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    Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
    Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
    Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
    Audiobook7 hours

    Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar

    Written by Edgar Rice Burroughs

    Narrated by Shelly Frasier

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Edgar Rice Burroughs is the creator of one of the most iconic figures in American pop culture: Tarzan of the Apes. Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar is the fifth book in the Tarzan series and considered by many to be one of the best.

    In one of his earlier adventures, Tarzan visited the mysterious, ruinous city of Opar that dated back to Atlantean times and was now inhabited by a strange horde of bloodthirsty, apelike priests headed by La, the High Priestess of the Flaming God. Thence, he brought back very little of the great store of ingoted gold hidden deep in a hill, and was rich for life.

    In the current adventure, Tarzan returns to the gold-mining city of Opar to contend with greedy villains and the amorous attentions of the High Priestess. But the priests who work for her have other ideas-they don't intend to let Tarzan escape their sacrificial knives a second time.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateSep 14, 2009
    ISBN9781400181179
    Author

    Edgar Rice Burroughs

    American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875 - 1950) worked many odd jobs before professionally writing. Burroughs did not start writing until he was in his late 30s while working at a pencil-sharpener wholesaler. But after following his call to writing, Burroughs created one of America's most enduring adventure heroes: Tarzan. Along with his novels about Tarzan, Burroughs wrote the notable Barsoom series, which follows the Mars adventurer John Carter.

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    Reviews for Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar

    3.5/5

    221 ratings64 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Well, this is a simple childhood story, I don't really need to review it as we all are probably familiar with it. My generation grew up watching TV movies about the ape man. I liked them a lot back then. My granddaughters have sat in front of the TV watching Disney DVDs. Tarzan is the orphan child of Lord and Lady Graystoke who were put ashore after a mutiny on a ship they were sailing. Lady Greystoke dies when Tarzan is a baby and Lord Greystoke is killed by an ape leaving the infant boy in the crib. The female ape who's baby is dead exchanges it for Tarzan and thus Tarzan is raised as an ape. He teaches himself to read English. The story is one of survival, adventure, combat with nature and romance. It is surprising that the book has lasted because it also can be described as racist and sexist. On another level, the book idealizes man's relationship with nature verses civilization. You have the contrast of Tarzan and Clayton. Tarzan who ate by the laws of nature and Clayton who ate with the manners of society.
    • 4/5
      Most people hate cliffhangers. I absolutely love them. I love the anticipation(and even slight frustration) they can make you feel.

      But that was a devious, DEVIOUS ending. I guess I'm off to download book two...

      Full review to come.
    • 5/5
      People always laugh when I tell them that Tarzan is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time. Unless you have actually read Burrough\'s book, you really have not experienced anything even close to what the Tarzan story is about. This has always been a favorite from the day I first read it as a child.
    • 4/5
      I was surprised at how interesting and well written this book still is.
    • 3/5
      This is a boys' book and reminded me of the Rover Boys books I read as a child. It is said to be Burroughs' best book out ot the some 70 he wrote. It is mighty fantastic, but it is neat to see Tarzan triumphing over all the bad guys, without too much effort. It has also been named as the fifth best book of the 1910s, which is hard to believe. It is easy to read, but pretty fantastic.
    • 5/5
      I first read this book some 40 odd years ago, and it became one of my favorites. Reading it again changed little, except maybe a deeper love of the story.John and Alice Clayton, Lord and Lady Greystoke, are put ashore on the west coast of Africa after the crew of their vessel mutinees and kills the officers. Shortly thereafter, Alice gives birth to a bouncing baby boy. Over the course of a year, John builds a very sturdy cabin for their habitation and safety, but Alice could not cope and finally succumbed. So distraught was John that he neglected to latch the door to the cabin, allowing Kerchack, king of the great apes, easy access and spelled the end for John.Luckily for the baby, Kala had dropped her newborn, killing it. She rapidly traded her dead baby for the crying young Lord Greystoke and raised the human as her own and named him Tarzan. So begins the life and times of Tarzan of the apes, who used his superior intellect to become king of his tribe and the most feared Hunter in all of Africa.
    • 5/5
      Following Clayton as he grows up in the wild is a treat. You cannot go wrong with Burroughs, His characters are awesome.
    • 5/5
      Why did it take me so long to pick up this classic? This is your typical little adventure from a time when adventure series were very popular. Nothing complicated here, just good fun in the classic way. People who have seen various movie versions might be disappointed in the book because it won't be what they expect, but movies never follow a book exactly and I think most of us are aware of that by now. I have to say in most cases I enjoyed this book much better than the theatrical equivalents.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed the details left out of the movies. Very entertaining
    • 4/5
      It is necessary to get past the awkward dialogue, especially toward the beginning of the book, and the ridiculously offensive character of Jane's black maid, who spends most of the book in a faint. And there are a few more silly things along the way--but, nevertheless, the narrative, especially the growing infatuation of Tarzan with Jane, will grab you and hold you to the satisfying conclusion. I have only read Burroughs' science fiction before--and that was many years ago, but I'm glad I finally picked up Tarzan. For the most part, Burroughs does his best to give his far-fetched story the semblance of believability, such as his explanations of how Tarzan, orphaned as an infant, learns on his own how to read English--but not speak it. The characters are memorable, too, though they are hardly complex. I will definitely continue reading the series--especially since Burroughs ends this one on a cliffhanger!
    • 5/5
      What I love about Tarzan of the Apes is how so very different the book is from all the adaptations that came after it. Because of that, this book is full of wonderful unexpected surprises in plot and character.
    • 5/5
      A classic. Burroughs knows how to write action. I had thought it would be trite and unbelievable. I was very wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and lost the sense that I was reading. I strongly recommend Tarzan of the Apes even though it appears archaic.
    • 5/5
      A great, classic escapist adventure melodrama.
    • 3/5

