Following the 1912 publication of his wildly successful Tarzan of the Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughs authored four bestselling sequels in quick succession. In 1916, he decided to go back and recount selected adventures from Tarzan’s teenage years. The result was Jungle Tales of Tarzan, a dozen short stories bearing such titles as “Tarzan’s First Love” and “Tarzan Rescues the Moon” and which chronicle the events preceding the youthful hero’s ascension to “King of the Jungle.”
The adolescent phase of the character is the primary focus of this detailed analysis. The context, themes, motifs, and stylistic techniques of Jungle Tales of Tarzan are all fully explored, as well as the property’s literary antecedents and its links to the various comic book and film adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ most celebrated and enduring creation.

Stan Galloway has written several articles for The Burroughs Bulletin and has given presentations about Tarzan throughout the United States. He teaches literature at Bridgewater College in Virginia.

Stan Galloway
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 275
Bibliographic Info: 22 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3853-2
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii
Foreword: The Magic of Imagination by James Gunn      1
Preface      5
Introduction      7

1. It All Begins Again: “Tarzan’s First Love”      23
2. Running in Circles: Cycles and Technique in “The Capture of Tarzan”      44
3. All for One: “The Fight for the Balu”      70
4. (Un)Natural Theology: “The God of Tarzan”      87
5. Black and White and In Between: The Perception of Racism in “Tarzan and the Black Boy”      109
6. The Problem of Good and Evil in “The Witch-Doctor Seeks Vengeance” and “The End of Bukawai”      140
7. Painful Laughter in “The Lion” and “A Jungle Joke”      161
8. What You See: Lessons in Appearance and Reality in “The Nightmare”      185
9. Allegiance and Apathy: Community in “The Battle for Teeka”      210
10. Shooting in the Dark: The Role of Imagination in “Tarzan Rescues the Moon”      227

Bibliography      241
Index      253