MovieChat Forums > Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) Discussion > Anyone read the books?

Anyone read the books?

posted 13 years ago by red_rackham_77
6 replies | jump to latest

Just finished the first one now I am working through the second and the third should be with me by the time I am done with the second.

What is your comment on the books? Should it be made into films?

[–] Skye_Reynolds 12 years ago

I read the first few chapters of Tarzan, and I found it very engaging, but then I got distracted by other things going on and really didn't get the chance to get back to reading it. I probably should though. I've seen seventeen of the films. I should probably read the source material, even if the MGM/RKO Tarzan greatly differs from Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan.

If I'm not mistaken, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan is supposed to be a fairly faithful adaptation. I'm kind of curious as to what the new one is going to be like.

[–] red_rackham_77 12 years ago

"If I'm not mistaken, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan is supposed to be a fairly faithful adaptation. I'm kind of curious as to what the new one is going to be like"

Fairly, sort of, I mean Jane isn't introduced until John is brought to England to meet his grandfather. John actually learns real fast, there was this awsome scene where John makes a bet with some men to fight a lion in a single handed combat. John fights in the nude from what I can recall, and I don't wanna give away the ending so I will hope you get back to reading it. It is really a great book along with the rest of the other books.

[–] Skye_Reynolds 12 years ago

Thanks for not giving away the ending. I already know that he doesn't end up with Jane in the first novel, but I don't know anything beyond that.

[–] grendelkhan 11 years ago

You have to have a bit of a forgiving eye to the writing style in Burroughs books, remembering that they were written in a different period. He's great with plot and was a very imaginative, if not terribly original writer, as far as Tarzan goes. He basically picked up where H Rider Haggard and Rudyard Kipling left off (Tarzan is essentially Mowgli with a bit more testosterone). Even John Carter was preceded by Gulliver of Mars. Still, he did know how to spin an adventure yarn. You will also see examples of racial attitudes of the period.

"Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!"

[–] BuddyLove63 10 years ago

What is your comment on the books?

The books are the only Tarzan to me. The films are mostly crap in comparison. There has never been a faithful representation of Tarzan on film. Never.

Ironically the closest was the old 1970s cartoon by Filmation.

[–] thesnowleopard 8 years ago

I made it up through...I think it was the one where Tarzan gets amnesia and goes back to the jungle. The first two books are basically all one story. They're probably the best.

It's been a while, but I found the books very entertaining, though, as with John Carter, there is a sense of diminishing returns after a while (and there are a *lot* of Tarzan books by ERB himself, let alone later imitators). But I kept meaning to get back to them. I can't say any of the films ever measured up to them, in large part because Tarzan is rather unrealistically smart and educated, so there's all this internal stuff with him that never comes out in the films. In the books, he's a Noble White Savage. In the films, he's an idiot.

One unfortunate thing is the racism. There's a local tribe that persecutes Tarzan's ape clan and they are portrayed in an extremely racist way. Any film adaptations could work around this, though, if they chose to, since the racism is as unnecessary to the plot as it is over the top (even compared to ERB's other stuff, like John Carter, where there are different races of stereotypically different colors, but they're mostly portrayed as individuals who can be good or bad, allies or enemies. Which is surprising when you consider the title character's romanticized Confederate backstory).

It's funny that Rudyard Kipling portrays the local villagers in The Jungle Book, but there's a fundamental difference--Mowgli isn't white. Tarzan is the son of English nobility who were stranded on the African coast. Mowgli is a local Indian boy who wanders away from his village and is adopted by the wolves. So, there's no White Superman subtext with Mowgli.

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