PODCAST · arts

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

by Loyal Books

An aristocratic English family is marooned off the coast of West Africa. They find their way into the interior of the dense jungle that lines the coast and here, Lord Greystoke is killed by a predatory ape. Lady Greystoke survives with her infant boy, but in a few months, she too succumbs to the perils of jungle life. The baby is adopted by a maternal she-ape who nurses him along with her own child. This marks the dawn of a legend – Tarzan of the Apes. Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American novelist who turned to fiction writing after an unsuccessful stint as a pencil sharpener salesman. His shrewd business acumen and marketing blitzkrieg ensured that Tarzan burst upon the world in the form of novels, comic-strips, films and merchandise. The legend of Tarzan took on the proportions of an icon that has endured ever since it first appeared in 1912. Since then, nearly 26 books and short stories featuring the Lord of the Jungle appeared in various magazines and in serial form. It seeme