The Return of Tarzan Book

As I read this book over the last few weeks, I remembered and recognized more and more parts of it --finally, including the ending-- and realized that I'd read it before as a kid. (Evidently, I did so after reading part of it at a friend's house; but had forgotten the title of what I'd read there, and so came to think that episode involved a different book.) The re-reading, after a lapse of nearly 50 years, was fresh and enjoyable once again; in fact, it made me recall how much I enjoyed the original Tarzan book! I'd given that one just three stars when I reviewed it here, judging it on the basis of literary criteria like accuracy of the background, etc.; but this reading persuaded me to rate both works just on the basis of how much I enjoyed them, and so to allow the extra star.

Readers of the first Tarzan novel probably almost unanimously feel that, despite the nobility of Tarzan's choice at the end, it concludes in a very unsatisfactory way. They'll be delighted to know that this sequel affords Tarzan and Jane another chance. :-) It picks up soon after those events, commences on an ocean liner, moves to Paris and then French-ruled North Africa, and only later returns to sub-Saharan Africa. Along the way, it offers a duel, a shipwreck, attempted murders, espionage, suicide, lion attacks, a lost race, and fabulous ancient treasure, with jeopardies, rescues and escapes galore. (And, of course, romance; not just one, but four --well, actually five-- attractive ladies are among the characters.) The positive and negative characteristics of Burroughs' style are fully in evidence here --though he was apparently more familiar with his French and North African setting than his tropical African one; the former natural and cultural landscapes come across much more realistically than the latter. (His picture of the remnants of lost Atlantean civilization in Opar, on the other hand, is wildly implausible; the extreme sexual dimorphism, with the females beautiful and the males ugly and ape-like, produces the kind of reader reactions to the two groups that he wanted, but is genetically impossible, and the idea that humans could mate with apes comes straight out of the quack Darwinism of his day.) Burrough's plotting would sometimes subject the long arm of coincidence to, at the very least, a dislocated wrist; but given the fascination of his story-telling (and cliff-hanger transitions from one character/characters to another) it's a forgivable flaw. :-) African blacks in 1913 were far more advanced than the Waziri as he portrays them, but his depiction of blacks is more positive than that of some of the writers who were his contemporaries, such as Thomas Dixon (though the contrast he attempts to draw between the Waziri and the coastal blacks exhibits racial stereotyping and profiling). And here as in the first book, Tarzan is confronted with serious moral temptations and choices, and he learns and grows in that area. All in all, a great read for adventure fans!