History Literature / TarzanOfTheApes

* ChildProdigy: The young Lord Greystoke was one; with no help (or indeed contact) with any other human, between ages 10-18 he teaches himself to read and write English, and invents his own system of pronunciation for the letters!

''Tarzan of the Apes'' was published by Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs beginning in October of 1912[[note]]Serialized in the pulp magazine ''All Story Weekly'', which, incidentally, would feature the debut of Franchise/{{Zorro}} seven years later. The full-length version of the novel was first published in 1914[[/note]] and takes place from 1888-1906. It is the first of his ''Literature/{{Tarzan}}'' series, which spans over two dozen published books, most of which are now in the public domain.[[note]]In the United States at least. It's still in copyright in Europe.[[/note]] Can be read [[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/78 here]].

''Tarzan of the Apes'' was published by Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs in 1912[[note]]In a magazine. The novel was published in 1914[[/note]] and takes place from 1888-1906. It is the first of his ''Literature/{{Tarzan}}'' series, which spans over two dozen published books, most of which are now in the public domain.[[note]]In the United States at least. It's still in copyright in Europe.[[/note]] Can be read [[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/78 here]].

Kala raises Tarzan among the apes and he grows up as a creature of the jungle, fighting tigers/lions,[[note]]In the original edition, Tarzan encounters tigers in the African jungle, which was later retconned to lions.[[/note]] and having many unseen encounters with the natives. Tarzan finds his old cabin and teaches himself how to read over the course of a decade. One day a group of foreigners become stranded in the jungle by boat as well, one of them being his cousin William Cecil Clayton, and another being an American girl named Jane Porter. And [[ItWasHisSled we all know how that turns out]].

* MightyWhitey: A basic trope.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: The book's called ''Tarzan of the '''Apes''''' after all.

''Tarzan of the Apes'' was published by Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs in 1912[[note]]In a magazine. The novel was published in 1914[[/note]] and takes place in roughly the same time period. It is the first of his ''Literature/{{Tarzan}}'' series, which spans over two dozen published books, most of which are now in the public domain.[[note]]In the United States at least. It's still in copyright in Europe.[[/note]] Can be read [[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/78 here]].

After a brutal mutiny aboard the ship ''Fulwada'', the English lord, John Clayton, is marooned in [[DarkestAfrica an African Jungle]] along with his pregnant wife, Alice (Respectively Lord and Lady Greystoke). John builds a secure treehouse to protect from the beasts of the jungle, and spends a year providing for his wife and infant son before the two English nobles both die. A band of apes[[note]]referred to in the books as "Mangani," who in turn refer to gorillas as "Bolgani"[[/note]] lead by the savage Kerchak goes to explore the Clayton's tree home shortly after John's death. The female ape, Kala, finds the young Lord Greystoke and adopts him, naming him "Tarzan", meaning "white skin".

* NubileSavage: Despite being raised on the same diet as apes, Tarzan is not malnourished and has an [[HeroicBuild impressive and perfectly toned physique.]] Even though the only meat he eats is raw and is often buried in the dirt for days in the tropical jungle, he doesn't suffer from tapeworms, echinococcosis, hep A or any sorts of internal parasites or diseases. Tarzan doesn't have headlice or fleas either, even though he's lived with apes his whole life. If he's got bad teeth, no one ever talks about it. Less egregious than everything else, though, is the fact that he's clean shaven most of the time. Tarzan got the notion from his picture books that civilized men should be beardless and have short hair, which he presumably emulates by using his hunting knife to shave and cut his hair.

* GrayEyes

* [[RaisedByWolves Raised By Apes]]: The picture on the article is even from an adaptation of ''Tarzan''.

After a brutal mutiny aboard the ship ''Fulwada'', the English lord, John Clayton, is marooned in [[DarkestAfrica an African Jungle]] along with his pregnant wife, Alice (Respectively Lord and Lady Greystoke). John builds a secure treehouse to protect from the beasts of the jungle, and spends a year providing for his wife and infant son before the two English nobles both die. A band of apes[[note]]referred to in the books as "Mangani," who in turn refer to gorillas as "Bulgani"[[/note]] lead by the savage Kerchak goes to explore the Clayton's tree home shortly after John's death. The female ape, Kala, finds the young Lord Greystoke and adopts him, naming him "Tarzan", meaning "white skin".

* AdaptationalNationality: Inverted, the Disney adaptation makes Tarzan and his parents British

* AdaptatonalNationality: Inverted, the Disney adaptation makes Tarzan and his parents British

* UnbuiltTrope: The book ends with Tarzan [[DidNotGetTheGirl choosing not to pursue Jane]] when he realizes that she'll be happier in life amongst other civilized people than in the harsh wilderness he grew up in (though the sequels undid this). The book also has a rather cynical portrayal of the RaisedByWolves and YouKilledMyFather tropes.

* AbsentMindedProfessor: Professor Porter, Jane's father, is a case that borders on senile dementia.

* CulturalPosturing: Jane at one point privately wishes William Clayton could have been American, and thinks that is the highest compliment she can give him.

Kala raises Tarzan among the apes and he grows up as a creature of the jungle, fighting lions/leopards,[[note]]In the original edition, Tarzan encounters tigers in the African jungle, which was later retconned to lions.[[/note]] and having many unseen encounters with the natives. Tarzan finds his old cabin and teaches himself how to read over the course of a decade. One day a group of foreigners become stranded in the jungle by boat as well, one of them being his cousin William Cecil Clayton, and another being an American girl named Jane Porter. And [[ItWasHisSled we all know how that turns out]].

* MisplacedWildlife: Lions in the African jungle? What madness is this! Burroughs later retconned them to be leopards.[[note]]Lions live on the savannah and sometimes in very dry forests, never in the rainforest-like jungles of the Mangani.[[/note]]
** Lions remained in Tarzan's jungle to the end of the series. It was "Sabor the Tiger" that appeared in the original magazine serial and was later retconned to "Sabor the Lioness." It's the reason lions are the only species in the series to have different words for the male and female in the ape language (male lions are Numa).

* OrwellianRetcon: Tarzan fights lions in the earliest editions of the book, but Burroughs had this changed to leopards in later editions when he found out that lions are not found in jungles.
** It was tiger that were retconned. Lions stayed in to the end, and Sheena the Leopard was there from the beginning.

Kala raises Tarzan among the apes and he grows up as a creature of the jungle, fighting lions/leopards,[[note]]In the original edition, Tarzan encounters lions in the African jungle, which was later retconned to leopards.[[/note]] and having many unseen encounters with the natives. Tarzan finds his old cabin and teaches himself how to read over the course of a decade. One day a group of foreigners become stranded in the jungle by boat as well, one of them being his cousin William Cecil Clayton, and another being an American girl named Jane Porter. And [[ItWasHisSled we all know how that turns out]].

* ContrivedCoincidence: Where to begin? Kala's infant dies in an accident just hours before she discovers Tarzan; two separate groups are put ashore by mutineers in the same supposedly remote corner of the African coast, twenty years apart; and, of course, any time a significant character is in peril, Tarzan happens to arrive at TheSpeedOfPlot.