3.5(4)
Tarzan

Tarzan of the Apes

Tarzan of the Apes is a novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first in a series of books about the title character Tarzan. It was first published in the pulp magazine All-Story Magazine in October 1912. So popular was the character that Burroughs continued the series into the 1940s with two dozen sequels. For the novel's centennial anniversary, Library of America published a hardcover edition based on the original book in April 2012 with an introduction by Thomas Mallon.

The novel tells the story of John Clayton III. John and Alice (Rutherford) Clayton II, Lord and Lady Greystoke of England, are marooned in the western coastal jungles of equatorial Africa in 1888. In September 1889 their son John Clayton III is born. At one year old his mother dies, and soon thereafter his father is killed by the savage king ape Kerchak. The infant is then adopted by the she-ape Kala.

Clayton is named "Tarzan" ("White Skin" in the ape language) and raised in ignorance of his human heritage.

As a boy, feeling alienated from his peers due to their physical differences, he discovers his true parents' cabin, where he first learns of others like himself in their books. Using basic primers with pictures, over many years he teaches himself to read English, but having never heard it, cannot speak it.

Upon his return from one visit to the cabin, he is attacked by a huge gorilla which he manages to kill with his father's knife, although he is terribly wounded in the struggle. As he grows up, Tarzan becomes a skilled hunter.

Later, a tribe of black Africans settle in the area, and Tarzan's adopted mother, Kala, is killed by one of its hunters. Avenging himself on the killer, Tarzan begins an antagonistic relationship with the tribe, raiding its village for weapons and practicing cruel pranks on them. They, in turn, regard him as an evil spirit and attempt to placate him. Some time after, Tarzan finds he has excited the jealousy of Kerchak, the ape leader, who finally attacks him.


  1. 100 Clásicos de la Literatura

    Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Mary Shelley, Lyman Frank Baum, Louisa May Alcott, Dante Alighieri, Jane Austen, Ambrose Bierce, Emily Brontë, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Lewis Carroll, Wilkie Collins, René Descartes, Charles Dickens, Emily Dickinson, Alexandre Dumas, Gustave Flaubert, Benito Pérez Galdós, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Thomas Hardy, E. T. A. A Hoffmann, Washington Irving, Henry James, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Gaston Leroux, Federico García Lorca, H.P. Lovecraft, Publio Virgilio Marón, Lucy Maud Montgomery, John William Polidori, Marco Polo, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Emilio Salgari, Walter Scott, Mark Twain, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Edith Wharton, Mary Wollstonecraft, Fernando de Rojas, Pocket Classic

    book
  2. Tarzan and the Ant Men

    Edgar Rice Burroughs

    book
  3. Jungle Tales of Tarzan

    Edgar Rice Burroughs

    book
  4. Tarzán y los hombres hormiga

    Edgar Rice Burroughs

    book
  5. Historias de la jungla

    Edgar Rice Burroughs

    book
  6. The Beasts of Tarzan :

    Edgar Rice Burroughs

    audiobook
  7. At the Earth's Core :

    Edgar Rice Burroughs

    audiobook
  8. 30 Suspense and Thriller Masterpieces : A Classic Collection of Suspense & Danger

    Marcel Allain, Grant Allen, John Buchan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, G.K. Chesterton, Wilkie Collins, Zenith Horizon Publishing

    book
  9. 7 Glorreiche Western im Superband Juni 2025

    Alfred Bekker, Timothy Stahl, John Frederick, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Bedford-Jones

    book
  10. 5 Erbarmungslose Western April 2025

    Alfred Bekker, Thomas West, Pete Hackett, Edgar Rice Burroughs, George Owen Baxter

    book
  11. 30 Suspense and Thriller Masterpieces

    Marcel Allain, Grant Allen, John Buchan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, G.K. Chesterton, Wilkie Collins, Zenith Evergreen Literary Co

    book
  12. The Warlord of Mars (Barsoom - John Carter, Book 3)

    Edgar Rice Burroughs

    audiobook