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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 adventurer. Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan first appeared in the novel Tarzan of the Apes (magazine publication 1912, book publication 1914), and subsequently in 25 sequels, several authorized books by other authors, and innumerable works in other media, both authorized and unauthorized. The film version of Tarzan as the noble savage (“Me Tarzan, You Jane”), as acted by Johnny Weissmuller, does not reflect the original character in the novels, who is gracious and highly sophisticated.

Tarzan All Story.jpg
Tarzan's first appearance, in the October 1912 issue of The All-Story
First appearanceTarzan of the Apes
Last appearanceTarzan: the Lost Adventure
Created byEdgar Rice Burroughs
Portrayed bySee film and other non-print media article section
AliasJohn Clayton II[1]
TitleViscount Greystoke[2]
The American Ashwin [3]
Earl of Greystoke[4]
Chieftain of the Waziri
SpouseJane Porter (wife)
ChildrenKorak (son)
Bunduki (adopted son)
RelativesJohn Clayton † (father)
Alice Clayton † (mother)
William Cecil Clayton (cousin)
Meriem (daughter-in-law)
Jackie Clayton (grandson)[5]
Dick & Doc (distant cousins)
Dawn (great-granddaughter)
AbilitiesEnhanced strength, speed, endurance, agility, durability, reflexes, and senses
Able to communicate with animals
Skilled hunter and fighter


Character biographyEdit

Tarzan is the son of a British lord and lady who were marooned on the Atlantic coast of Africa by mutineers. When Tarzan was an infant, his mother died, and his father was killed by Kerchak, leader of the ape tribe by whom Tarzan was adopted. Soon after his parents' death, Tarzan became a feral child, and his tribe of apes are known as the Mangani, Great Apes of a species unknown to science. Kala is his ape mother. Burroughs added stories occurring during Tarzan's adolescence in his sixth Tarzan book, Jungle Tales of Tarzan. Tarzan is his ape name; his English name is John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke (according to Burroughs in Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle; Earl of Greystoke in later, less canonical sources, notably the 1984 movie Greystoke). In fact, Burroughs's narrator in Tarzan of the Apes describes both Clayton and Greystoke as fictitious names – implying that, within the fictional world that Tarzan inhabits, he may have a different real name.

As an eighteen-year-old young adult, Tarzan meets a young American woman, Jane Porter. She, her father, and others of their party are marooned on the same coastal jungle area where Tarzan's human parents were twenty years earlier. When Jane returns to the United States, Tarzan leaves the jungle in search of her, his one true love. In The Return of Tarzan, Tarzan and Jane marry. In later books he lives with her for a time in England. They have one son, Jack, who takes the ape name Korak ("the Killer"). Tarzan is contemptuous of what he sees as the hypocrisy of civilization, and he and Jane return to Africa, making their home on an extensive estate that becomes a base for Tarzan's later adventures.

As revealed in Tarzan's Quest, Tarzan, Jane, Tarzan's monkey friend Nkima, and their allies gained some of the Kavuru's pills that grant immortality to their consumer.


Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli was a likely influence on Tarzan, including his ease with non-human primates

Burroughs created an elegant version of the wild man figure largely unalloyed with character flaws or faults. Tarzan is described as being tall, athletic, handsome, and tanned, with grey eyes and long black hair. He wears almost no clothes, except for a loincloth. Emotionally, he is courageous, intelligent, loyal, and steadfast. He is presented as behaving ethically in most situations, except when seeking vengeance under the motivation of grief, as when his ape mother Kala is killed in Tarzan of the Apes, or when he believes Jane has been murdered in Tarzan the Untamed. He is deeply in love with his wife and totally devoted to her; in numerous situations where other women express their attraction to him, Tarzan politely but firmly declines their attentions. When presented with a situation where a weaker individual or party is being preyed upon by a stronger foe, Tarzan invariably takes the side of the weaker party. In dealing with other men, Tarzan is firm and forceful. With male friends, he is reserved but deeply loyal and generous. As a host, he is, likewise, generous and gracious. As a leader, he commands devoted loyalty.




