Reviews for The Return of Tarzan

The average rating for The Return of Tarzan based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-01-05 00:00:00 Amy Lorentzen EXTRA! EXTRA! {Paris; France} TARZAN OF THE APES RESCUES YOUNG AND PRETTY RUSSIAN COUNTESS FROM SOCIAL EMBARRASSMENT Busts heads of malicious scoundrels in the process {Sidibel-Abbes; Algeria} APE-MAN RESCUES YOUNG AND PRETTY OULED-NAIL DANCER FROM SLAVERY Busts heads of malicious scoundrels in the process {Sahara desert; North Africa} JUNGLE LORD GOT RESCUED FROM EXECUTION BY YOUNG AND PRETTY OULED-NAIL DANCER Kills malicious lions in the process {Jungle; West Africa} KING OF THE JUNGLE RESCUES BLACK WARRIOR FROM LION ATTACK Befriends savage tribe; kills malicious Arabs in the process {Opar; Jungleland} WHITE CHIEF GOT RESCUED FROM SACRIFICE BY YOUNG AND PRETTY HIGH PRIESTESS Flees from mystical city on food; no casualties [Ed. Really? Check!] {Opar/Jungle} ENGLISH LORD RESCUES YOUNG AND PRETTY AMERICAN FROM MORTAL DANGER All's well that ends well Don't trust everything you read in the papers! Better check it out for yourself. Once you turn a blind eye on its shortcomings this story becomes some gripping adventure. For me anyway; I'm hooked! This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-06-23 00:00:00 Alfred Pena 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!