Book Review: The Beasts of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs
John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, and his lovely wife Jane have settled down in London with their infant son Jack. I guess this is the end of the adventures of Tarzan since everyone knows that marriage and children mean that you’re never going to be interesting again. But wait! John’s old friend, Lieutenant D’Arnot, has news! It seems that the archcriminal Rokoff and his henchman Paulvitch have escaped French prison and are on the loose.
Realizing that Rokoff will stop at nothing to get his revenge for his earlier defeat, Lord Greystoke returns to the British capital. But it is too late. The wily Rokoff (aided by the French government keeping his escape a secret) has already succeeded in kidnapping Jack. John and Jane are then captured separately, and the entire family is taken on the same boat (but unaware of each other) to Africa.
Rokoff strands John naked and weaponless on an island well off the coast, boasting that he will have Jack adopted by a tribe of cannibals and indoctrinated into their customs, and will do even worse to Jane. But Rokoff has made an error. For without the trappings of civilization, brought back to the jungle climes that nurtured him, John Clayton becomes again Tarzan, Lord of the Apes!
This is the third of the Tarzan books, originally published in magazine form in 1914. ERB was hitting his stride, this action-packed volume reassured readers that they would get to enjoy many more tales of the jungle hero.
Tarzan soon arms himself and gains the loyalty of not just a band of intelligent apes like those that raised him, led by the exceptionally smart Akut, but Sheeta the panther, and soon the native warrior Mugambi. This allows Tarzan to escape the island with his motley crew and go in pursuit of Rokoff and his minions, who are headed up a river to the cannibal tribe previously mentioned.
The good: Lots of action and peril which moves the story along quickly, and some surprising twists. Jane has learned something of jungle survival since the first book, and while she’s no physical match for her male captors, the moment Jane sees an opportunity, she’s rescuing herself and the child.
Both Jane and Tarzan are gracious people who are kind when circumstances allow, and this comes back to help them in time of need. We also get some interesting minor characters, Sven Anderssen the Norwegian sailor who’s a lot smarter than he lets on, and Tambudza, the cannibal granny.
Not so good: Burroughs was very fond of coincidences, and they run rampant in this book, from the way Tarzan and Jane keep missing each other, to the completely separate group of stranded sailors that shows up at the end.
Also, Rokoff is a weak villain whose plans for revenge are overly elaborate and rely on too many things going just right. Indeed, he would have done much better to simply head straight to Africa without ever having interacted with the Clayton family.
The ugly: Racism. Tarzan slaughters everyone else in Mugambi’s hunting party (in fairness, they tried to kill him first) and Mugambi sheds not a tear nor ever thinks of them again, soon coming to have complete loyalty to the terrifyingly powerful white man. Plus that whole cannibal tribe thing. Parents of younger readers may want to talk to their children about outdated stereotypes of African people.
Overall, this is a rip-roaring pulp adventure in the old style and well worth looking up if you can forgive the period racism. Recommended especially to fans of the movies.
Speaking of the movies, let’s have a trailer!
