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''Jungle Tales of Tarzan'' is a collection of twelve loosely connected short stories by American writer
Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best-known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, ...
, comprising the sixth book in order of publication in his series of twenty-four books about the title character
Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...
. Chronologically the events recounted in it occur within Chapter 11 of the first Tarzan novel, ''
Tarzan of the Apes ''Tarzan of the Apes'' is a 1912 story by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the first in the Tarzan series. It was first serialized in the pulp magazine '' The All-Story'' beginning October 1912 before being released as a novel in June 1 ...
'', between Tarzan's avenging of his ape foster mother's death and his becoming leader of his ape tribe. The stories ran monthly in ''Blue Book'' magazine, September 1916 through August 1917 before book publication in 1919.


Contents

The book is a collection of 12 loosely connected short stories of Tarzan's late teenage years, set within a year or two before Tarzan first sees white people including Jane Porter. According to '' Tarzan Alive'',
Philip José Farmer Philip José Farmer (January 26, 1918 – February 25, 2009) was an American author known for his science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories. Obituary. Farmer is best known for his sequences of novels, especially the '' World of Tier ...
's study of the ape man's life and career, the incidents of this book occurred from February, 1907-August, 1908 (aside from the eclipse incident in the final tale, there apparently having been no such eclipse visible from equatorial Africa during this period). *"Tarzan's First Love". Tarzan's courtship of the female ape Teeka ends in failure when her preference turns to their mutual friend, the male ape Taug. Tarzan wrestles with his humanness versus his ape-ness. The
allusion Allusion is a figure of speech, in which an object or circumstance from unrelated context is referred to covertly or indirectly. It is left to the audience to make the direct connection. Where the connection is directly and explicitly stated (as ...
to
Helen of Troy Helen of Troy, Helen, Helena, (Ancient Greek: Ἑλένη ''Helénē'', ) also known as beautiful Helen, Helen of Argos, or Helen of Sparta, was a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She was believe ...
enriches the story, making Tarzan and Taug's fight over Teeka take on symbolic proportions. Stan Galloway writes: "when Burroughs chooses to name Helen as an objective correlative for Teeka, he expects both literal and emotional connections to occur." Tarzan's final claim of the story—"Tarzan is a man. He will go alone."—echoes the plight of
Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
in the
Garden of Eden In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden ( he, גַּן־עֵדֶן, ) or Garden of God (, and גַן־אֱלֹהִים ''gan-Elohim''), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the biblical paradise described in Genesis 2-3 and Ezekiel 28 an ...
. *"The Capture of Tarzan". Tarzan is taken captive by the warriors of a village of cannibals which has established a village near the territory of the ape tribe. He is saved from them by Tantor, the elephant. *"The Fight for the Balu". Teeka and Taug have a baby (''balu'', in the ape language), which Teeka names Gazan and will not allow Tarzan near. She changes her mind after Tarzan saves the baby from a leopard. *"The God of Tarzan". Tarzan discovers the concept of "God" in the books preserved in the cabin of his deceased parents, to which he pays regular visits. He inquires among members of his ape tribe for further elucidation without success, and continues his investigation among the cannibals of the nearby village and the natural phenomena of his world, such as the sun and moon. Eventually he concludes that God is none of these, but the creative force permeating everything. Somehow, though, the dreaded snake Histah falls outside this. *"Tarzan and the Black Boy". Jealous of Taug and Teeka's relationship with their baby, Tarzan kidnaps Tibo, a little boy from the neighboring village to be his own "''balu''". He tries