I remember fiddling these books at the library when I was a child, but the thickness of them probably stopped me from ever borrowing them. Instead I just stuck to girly books, like Nancy Drew. The tv series Tarzan: The Epic Adventures on the other hand was one of my favourites. Ok, I'll admit, I watched it mostly because of John Lara :D And oh boy, the films with Johnny Weismuller, my great love! So, like with a lot of other people, the story of Tarzan was familiar even though I never actually read the book.

Now that I'm an adult, I take note on different things than what I would have as a kid. I was able to enjoy the story for what it was and be swept away by the epic adventures, but Burroughs was definitely a child of his era in regards to attitudes. The African tribes are described as being cruel, even monstrous cannibalist savages, whereas Esmeralda, the servant of white people, was mostly a childlike, hysterical and stupid nervous wreck. These basically overrule Burroughs's idea of fraternity between humans, or did it just concern white men? Alice and Jane were mostly just weak and useless (Jane a bit stronger, though), who apparently weren't able to 'think reasonably like men'. It was also unfathomable, that Tarzan's aristocratic instincts were supposedly hereditary, 'a natural result from generations of fine upbringing'. Seriously? Even though he'd been brought up by an ape after being orphaned as a baby? Thankfully Mr. Philander and professor Porter offered a little welcomed comic relief to the story.

Ok, so you could probably draw a conclusion from all this that I didn't like the book, but it's quite the opposite. The story was a great dose of pulp entertainment, even though the end felt a bit rushed and glued on. Because of my personal lack of interest towards wrestling with animals, I was happy for the arrival of Jane and the contrast it brought, but as a whole this was a great adventure novel of which I will definitely read the next installments at some point.