Tarzan of the Apes

About this book

In 1888 an English nobleman, John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, and his pregnant wife are put ashore by mutineers on the coast of West Africa. They build a cabin, their son is born, and after both parents die the baby is adopted by Kala, a female ape who has lost her own child. Raised among the apes, Tarzan grows stronger and cleverer than any of them, teaches himself to read from the picture books in his dead father's cabin, and one day meets Jane Porter, the first white woman he has ever seen.

Context and significance

Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875–1950), an American who had failed at many jobs before he began writing for the pulp magazines, published the story in 1912, and Tarzan became one of the most famous characters in the world, with more than twenty sequels and countless films. Its picture of Africa and Africans reflects the racial prejudices of its time. Then turn to his A Princess of Mars.

About the author