with indifferent success to teach the terrified and homesick child ape ways. Meanwhile, Momaya, Tibo's mother does everything she can think of to find and recover her son, even visiting the hermit witch-doctor Bukawai, a terrible, diseased exile who keeps two fearsome hyenas as pets. He names a price for recovering Tibo she cannot afford, and she leaves disappointed. Afterwards, however, Tarzan, who is moved by Tibo's distress and his mother's love, returns the boy to her. *"The Witch-Doctor Seeks Vengeance". Bukawai attempts to claim credit for Tibo's return and extort payment from the boy's mother, but is rebuffed. He plots vengeance against the native family and Tarzan, but is thwarted by the ape man. In this story Tarzan's life in the wild is contrasted with scenes from the civilized existence of his
cousin Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, ...
in England, living the life he might have had had his parents not been marooned in Africa. The cousin does not shine in the comparison. *"The End of Bukawai". Bukawai, finding Tarzan unconscious after a storm, takes the ape man captive and stakes him out for his hyenas to devour. Escaping, Tarzan leaves the witch doctor in the same trap, in which Bukawai suffers the very fate he had intended for his enemy. *"The Lion". Tarzan vainly attempts to impress on his ape tribe the necessity of maintaining a strict watch against the hazards and perils surrounding them. To drive home the lesson, he dons a lionskin he has taken from Mbonga's village and suddenly appears among them, only to find them more vigilant than he had thought, as they mob him and nearly beat him to death. He is saved only by the courage of his monkey friend ''Manu'', which he had also previously under-rated, who risks all to reveal to Teeka and Taug that the "lion" is actually Tarzan. *"The Nightmare". Having been unsuccessful hunting, Tarzan robs the native village of some rotten elephant meat, which he eats. Becoming ill from the tainted meal, he has a horrible nightmare, in which he dreams himself menaced by a lion, an eagle, and huge snake with the head of a village native. He is carried off by a giant bird but wakes in the fall from its grasp, finding himself back in the tree where he'd gone to sleep. He realizes the incidents were not real. Subsequently attacked by a gorilla, he assumes that this too is a product of his fevered imagination, until actually wounded and hurt. He kills the beast, but is left to wonder what is real and what is fantasy. The only thing he is certain of is that he will never again eat the meat of an elephant. *"The Battle for Teeka". Discovering bullet cartridges in his deceased father's cabin, Tarzan takes them with him as curios. Subsequently, Teeka is taken by an ape from another tribe, and Tarzan and Taug join forces to trail the kidnapper and rescue her. When they catch up, they are surrounded by the enemy tribe and nearly overwhelmed, until Teeka throws the cartridges at their foes in an apparently futile effort to help. When some of them hit a rock, they explode, frightening the hostile apes and saving her "rescuers". *"A Jungle Joke". As part of his campaign of torment and trickery against the native village, whose members he holds responsible for his ape foster mother's death, Tarzan captures Rabba Kega, the local witch doctor, and puts him in a trap the natives have set to catch a lion. The next day the warriors find they have caught the lion, but it has killed the witch doctor. They take the lion to the village. Tarzan secretly releases it and appears among them dressed in the lionskin he had previously used to trick the apes. Dropping the disguise, he reveals himself and leaves. When the natives muster enough courage, they follow, only to encounter the real lion, which they assume is Tarzan in his disguise again. They are quickly disabused. *"Tarzan Rescues the Moon". Tarzan frees a native warrior the apes have caught on being impressed by the man's bravery, angering the rest of the ape tribe. Alienated, he exiles himself to his parents' cabin. Later, frightened by an eclipse in which darkness appears to devour the moon, they summon him back. Tarzan reassures them by shooting arrows at the "devourer", and as the eclipse passes is given credit by the creatures for the "rescue".