Skills and abilitiesEdit

Tarzan's agility, speed, and strength allow him to kill a Leopard in 1921's The Adventures of Tarzan.

Tarzan's jungle upbringing gives him abilities far beyond those of ordinary humans. These include climbing, clinging, and leaping as well as any great ape, or better. He uses branches and swings from hanging vines to travel at great speed, a skill acquired among the anthropoid apes.

His strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes, senses, flexibility, durability, endurance, and swimming are extraordinary in comparison to normal men. He has wrestled full grown bull apes and gorillas, lions, rhinos, crocodiles, pythons, sharks, tigers, man-size seahorses (once) and even dinosaurs (when he visited Pellucidar). Tarzan is a skilled tracker and uses his exceptional senses of hearing and smell to follow prey or avoid predators, and kills only for food, yet is a skilled thief when raiding African tribal villages or hunting parties that Tarzan has judged to be brutal and deserving of no pity, taking their spears, shields, bows, knives, and most importantly, metal arrowheads. A keen sense of hearing allows him to eavesdrop on conversations between other people near him.

Extremely intelligent, Tarzan was literate in English before being able to speak the language when he first encounters other English-speaking people such as his love interest, Jane Porter. His literacy is self-taught after several years in his early teens by visiting the log cabin of his dead parents and looking at and correctly deducing the function of children's primer/picture books. The books were brought to Africa by his dead mother who intended to teach her son herself. He eventually reads every book in his dead father's portable book collection and is fully aware of geography, basic world history, and his family tree, yet is not able to speak English until after meeting human beings as he never heard what English is supposed to sound like when spoken aloud. He is "found" by a traveling Frenchman who teaches him the basics of human speech and returns him to England.


Unlike depictions in black and white movies of the 1930s after learning to speak a language in the novels, Tarzan/John Clayton is very articulate, reserved (he prefers to listen and carefully observe before speaking) and does not speak in broken English as the classic movies depict him. He can communicate with many species of jungle animals, and has been shown to be a skilled impressionist, able to mimic the sound of a gunshot perfectly.

The Kavuru's pills later granted Tarzan extended longevity.


Dust-jacket illustration of Tarzan of the Apes first edition.
A 1914 publication of Tarzan of the Apes (originally from 1912).




It's also worth noting that Burroughs use of dates and time passing is constantly inconsistent in his novels, in fact there are downright contradictions in the series. In the first book Tarzan Of The Apes it's implied that Tarzan was born early in 1888 and the arrival of Jane is said to have occurred in 1909 which would make him 20 years old. In Tarzan Of The Apes, chapter 9, Burroughs states:

Thus, at eighteen, we find him, an English lordling, who could speak no English, and yet who could read and write his native language. Never had he seen a human being other than himself, for the little area traversed by his tribe was watered by no great river to bring down the savage natives of the interior.

Two paragraphs later Mbonga's warriors enter. Yet in The Return Of Tarzan, chapter 5, when the ape man almost killed the Count de Coude Tarzan states:


However, the book makes multiple references to the fact that Tarzan’s parents, John and Alice Clayton, were missing for only twenty years, which means that Tarzan would only be 18–19 years of age. Numerous authorised movies and novels have all agreed with the notion of Tarzan being 18 years old during the events of the first novel. A later novel Tarzan the Untamed faces a similar problem with the novel being set in the year 1914, despite the fact that Tarzan and Jane's son, Jack 'Korak' Clayton is supposed to be 18 years old. It's believed among fans that Burroughs did this deliberately to give an illusion that Tarzan had once been an actual person and Burroughs was trying to conceal his real identity, in the first novel it is mentioned:


Burroughs immediately mentions after this that John Clayton is itself a fictitious name, invented by 'Tarzan' to mask his real identity.

Critical receptionEdit




Tarzan walking, in this display from an Ankara amusement park.