      The trials and tribulations of Tarzan and his friends are, without doubt, interesting. It's actually surprising the story is as short as it is. I'm debating on reading the others, but then again most books in a series pale in comparison to the first book, so I'm still at a bit of a loss there. The cast of characters is quite wonderful, and diverse, in a way. I love how the author made Tarzan play on the superstitions of the native tribes. I feel as though it added a sort of authenticity to him somehow, though I truly can't explain why I feel this way.

      This was a lovely change from your traditional classic novel; it was short, sweet, & to the point. It was, however, mildly disappointing. I suppose that's because I have this lovely Disney image of the story in my head, but I was really hoping, after all the work he went through, that Tarzan would get the girl.
    • 4/5
      Tarzan is a classic for a reason. Fun, romantic, exciting, adventurous--But its sequels leave much to be desired, in my opinion. It's a great read, and it's good to read the original version of Tarzan before watching the millions of movies that have come out over the years.
    • 4/5
      " Jane her lithe, young form flattened against the trunk of a great tree, her hands tight pressed against her rising and falling bosom, and her eyes wide with mingles horror, fascination, fear, and admiration - watched the primordial ape battle with the primeval man for possession of a woman - for her. As the great muscles of the man's back and shoulders knotted beneath the tension of his efforts, and the huge biceps and forearm held at bay those mighty tusks, the veil of centuries of civilization and culture was swept from the blurred vision of the Baltimore girl."Edgar Rice Burroughs knew how to tell a good story; his prose carries the reader along effortlessly page after page. Pulp fiction it may be, but it is so well written and at times so convincing that he makes his fantastical stories seam real. I used to gobble these books up as a teenager, and re-reading Tarzan today I was soon under it's spell and could hardly put the book down. Burroughs was in love with his male characters especially his hero Tarzan and if his descriptions of that perfect body are going to put you off then perhaps it's not for you:She watched him from beneath half-closed lids, Tarzan crossed the little circular clearing toward the trees upon the further side. She noted the graceful majesty of his carriage, the perfect symmetry of his magnificent figure and the poise of his well-shaped head upon his broad shoulders. What a perfect creature! There could be naught of cruelty or baseness beneath that godlike exterior. Never, she thought had such a man strode the earth since God created the first man in his own image." Burroughs Tarzan is a savage creature, but he is also a noble savage and this is the hook that makes him so attractive. Episodes of the Tarzan story first appeared in 1912 and it was published in book form in 1914 and while the story is very much of it's time as regards attitudes to women and black people, I did not find it overtly racist or sexist; a black maid is singled out as a figure of fun, but then so are two English academics. The black natives are savage and cruel, but Burroughs points out that this is the result of even crueller barbarities practiced on them by white officers of Leopold II's of Belgium regime. Tarzan is still a rip roaring adventure yarn with a super hero who one could almost believe in and one you might want to believe in. If ever I am in a reading slump I shall just pick up one of these stories, hell I might pick one up if I am not in a slump especially as the Tarzan and Jane story in this first of the series ends in a cliff hanger. Great fun and a four star read.
    • 4/5
      OK, so it's racist, and terribly old fashioned... but it's also terribly interesting, with its celebration of physicality and fascinating account of how Tarzan learns about language. I read it as a kid and loved it. Now much of the interest is intellectual and historical. Tarzan is such an iconic character... it's great to return to the source to see what was there before all the movies and t.v. shows.
    • 5/5
      Really enjoyed this. Full of action and romance. Particularly enjoyable was Tarzan's childhood.
    • 3/5
      The story of Tarzan is a twist on the noble savage theme, except with a white man as the "other" (ironically among other whites). The book is full of embarrassing artifacts such as racial stereotypes, social Darwinism, superiority of white culture. A few scenes involving the affair with Jane and Tarzan are well done. Given its influence on popular culture it's still a worthwhile read, only just.I have a theory about Tarzan. When superheroes arose in the late 19th and early 20th century in pulp fiction and dime store novels, it was in response to a changing world for white males. Colonialism was being questioned, female suffrage was at its height, the western frontier was closed - the white male was suffering a crisis of identity. The superhero offered a new found outlet to express a sense of superiority. By identifying with superheroes, he could live out his traditional mandate of conquest and patriarchy, which the real world was increasingly making impossible. Thus we don't find many black superheroes, even to this day. This historical insight makes me a little wary of the whole superhero enterprise and perhaps helps explain what made Tarzan so popular on a certain level.
    • 5/5
      John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, boards a ship for British West Africa with Alice, his bride. During their travels, the crew mutinies, but a kind sailor makes sure that the Englishman and his wife will not be killed, instead he abandons them in a wilderness harbor with all of their luggage and a few supplies. The site has a river mouth for water, and John and Alice gather and hunt to live after their supplies run out. Although not a tradesman, John builds and furnishes a log cabin with a clever door latch for protection against wild beasts. Their son is born there. A year later, Alice dies, and Clayton is killed by an ape, Kerchak.

