Book Review: Tarzan Of The Apes (Nothing Like The Disney Movie)

I finally got around to reading the original Tarzan novel, called Tarzan of the Apes, published in 1914 by Edgar Rice Burroughs–and I was not at all prepared for how violent it would be! I blame the Disney animated film for distorting what I thought Tarzan was.

Quick Synopsis Of Tarzan of the Apes:

All the elements I expected were there: Tarzan’s parents were marooned on the coast of Africa, his mom gave birth to him shortly after, both parents passed away while he was still an infant, and then he was raised by great African gorillas.

That’s all there.

What I didn’t expect was that Tarzan is basically a serial killer.

He torments a nearby village by hunting the villagers, stringing them up in trees with a noose, throwing dead bodies into the center of the village to terrify them, and thinking it’s hilarious.

Eventually, he makes contact with white people who arrive–including his love interest, Jane, and Jane’s bumbling professor father (much like in the Disney film). Tarzan falls head over heels for Jane as it is the first white woman he has ever seen and even attempts writing a love letter for her. And can these people unlock the mystery of Tarzan’s past?

Overall, much like a modern day Marvel movie, Tarzan of the Apes is an origin story, following Tarzan from a baby through being a young man, where he gains all his attributes and powers. Tarzan became a blockbuster hit, much like the MCU.

Tarzan of the Apes was the first of twenty-four novels. It spawned comic strips, radio broadcasts, 50+ movies, TV shows, and videogames, in more recent decades. Much of the serial killer side of Tarzan had been sanitized over the decades of releases, which is probably why I was caught of guard with how violent and brutal the first book was.

Should You Read “Tarzan of the Apes”

Yes, I think you should. Tarzan is a major character in Western literature and film and it is valuable to know how he got his start. They are still making Tarzan films to this day!

The book itself is full of adventure and is much better than many books I have read recently, and I am seriously considering continuing with the Tarzan series to see what else surprises me about this character. Like most people, I’m sure–I was thinking Tarzan was largely the story of a wild man falling in love with a civilized woman, Jane. But I have learned there is much beyond that story.

I don’t know if future books even talk about Jane, but let’s just say I was surprised with how Tarzan of the Apes ended, it wasn’t what I thought would have happened in a Tarzan story based on what I thought I knew, again, I blame the Disney movie.