Unauthorized worksEdit

After Burroughs' death a number of writers produced new Tarzan stories. In some instances, the estate managed to prevent publication of such works. The most notable example in the United States was a series of five novels by the pseudonymous "Barton Werper" that appeared 1964–65 by Gold Star Books (part of Charlton Comics). As a result of legal action by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., they were taken off the market.[25] Similar series appeared in other countries, notably Argentina, Israel, and some Arab countries.

Modern fictionEdit


Tarzan in film and other non-print mediaEdit







More recently, Tony Goldwyn portrayed Tarzan in Disney’s animated film of the same name (1999). This version marked a new beginning for the ape man, taking its inspiration equally from Burroughs and the 1984 live-action film Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.

Since Greystoke, two additional live-action Tarzan movies have been released, 1998's Tarzan and the Lost City and 2016's The Legend of Tarzan, both period pieces that drew inspiration from Edgar Rice Burroughs' writings.




Television later emerged as a primary vehicle bringing the character to the public. From the mid-1950s, all the extant sound Tarzan films became staples of Saturday morning television aimed at young and teenaged viewers. In 1958, movie Tarzan Gordon Scott filmed three episodes for a prospective television series. The program did not sell, but a different live action Tarzan series produced by Sy Weintraub and starring Ron Ely ran on NBC from 1966 to 1968. This depiction of Tarzan is a well-educated bachelor who grew tired of urban civilization and is in his native African jungle once again.

An animated series from Filmation, Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, aired from 1976 to 1977, followed by the anthology programs Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour (1977–1978), Tarzan and the Super 7 (1978–1980), The Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour (1980–1981), and The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour (1981–1982). In those cartoons, Tarzan was voiced by Robert Ridgely.




Australian Travis Fimmel (pictured 2015) briefly portrayed Tarzan on television

The latest television series was the short-lived live-action Tarzan (2003), which starred male model Travis Fimmel and updated the setting to contemporary New York City, with Jane as a police detective, played by Sarah Wayne Callies. The series was cancelled after only eight episodes.

Saturday Night Live featured recurring sketches with the speech-impaired trio of "Tonto, Tarzan, and Frankenstein's Monster". In those sketches, Tarzan is portrayed by Kevin Nealon.



Video and computer gamesEdit

In the mid-1980s there was an arcade video game called Jungle King that featured a Tarzanesque character in a loin cloth. A game under the title Tarzan Goes Ape, with little connection to the franchise, was released in the 1980s for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. A Tarzan computer game by Michael Archer was produced by Martech. Disney's Tarzan had seen video games released for the PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color. Followed by Disney's Tarzan Untamed for the PS2 and Gamecube and Disney's Tarzan: Return to the Jungle for the Game Boy Advance. Tarzan also appeared in the PS2 game Kingdom Hearts, although this Tarzan was shown in the Disney context, not the original conceptional idea of Tarzan by Burroughs. In the first Rayman, a Tarzanesque version of Rayman named Tarayzan appears in the Dream Forest.

Action figuresEdit




Tarzan in comicsEdit




Works inspired by TarzanEdit

Jerry Siegel named Tarzan and another Burroughs character, John Carter, as early inspiration for his creation of Superman.[27]

Tarzan's popularity inspired numerous imitators in pulp magazines. A number of these, like Kwa and Ka-Zar were direct or loosely veiled copies; others, like Polaris of the Snows, were similar characters in different settings, or with different gimmicks. Of these characters the most popular was Ki-Gor, the subject of fifty-nine novels that appeared between winter 1939 to spring 1954 in the magazine Jungle Stories.[28]

Species named after TarzanEdit

Clumma tarzan in Madagascar

Tarzan is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of chameleon, Calumma tarzan, which is endemic to Madagascar.[29]

In popular cultureEdit

Tarzan is often used as a nickname to indicate a similarity between a person's characteristics and that of the fictional character. Individuals with an exceptional 'ape-like' ability to climb, cling and leap beyond that of ordinary humans may often receive the nickname 'Tarzan'.[30] An example is retired American baseball player Joe Wallis.[31]


