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Customer Reviews of The Son of Tarzan

A sequel that is as good as the original
The Son of Tarzan deserves a strong 4 star rating. While the story shares a lot in common with much of Burroughs' early Tarzan material, isn't that why you like the Tarzan series? The Son of Tarzan also stands out among the early Tarzan series for its excellent characterization. The book's best feature is the relationship that evolves between Tarzan's son Korak and the kidnapped French girl, Meriem. It is much more satisfactory than the Tarzan and Jane relationship, which really fizzles after the first couple of Tarzan books. The reader sympathizes with Meriem from the onset of the story. Burroughs patiently develops her character throughout the book, creating an appealing feminine presence. The reader also sympathizes with Korak, who proves to be more than just a "Tarzan Jr." While the two share certain similarities, Korak is his own man whose ultimate fate hangs in the balance until the very end of the novel.

Alongside these two strong leading characters, Burroughs works in a number of foes that add significant interest to the plot. The character of Baynes is the most interesting among these, and the reader will appreciate how Burroughs expands his role. The plot does not get overly complicated, nor is the reader buried under an avalanche of endless characters. By the end of the book, Burroughs is able to tie up all the loose ends that he has created.

There is a certain amount of predictability, and Burroughs is unsuccessful in his attempt to cloak the identities of the "Big Bwana" and "My Dear." This does not greatly detract from the overall book, though. I found that the book's pace gained momentum as the story progressed, and found the conclusion to be very satisfactory. It is not a conclusion that merely baits the reader into buying the next edition, unlike the present "Lord of the Rings" movie saga, for instance. It stands on its own.

The 1917 version that includes many outstanding illustrations by J. Allen St. John is the best way to go on this one. St. John's only lapses are his inability to capture Meriem in "civilized" garb, the illustration in which Tarzan looks like a skinny 90-year old man, and the bizarre, strangely proportioned Quasimodo-ish picture of Baynes fighting the black. Aside from these glaring exceptions, his work is top-notch.

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The son of Tarzan becomes Korak the Killer
In the previous novel "The Beast of Tarzan," Jane and her infant son Jack were kidnapped by Tarzan's enemy Nikolas Rokoff and his henchman Alexis Paulvitch. Of course, Tarzan tracks down his wife and son and finally dispatches Rokoff. However, in this fourth Tarzan novel, "The Son of Tarzan," Edgar Rice Burroughs provides an adventure whose key point is: like father, like son. Paulvitch had survived the vengeance of Tarzan and now wants to even the score by luring young Jack Clayton away from London. However, his plan is foiled when Jack escapes with the help of Akut, the great ape. The pair flee to the same African jungle where Tarzan was raised a generation before. It there that young Jack Clayton establishes his own reputation as Korak the Killer. Not only does he find Korak find his own place in the jungle and amidst the great apes, he also rescues Meriem, a beautiful young woman, from a band of Arab raiders. Meriem turns out to be the daughter of Armand Jacot, a Foreign Legion Captain who is also the Prince de Cadrenet, and therefore a fitting mate for the son of Lord Greystoke.

On the one hand, "The Son of Tarzan" is a ERB adventure yarn that closely parallels many of the key elements of the original "Tarzan of the Apes." In that sense this is a fairly predictable story (almost from the moment we hear about "My Dear" we know who she will turn out to be in the end), but given all the speculation about what the Tarzan novels were saying about human society and evolution, it is interesting to note that we have the same relationship between "The Son of Tarzan" and the original "Tarzan of the Apes" that you find between Jack London's "White Fang" and "The Call of the Wild." In each we have the creature of the wild become civilized and then reverse the process in the second. Of course, London's novels have received a lot more consideration along these lines in terms of Darwinism and the whole nature versus nuture debate (effectively canceling the question out by taking it both ways in his two novels), but it is interesting to see Burroughs do essentially the same thing with his own two novels.

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The son of Tarzan answers the call of the wild (as it were)
In the previous novel "The Beast of Tarzan," Jane and her infant son Jack were kidnapped by Tarzan's enemy Nikolas Rokoff and his henchman Alexis Paulvitch. Of course, Tarzan tracks down his wife and son and finally dispatches Rokoff. However, in this fourth Tarzan novel, "The Son of Tarzan," Edgar Rice Burroughs provides an adventure whose key point is: like father, like son. Paulvitch had survived the vengeance of Tarzan and now wants to even the score by luring young Jack Clayton away from London. However, his plan is foiled when Jack escapes with the help of Akut, the great ape. The pair flee to the same African jungle where Tarzan was raised a generation before. It there that young Jack Clayton establishes his own reputation as Korak the Killer. Not only does he find Korak find his own place in the jungle and amidst the great apes, he also rescues Meriem, a beautiful young woman, from a band of Arab raiders. Meriem turns out to be the daughter of Armand Jacot, a Foreign Legion Captain who is also the Prince de Cadrenet, and therefore a fitting mate for the son of Lord Greystoke.

On the one hand, "The Son of Tarzan" is a ERB adventure yarn that closely parallels many of the key elements of the original "Tarzan of the Apes." In that sense this is a fairly predictable story (almost from the moment we hear about "My Dear" we know who she will turn out to be in the end), but given all the speculation about what the Tarzan novels were saying about human society and evolution, it is interesting to note that we have the same relationship between "The Son of Tarzan" and the original "Tarzan of the Apes" that you find between Jack London's "White Fang" and "The Call of the Wild." In each we have the creature of the wild become civilized and then reverse the process in the second. Of course, London's novels have received a lot more consideration along these lines in terms of Darwinism and the whole nature versus nuture debate (effectively canceling the question out by taking it both ways in his two novels), but it is interesting to see Burroughs do essentially the same thing with his own two novels.