TARZAN THE TERRIBLE
Review contributed by Doc
Hermes ERB Reviews
From 1921, where it was published
as a seven part serial in ARGOSY ALL-STORY WEEKLY, this is more like it!
Starting off these reviews with some of the weaker, less energetic entries
from later in the series gave me a wrong impression. I had forgotten just
how good Edgar Rice Burroughs could be.
TARZAN THE TERRIBLE is one
of the very best of the entire series, filled with imaginative details,
strong characterization and tighter plotting that`s unified by the Apeman`s
search for his missing wife. It showcases one of Burroughs` most intriguing
and believable Lost Worlds.
Seperated from discovery
by a huge nearly impassable morass, Pal-Ul-Don features a few prehistoric
beasts still surviving, notably the sabretooth and the triceratops- like
`gryf` (I`m sure the triceratops is the favorite dinosaur of many of us,
and if one could be still extant and lumbering around, I`d prefer it to
a T. Rex, that`s for sure).
Pa-Ul-Don is inhabited by
two species of pithecanthropoi...essentially modern humans except for their
opposable big toes and odd thumbs. Oh, and there is the fact that they
have long, prehensible tails. The black skinned denizens are the Waz-Don,
and except for the fact that they have a beautiful glossy pelt, they`re
mirror images of the white skinned Ho-Don. The Ho-Don live in settlements,
while the Waz-Don build elaborate caves which honeycomb cliff walls. (I
love the images of these guys scurrying up and down sheer cliffs with their
system of removable pegs set in holes in the walls...if the people I know
who pay to practice indoor rock climbing could spend a weekend in Paul-Ul-Don,
they`d be delirious.)
What`s most appealing about
this story is how open-minded Burroughs was. The Ho-Don and the Waz-Don
are essentially equals in intelligence and morals; and characters from
both species are likeable. Tarzan himself is more complex and subtle than
the simplistic one-dimensional portrayal he was later shown as. For one
thing, he enjoys primitive art for its own sake. In an interesting moment,
he appreciates gazing at scenery ("that spiritual enjoyment of beauty that
only the man-mind may attain..."). Later, we`re told that he had differed
from the apes in many characteristics "not the least of these were in a
measure spiritual, and one that had doubtless been as strong as another
in influencing Tarzan`s love of the jungle had been his appreciaton of
the beauties of nature."
This dual nature is one of
the things I love best about the character. Tarzan is not a mere animal
in a human form, he is a unique symbiosis of the human and the animal natures.
In the later books, this was forgotten in favor of increasingly mean spirited
attacks on human nature, but the balance between Lord Greystoke strolling
through Hyde Park with Jane on a Sunday and Tarzan ripping raw meat from
a freshly killed gazelle* is an essential part of the appeal. Tarzan is
yin and yang in a single body.
Another vital factor in this
book being so good is Jane Clayton herself. She is badly missed by her
absence after TARZAN AND THE GOLDEN LION. Not only does she give the Apeman
a compelling, urgent motivation to go through all the hardship and danger
he undertakes here (in later books, he often seemed to get involved in
wars and crises out of boredom), but Jane herself is a very likeable character.
For the past two years, she has been a prisoner of the Germans and the
native tribes, but she`s kept her self respect and as much dignity as possible.
As soon as she can escape, she does. Jane is half naked and unarmed, but
in a short period of time, she`s making spears and building a tree house.
The moment when she claps her hands in joy at managing to build a fire
is a delight for the reader as well as herself. Jane provides a focus to
Tarzan`s life that he himself realizes very well, and her inexplicable
absence from the later books accounts for much of their blank, inconsequential
feeling.
There is another supporting
character that keeps showing up during the story, a dark giant in a loincloth
who doggedly struggles through the morass and vicious wildlife that gave
Tarzan himself so much trouble. This stranger is carrying bandoliers of
ammo and an Enfield rifle which he refuses to use until he reaches his
goal. Longtime readers of the series will know who he is, of course, and
his dramatic entrance at just the most critical moment is perfectly handled.
The fact that Tarzan, his family and friends, love each other so strongly
that they will hike through wilderness for years to find each other, is
touching and rewarding for the reader to witness.
There is a lot more to recommend
in this book. In Pal-Ul-Don, Tarzan encounters a false religion which he
manipulates to his own ends, and the situation is handled much more defty
than in later books. It should be noted too that, here the Apeman actually
is Tarzan the Terrible in deed. Not only is he capable of rampaging through
a mob of armed opponents, throwing them in all directions, leaping over
low walls so quickly that no one is sure what happened to him, killing
lions with a knife and so forth, but he`s remarkably callous. Twice, when
he needs to inflitrate, he thinks nothing of killing a Ho-Don priest (who
has done him no harm), cutting off the man`s tail and fastening it to his
loincloth to pose as a Ho-Don. He also lops off the head of a slain warrior,
taking it with him as a "recollection of the days when he had delighted
in baiting the blacks of the distant jungle of his birth." (I don`t remember
those scenes in the recent Disney cartoon.) There is nothing saintly about
Tarzan, he`s no perfect Zen master.
*There is a mention
here of Tarzan supplementing his diet with fruit and berries, a detail
neglected in the later books which seemed to have him thriving exclusively
on raw meat.