Tarzan and Pellucidar main series chronologyEdit

  1. Tarzan of the Apes Chapters 1 to 11 (1912) (Project Gutenberg Entry:Ebook) ( Audiobook)
  2. Jungle Tales of Tarzan (1919) (Ebook) (Audiobook)
    • "Tarzan's First Love" (1916)
    • "The Capture of Tarzan" (1916)
    • "The Fight for the Balu" (1916)
    • "The God of Tarzan" (1916)
    • "Tarzan and the Black Boy" (1917)
    • "The Witch-Doctor Seeks Vengeance" (1917)
    • "The End of Bukawai" (1917)
    • "The Lion" (1917)
    • "The Nightmare" (1917)
    • "The Battle for Teeka" (1917)
    • "A Jungle Joke" (1917)
    • "Tarzan Rescues the Moon" (1917)
  3. Tarzan of the Apes Chapters 11 to 28 (1912) (Project Gutenberg Entry:Ebook) ( Audiobook)
  4. The Return of Tarzan (1913) (Ebook) (Audiobook)
  5. The Beasts of Tarzan (1914) (Ebook) (Audiobook)
  6. At the Earth's Core (1914)
  7. The Son of Tarzan Chapters 1 to 12 (1915) (Ebook) (Audiobook)
  8. Pellucidar (1915)
  9. Tarzan and the Forbidden City (1938) (Ebook)
  10. Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar (1916) (Ebook) (Audiobook)
  11. The Son of Tarzan Chapters 13 to 27 (1915) (Ebook) (Audiobook)
  13. "The Mad King" (The Mad King Part 1) All-Story Weekly March 21, 1914
  15. "Barney Custer of Beatrice" (The Mad King Part 2) All-Story Weekly, August 1915
  16. Tarzan the Untamed (1920) (Ebook)
    • "Tarzan and the Huns" (1919)
    • "Tarzan and the Valley of Luna" (1920)
  17. Tarzan the Terrible (1921) (Ebook) (Audiobook)
  18. Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1922, 1923) (Ebook)
  19. Tarzan and the Ant Men (1924) (Ebook)
  20. Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins (1963, for younger readers)
    • "The Tarzan Twins" (1927) (Ebook)
    • "Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins and Jad-Bal-Ja the Golden Lion" (1936) (Ebook)
  21. Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1927, 1928) (Ebook)
  22. Tarzan and the Lost Empire (1928) (Ebook)
  23. Tanar of Pellucidar (1929)
  24. Tarzan at the Earth's Core (1929) (Ebook)
  25. Tarzan the Invincible (1930, 1931) (Ebook)
  26. Tarzan Triumphant (1931) (Ebook)
  27. Tarzan and the City of Gold (1932) (Ebook)
  28. Tarzan and the Lion Man (1933, 1934) (Ebook)
  29. Tarzan and the Leopard Men (1935) (Ebook)
  30. Tarzan's Quest (1935, 1936) (Ebook)
  31. Tarzan the Magnificent (1939) (Ebook)
    • "Tarzan and the Magic Men" (1936)
  32. Back to the Stone Age (1937)
  33. Tarzan and the Elephant Men" (1937–1938)
  34. Tarzan and the Champion" (1940)
  35. Tarzan and the Jungle Murders" (1940)
  36. Tarzan and the Madman (1964)
  37. Tarzan and the Castaways (1941) (Ebook)
  38. Land of Terror (1944)
  39. Tarzan and the Foreign Legion (1947) (Ebook)
  40. Savage Pellucidar (1963)
    • "The Return to Pellucidar"
    • "Men of the Bronze Age"
    • "Tiger Girl"
    • "Savage Pellucidar"
  41. Tarzan: the Lost Adventure (unfinished - 16 chapters, 83 pages) (194?) (revised and completed by Joe R. Lansdale) (1995)



