAN OF THE APES just before my 15th birthday, among them of course was the primal cover painting by who I do believe was Boris Vallejo (yet again, the same artist who attracted me to the GOR novels), and I proceeded directly from ERB's Pellucidar series into the character of Tarzan, who became such an inspiration to me in those impressionable teen years. I think Tarzan's savage nobility had something to do with how I began to framework attributes within myself. I rarely felt understood in those days and had an utter lack of interest in the Modern Age, rather seeking any distraction to retreat within the world of my own imagination. Tarzan transported me there, brachiating through the jungle canopy. I loved pulp fiction back then (even if I didn't know what it was) and still do.The actual writing of TARZAN OF THE APES, I recollect as rather ponderous at times, with an overabundance of prose put into the tedious details rather than a lot of thought put into the actual plotting, but to my 14-year-old mind, it didn't matter at the time. I'd been reading J.R.R. Tolkien and John Norman (I daresay those two authors have never been referred to in the same sentence, like, EVER, before now), so I'd read two ends of a literary spectrum in fantasy and ERB fit neatly in the middle. I devoured TARZAN OF THE APES like a monkey with a delicious bunch of bananas.As I've grown older, I think I've held on to some vestiges of that noble savage within, and I'm glad for it. I don't know if I'd recommend to just any tween to read Burroughs in order to find inspiration, but it worked for me, so for the right kid, well, why not? My four-year-old son is already rather pulled in by superheroes; Batman seems to be his inspiration, just as Tarzan and Conan the Barbarian were to me.
—J.M.
I probably picked this up initially because I enjoyed the Ron Ely TV series on Saturday mornings as a kid. Had no idea what I was getting into."Tarzan" evokes many well-deserved images of cheesiness. The Burroughs series itself after the first couple of books becomes pretty bad pulp fiction, with weird tie-ins to his Center of the Earth series, Tarzan's son going through exactly the same experience as his dad, etc.But this first book is something very different. Not just one of the best pulp fiction books I have read, but one of the best books I have read, period. Perhaps too strong an endorsement, but several years ago I cajoled my wife, who is NOT into this genre, to read the book, and she thought it was genius. She has encouraged our kids to read it. The book is much darker than the various film and TV treatments, and considerably smarter. Burroughs creates a new world in the jungle, complete with a new language of the Great Apes (not gorillas, thank you very much, but another "higher" type of ape of Burroughs' own creation). Tarzan is a complex, interesting character. The story moves with a quick, engaging pace. Set aside what you think you know about the Ape Man and give this version a test-drive. As a stand alone novel, it is hard to beat.
—Monk
