Book Review: Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan #1)

 

Sure, let's check this one out. Spoilers ahead.

Tarzan is a boy raised by a fictional kind of ape in the African jungle. Eventually he becomes the king of his people, before leaving them behind. He eventually comes across more humans like him and starts to figure out where he belongs, especially after he falls in love with the a young woman named Jane.

It had potential to be good, but the final execution is. Oh boy. Not very good. I will give the story some credit: the plot genuinely did interest me and it did keep me consistently engaged with what was gonna happen next. But the rest?

Let's first address the elephant in the room: this book is very, very racist. Before going in I did remember vaguely hearing somewhere a while ago that the book was somewhat racist, but that in no way could've prepared me for just how racist it is. If you want respectful depictions of black people, this is not the place to look. They consistently get the short end of the stick in the story and are depicted as cannibalistic savages. So that's already a big issue.

The rest is just...the rest. Aside from the plot which genuinely interested me there really wasn't much else drawing me to the story. The characters are pretty one-dimensional. Tarzan is admittedly a little more interesting with him having been raised by apes but even he's not super deep or interesting. His romance with Jane was pretty uninteresting as well and not very well-written. I just didn't feel much for the characters or their relationships here.

The story also abandons its most interesting aspect, Tarzan and his life with the apes, pretty early on. With the title Tarzan of the Apes you'd really imagine him to be mostly with the apes, but rather most of the book is spent with Tarzan alone or with the humans he comes across. The conflict with Tarzan and his status as a bit of an outcast among the apes is dealt with pretty quick as Tarzan becomes leader of the apes. And, okay, that could be interesting, too, but instead the book just abandons the concept as Tarzan abandons his ape people and goes out alone. So the whole title feels a bit misleading and the most interesting part of the book is in the first third, leaving to the rest feeling pretty weak by comparison.

I also just gotta note how it's kind of funny that most of the first 100 pages or so is mostly just various scenes and descriptions of Tarzan killing creatures. Like sure there's other stuff there, but it really is the main thing he does in those pages. Not exactly the most sympathetic way to set up your character, but okay.

Overall this is not a good book and not one I recommend. While it has an interesting first third going for it and the plot consistently kept me engaged, the characters were utterly lacking and the romance wasn't engaging at all. And it's racist. Very, very racist.

Rating: 1.5/5