By Edgar Rice BurroughsEdit

  1. Tarzan of the Apes (1912) (Project Gutenberg Entry:Ebook) ( Audiobook)
  4. The Son of Tarzan (1915) (Ebook) (Audiobook)
    • "Tarzan's First Love" (1916)
    • "The Capture of Tarzan" (1916)
    • "The Fight for the Balu" (1916)
    • "The God of Tarzan" (1916)
    • "Tarzan and the Black Boy" (1917)
    • "The Witch-Doctor Seeks Vengeance" (1917)
    • "The End of Bukawai" (1917)
    • "The Lion" (1917)
    • "The Nightmare" (1917)
    • "The Battle for Teeka" (1917)
    • "A Jungle Joke" (1917)
    • "Tarzan Rescues the Moon" (1917)
  7. Tarzan the Untamed (1920) (Ebook)
    • "Tarzan and the Huns" (1919)
    • "Tarzan and the Valley of Luna" (1920)
  15. Tarzan Triumphant (1931) (Ebook)
  19. Tarzan's Quest (1935, 1936) (Ebook)
  21. Tarzan the Magnificent (1939) (Ebook)
    • "Tarzan and the Magic Men" (1936)
  23. Tarzan and the Madman (1964)
  24. Tarzan and the Castaways (1965)
    • "Tarzan and the Champion" (1940)
    • "Tarzan and the Jungle Murders" (1940)
  25. Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins (1963, for younger readers)
    • "The Tarzan Twins" (1927) (Ebook)
  26. Tarzan: the Lost Adventure (unfinished) (revised and completed by Joe R. Lansdale) (1995)

By other authorsEdit

    1. Tarzan and the Silver Globe (1964)
    2. Tarzan and the Cave City (1964)
    3. Tarzan and the Snake People (1964)
    4. Tarzan and the Abominable Snowmen (1965)
    5. Tarzan and the Winged Invaders (1965)
  • Fritz Leiber – the first novel authorized by the Burroughs estate, and numbered as the 25th book in the Tarzan series.
  • Philip José Farmer
New Tarzan

Publisher Faber and Faber with the backing of the Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. have updated the series using author Andy Briggs. In 2011 he published the first of the books Tarzan: The Greystoke Legacy. In 2012 he published the second book Tarzan: The Jungle Warrior In 2013, he has published the third book Tarzan: The Savage Lands.

See alsoEdit


  1. ^ In Burroughs, Edgar Rice (1914). "Chapter XXV". Tarzan of the Apes. Somehow, even against all reason, I seem to see him a grown man, taking his father's place in the world—the second John Clayton—and bringing added honors to the house of Greystoke.
  9. ^ "Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc". Retrieved 2013-05-30.
  10. ^ Gail Bederman,Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880–1917, University of Chicago Press, 1995, pages 219.
  12. ^ "Tarzan Revisited" by Gore Vidal.
  16. ^ "Bozarth, David Bruce. "Ape-English Dictionary"". Retrieved 2013-05-30.
  17. ^ Rothschild, Bertram (1999). "Tarzan – Review". Humanist.
  25. ^ Werper, Barton
  26. ^ Robert R. Barrett, Tarzan on Radio, Radio Spirits, 1999.
  27. ^
  29. ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Tarzan", pp. 260–261).
  30. ^ [3][dead link]
  31. ^ Markusen, Bruce (2009-08-14). "Cooperstown Confidential: Tarzan Joe Wallis". Retrieved 2013-05-30.
  32. ^ King, Larry (2013-04-17). "Larry King interviews Carol Burnett". Retrieved 2014-07-17.
  33. ^ "Letter by E. R. Burroughs". 1922-02-04. Retrieved 2013-05-30.

Further readingEdit

  • Annette Wannamaker and Michelle Ann Abate, eds. Global Perspectives on Tarzan: From King of the Jungle to International Icon (Routledge; 2012) 216 pages; studies by scholars from the United States, Australia, Canada, Israel, the Netherlands, Germany, and France.
  • Egan, Sean (2017). Tarzan: The Biography. London: Askill Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9545750-7-6.

External linksEdit