Tarzan the Terrible

infobox Book |
name = Tarzan the Terrible
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = dust-jacket illustration of "Tarzan the Terrible"
author = Edgar Rice Burroughs
illustrator = J. Allen St. John
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Tarzan series
genre = Adventure novel
publisher = A. C. McClurg
release_date = 1921
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = 408 pp
isbn = NA
preceded_by = Tarzan the Untamed
followed_by = Tarzan and the Golden Lion

"Tarzan the Terrible" is a novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the eighth in his series of books about the title character Tarzan. It was first published as a serial in the pulp magazine "Argosy All-Story Weekly" in the issues for February 12, 19, and 26 and March 5, 12, 19, and 26, 1921; the first book edition was published in June, 1921 by A. C. McClurg.

Plot

In the previous novel, during the early days of World War I, Tarzan discovered that his wife Jane was not killed in a fire set by German troops, but was in fact alive.

In this novel two months have gone by and Tarzan is continuing to search for Jane. He has tracked her to a hidden valley called Pal-ul-don, which means "Land of Men." In Pal-ul-don Tarzan finds a real Jurassic Park filled with dinosaurs, notably the savage Triceratops-like Gryfs, which unlike their prehistoric counterparts are carnivorous. The lost valley is also home to two different races of tailed human-looking creatures, the Ho-don (hairless and white skinned) and the Waz-don (hairy and black-skinned). Tarzan befriends Ta-son, a Ho-don warrior, and Om-at, the Waz-don chief of the tribe of Kor-ul-ja. In this new world he becomes a captive but so impresses his captors with his accomplishments and skills that they name him Tarzan-Jad-Guru (Tarzan the Terrible), which is the name of the novel.

Jane is also being held captive in Pal-ul-don, having been brought there by her German captor, who has since become dependent on her due to his own lack of jungle survival skills. She becomes a pawn in a religious power struggle that consumes much of the novel.

With the aid of his native allies, Tarzan continues to pursue his beloved to rescue her and set things to right, going through an extended series of fights and escapes to do so. In the end success seems beyond even his ability to achieve, until in the final chapter he and Jane are saved by their son Korak, who has been searching for Tarzan just as Tarzan has been searching for Jane.

Importance

"Tarzan the Terrible" is an important work in the Tarzan series, continuing a sequence beginning with "Tarzan the Untamed" and concluding in "Tarzan and the Golden Lion" and "Tarzan and the Ant Men", in which Burroughs' vivid imagination and storytelling abilities hit their peak, and which is generally considered a highlight of the series.

Comic adaptations

The book has been adapted into comic form by Gold Key Comics in "Tarzan" nos. 166-167.

Copyright

The copyright for this story has expired in the United States, and thus now resides in the public domain there. The text is available via Project Gutenberg.

References

*cite book | last=Bleiler | first=Everett | authorlink=Everett F. Bleiler | title=The Checklist of Fantastic Literature | location=Chicago | publisher=Shasta Publishers | pages=68 | date=1948

External links

* [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2020 Text of the novel at Project Gutenberg]
* [http://www.erblist.com/erblist/tzterriblesum.html Edgar Rice Burroughs Summary Project page for "Tarzan the Terrible"]