Audiobook · read by volunteers
Tarzan of the Apes
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875–1950)
Read by Mark F. Smith · 28 chapters · 9 h 20
About the book
An English lord and his wife are marooned on the coast of Africa, and when they die, their infant son is taken in by a female ape who raises him as her own. He grows up among the apes, strong, agile and curious, aware that he is different from the apes of his tribe, who are neither white-skinned nor hairless like him. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote Tarzan of the Apes as a story of pure adventure, exciting if not entirely probable, and it created one of the most famous heroes in popular fiction. The pace is rapid and the jungle is vividly imagined. Twenty-eight recordings, over nine hours of old-fashioned action. Swift action, wild settings and a hero who has to work out for himself what it means to be human fill the pages.
Introduction
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) was an American author who created many popular adventure stories. Tarzan of the Apes, which first appeared in a magazine in 1912 and as a book in 1914, introduced a character who became an icon of popular culture and led to many sequels, as well as adaptations in film, radio and comics.
The novel begins with the story of an English nobleman and his wife who are stranded on the African coast. Their child is raised among apes and gradually learns about his own nature and his place in the world. The book mixes themes common in adventure fiction of its time, including survival, heredity and environment, and encounters between different peoples. Burroughs tells the story with great energy and does not worry about strict realism.
Listeners should be aware that the book, written in the early twentieth century, contains attitudes and depictions of race and of Africa that reflect its period and that many readers now find objectionable. It can be heard as a classic adventure and also as a historical document of its time.
The recording has twenty-eight files, with chapters such as Out of the Sea, The Savage Home, Life and Death and The Apes, and lasts about nine and a half hours. It was read by a LibriVox volunteer. It is a good choice for those who enjoy fast-paced adventure and want to know where a famous character began. Readers who know the character mainly from films will find the original novel quite different in tone and detail, and well worth meeting on its own terms.
Public domain
Edgar Rice Burroughs died in 1950: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text