Regular marked price: $10.00Discount Price: $8.50
Cost Savings: $1.50 (15%)Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN num: 9780812967067
ISBN number: 0812967062
Label: Modern Library
Manufacturer: Modern Library
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 288
Printing Date: February 11, 2003
Publishing house: Modern Library
Release Date: February 11, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 1568958
Studio: Modern Library
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
The very first and best of the Tarzan novels, of which Edgar Rice Burroughs eventually wrote several dozen, Tarzan of the Apes remains one of the signature stories of American popular literature, as readable as it is famous. Tarzan himself, in the words of Arthur C. Clarke, is “the best known character in the whole of fiction.” As John Taliaferro asserts in his Introduction to this Modern Library Paperback Classic, “There is no question that [Tarzan of the Apes] is one of the most entertaining and exemplary books of the last century. . . . [It] is not merely a story from a bygone era; it is a tale as old as time, and for all time, too.”
Amazon.com Review:
First published in 1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs's romance has lost little of its force over the years--as film revivals and TV series well attest. Tarzan of the Apes is very much a product of its age: replete with bloodthirsty natives and a bulky, swooning American Negress, and haunted by what zoo specialists now call charismatic megafauna (great beasts snarling, roaring, and stalking, most of whom would be out of place in a real African jungle). Burroughs countervails such incorrectness, however, with some rather unattractive representations of white civilization--mutinous, murderous sailors, effete aristos, self-involved academics, and hard-hearted cowards. At Tarzan's heart rightly lies the resourceful and hunky title character, a man increasingly torn between the civil and the savage, for whom cutlery will never be less than a nightmare.
The passages in which the nut-brown boy teaches himself to read and write are masterly and among the book's improbable, imaginative best. How tempting it is to adopt the ten-year-old's term for letters--'little bugs'! And the older Tarzan's realization that civilized 'men were indeed more foolish and more cruel than the beasts of the jungle,' while not exactly a new notion, is nonetheless potent. The very first in Burroughs's serial is most enjoyable in its resounding oddities of word and thought, including the unforgettable 'When Tarzan killed he more often smiled than scowled; and smiles are the foundation of beauty.'
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
very good book it took
me there days to read it.
the writing is very good
but it leaves you asking
queszions about Jane and Tarzan,
are they going to leave together
or Jane going to marry the other
guy Claton?
but it is a good boook
Rated by buyers 
-
The shipment was very fast. I appreciated receiving the book so quickly. It was rated as in very good condition, however, I think the rating should have been fair or good.
Rated by buyers -
This book has action, excitement, drama, suspense, and unfortunately racism. Edgar Rice Burroughs clearly wrote to a white, male audience with this book, which in 1914 when it was very first published was likely the case. Tarzan is that primordial man with no obligations but to himself who somehow teaches himself to write while also teaching himself to be the most cunning entity in the jungle. He can read and write and then go kill an ape or lion on his way home. What a guy.
The fact that he is white and somehow has more survival skills and jungle knowledge than the native blacks is a bit puzzling, but again, remember the time frame it was written in. Whites had come to dominate Africa, as its rightful owners in their opinions, so why not have a hero who can do it all better than any of the natives.
But let's not forget the entertainment value. I rate the entertainment value high as it is a good story and moves at a fast pace. Again, white readers will feel easier about the book than others, but all in all it is not a bad book. It is a bit peculiar that the two examples of ship crews are both prone to mutiny, but maybe Burroughs was trying to make some kind of unwritten point.
Rated by buyers -
I can forgive some of the unrealistic things as well as the multiple coincidences, but I cannot reconcile how Tarzan, who knew how to read and write, but not yet how to speak, could sign his own name on a love note to Jane.
He had never learned pronunciation of letters and words, so it would be IMPOSSIBLE for him to have signed his name.
Rated by buyers 
-
What more can we say of Tarzan of the Apes - he truly is an American original, and has influenced characters in film, television and comic books from the Beastmaster to Sheena to Ka-Zar and beyond, as well as standing as a popular culture phenomenon in his own right. We always think we know the whole story - a man raise din the jungle, befriended by animals, fighting whatever danger comes at him with his Girl Friday, Jane, at his side. However, if we return to the original novel, we find a more complex and, perhaps, less satisfying story.
Tarzan of the Apes tells, of course, the story of Tarzan of the Apes - the scion of a noble family marooned by pirates on the African coast - he comes to be raised by apes when his parents are brutally murdered by Kerchak, the leader of their pride. Under their tutelage, young Tarzan becomes a formidible warrior, while also utterly self-conscious of the fact that he is, somehow, not like the other apes. Eventually, Tarzan acceeds to the leadership of his pride, and battles cannibals, lions, and other dangers in the jungle - as well as encountering the also-marooned Jane Porter, her suitor, John Clayton, and her father, Professor Porter. Together they must brave the jungle and the nearby cannibals, and also endeavor to find a way home. Romance, intrigue, and action are skillfully interwoven.
One must, however, read Tarzan with more than just a grain of salt. Certainly, I'm not talking about the book's major conceit - that a man could be raised to successful adulthood by apes in the jungle primeval - but about some of the details - Tarzan teaching himself to read and write perfect English from a book he's found in an abandoned cabin, for instance. There is a lot of suspension of disbelief that must be performed to enjoy this book. However, enjoy it you will. Burroughs has an uncanny knack for laying his characters psychologically bare - even the animals - to the reader, so whether we love them or hate them, we sympathize with them.
Perhaps the major complaint I have with this book is its pacing. It truly doesn't become interesting until we are about 100+ pages in - much of the very first part is taken up with Tarzan's parents' experiences, and Tarzan's childhood. This is, unfortunately, frightfully dull, and not up to the usually rousing Edgar Rice Burroughs standard to which I am used (readers of A Princess of Mars and succeeding John Carter of Mars novels will no doubt agree). Once the book gets going, however, it is worth every moment of your time. A fun read.
Find other books like this one:
