Synopsis "The Return of Tarzan"
American author Edgar Rice Burroughs is known best for his classic Tarzan novels. The Return of Tarzan is the second in his series, the direct sequel to The Return of Tarzan. These stories follow the adventures of a man raised by apes in the jungle, with themes such as Tarzan struggling to find his identity, racial superiority, and nature versus nurture. Along with his Tarzan stories, Burroughs is known for his speculative fiction and planetary worlds and is considered one of the most influential writers in history due to the fact that his science fiction inspired the real-life exploration of Mars. Burroughs inspired many important figures in the literature world, such as Rudyard Kipling and his "Jungle Books," as well as James Edwin Gunn, who won the Huge Award for his science fiction. The Return of Tarzan picks up soon after the first novel, where Tarzan is feels homesick after leaving the jungle to wed his lover, Jane Porter. Tarzan ventures out to Europe to visit his friend, Paul d'Arnot, but while on the ship Tarzan gets wrapped up in a whole new adventure. Tarzan meets Countess Olga de Coude and her husband, Count Raoul de Coude, who are being watched by a man named Rokoff. When Tarzan saves the Countess and her husband from Rokoff's evil schemes, Tarzan makes new enemies that he can't escape even after arriving in France. These enemies chase him all the way to a lost city found in the jungle, where a whole new civilization is found. With Rokoff dead set on eliminating Tarzan, the ape man must use who he is, in the jungle and out of it, to get back to Jane and her father alive. The Return of Tarzan is full of excitement and adventure with Burroughs' imaginative writing and the sweet romance between two humans from two vastly different worlds. "The Return of Tarzan" is a sequel that cannot be passed up.