Characters in order of appearance

*Tarzan *Teeka *Taug *Sheeta *Tantor *Buto *Mumga *Numgo *Mbonga *Histah *Tibo *Bukawai *Sabor *Momaya *William Cecil Clayton *Tublat *Kala *Rabba Kega *Manu *Gunto *Toog *Gazan *Numa


Critical reception

Erling B. Holtsmark explores these stories topically in ''Tarzan and Tradition'' along with the first five Tarzan novels. The book is indexed to provide help in locating the commentary on each story. Stan Galloway's ''The Teenage Tarzan: A Literary Analysis of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Jungle Tales of Tarzan'' provides the first extended study of this collection of short stories. ''The Teenage Tarzan'' explores each story, usually in the order of composition, with references to ''
Tarzan of the Apes ''Tarzan of the Apes'' is a 1912 story by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the first in the Tarzan series. It was first serialized in the pulp magazine '' The All-Story'' beginning October 1912 before being released as a novel in June 1 ...
'' and other books written by Burroughs. The study includes reference to other media as well, where Tarzan is a character, and a particular interest in literary symbols at work in the stories. Galloway's book also contains a useful index. Both Holtsmark and Galloway approach the stories seriously and positively, providing a counter to a largely dismissive earlier reception.


Anthology reprints

Galloway records that "Tarzan's First Love" has been reprinted in ''Love Stories'', edited by Martin Levin and ''High Adventure'', edited by Cynthia Manson and Charles Ardai.Manson, Cynthia, and Charles Ardai, eds., ''High Adventure''. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1992. Galloway records that "The Battle for Teeka" also appeared in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' in May 1964 as well as ''Ellery Queen's 1970 Anthology'' (1969).


Adaptations in comics

Stories from the book have been adapted into
comic a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...
form on a number of occasions.
Charlton Comics Charlton Comics was an American comic book publishing company that existed from 1945 to 1986, having begun under a different name: T.W.O. Charles Company, in 1940. It was based in Derby, Connecticut. The comic-book line was a division of Charlton ...
adapted eight of the stories, including "The Capture of Tarzan", "The Fight for the Balu", "The Battle for Teeka", "Tarzan Rescues the Moon", "The Nightmare", "The God of Tarzan", "The Lion" and "A Jungle Joke" in ''Jungle Tales of Tarzan'' nos. 1-4, dated December 1964-June 1965.
Gold Key Comics Gold Key Comics was originally an imprint of American company Western Publishing, created for comic books distributed to newsstands. Also known as Whitman Comics, Gold Key operated this way from 1962 to 1984. Currently, Gold Key Comics is owned b ...
adapted four of the stories, including "The Capture of Tarzan", "The God of Tarzan", "Tarzan and the Black Boy" and "A Jungle Joke" in ''Tarzan'' nos. 169-170, dated July–August 1967, with scripts by Gaylord DuBois and art by Alberto Giolitti.
DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with their ...
adapted three of the stories, including "The Capture of Tarzan", "The Fight for the Balu" and "The Nightmare" in ''Tarzan'' nos. 212-214, dated September–November 1972, reprinting the second in two parts in ''Tarzan'' nos. 252-253, dated August–September 1976, and the third in ''Tarzan'' no. 257, dated January 1977.
Burne Hogarth Burne Hogarth (born Spinoza Bernard Ginsburg, December 25, 1911 – January 28, 1996) was an American artist and educator, best known for his work on the ''Tarzan'' newspaper comic strip and his series of anatomy books for artists. Early life ...
, illustrator and former Tarzan comic strip artist, adapted four of the stories, including "Tarzan's First Love", "The Capture of Tarzan", "The God of Tarzan" and "The Nightmare" in his showcase graphic novel ''Jungle Tales of Tarzan'' (1976), a follow-up to his earlier graphic novel ''Tarzan of the Apes'' (1972), which adapted the original Tarzan novel.
Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
adapted seven of the stories, including "Tarzan Rescues the Moon", "The God of Tarzan", "The Lion", "A Jungle Joke" and "The Battle for Teeka" in ''Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle'' nos. 7, 9, and 12-14, dated December 1977, February 1978, and May–July 1978, as well as "Tarzan's First Love" and "The End of Bukawai" in ''Tarzan Annual'' no. 1, dated December 1977.
Malibu Comics Malibu Comics Entertainment, Inc. (also known as Malibu Graphics) was an American comic book publisher active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, best known for its Ultraverse line of superhero titles. Notable titles published by Malibu included '' ...
adapted one of the stories, "Tarzan's First Love", in ''Tarzan: Love, Lies...and the Lost City'' no. 1, 1992. Sequential Pulp adapted all the tales for
Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops know ...
in 2015 in a graphic album.


References


External links


ERB C.H.A.S.E.R ENCYCLOPEDIA entry for ''Jungle Tales of Tarzan''Text of the novel at Project Gutenberg
* {{Burroughs (books) 1919 fantasy novels Fantasy short story collections 1919 short story collections Short story collections by Edgar Rice Burroughs A. C. McClurg books Tarzan