      Among the attacking apes is Kala, a female whose own baby has died. Finding the now-orphaned, hairless white baby, she takes it up as her own. After ten years, the puny and slow Tarzan—“white ape” in their tongue—begins to mature in both body and brain. Although he knows nothing of his connection with the cabin, he is fascinated by it. He discovers how to open the cabin latch,where he finds many books, including a brightly illustrated alphabet book. The “bugs” on the pages fascinate him, and in time he teaches himself to read them. I marveled at how the author described the wayTarzan taught himself to read. He also finds a sharp hunting knife and, when a huge gorilla attacks him, he accidentally discovers the knife’s usefulness. With it, he gains status as the tribe’s greatest hunter and fighter.
      Later, a tribe of black Africans settles in the area, and Kala is killed by one of the tribe's hunters. Avenging himself on the killer, Tarzan begins an antagonistic relationship with the tribe, raiding its village for weapons and playing cruel pranks on them. They, in turn, regard him as an evil spirit.
      Later, a new party of white travelers become marooned on the coast, including Jane Porter, the first white woman Tarzan has ever seen. Tarzan's cousin, Tarzan spies on the newcomers, aids them, and saves Jane from the dangers of the jungle. Eventually Tarzan learns how to behave among white men, as well as serving as his guide to the nearest colonial outposts. In the end, Tarzan travels to Jane's native Baltimore, Maryland only to find that she is now in the woods of Wisconsin. Tarzan finally meets Jane in Wisconsin where they renew their acquaintance and he learns the bitter news that she has become engaged to William Clayton. Meanwhile, clues from his parents' cabin have enabled D'Arnot to prove Tarzan's true identity. Instead of claiming his inheritance, Tarzan chooses rather to conceal and renounce his heritage for the sake of Jane's happiness.
    • 4/5
      Tarzan has never been my favourite character, be it the comics or the cartoons - now Mowgli was an entirely different story! And the irony strikes. In the last year or so, I have read both the Jungle Books, which were barely readable, the characters nowhere as snappy as I remembered them from my childhood cartoons.And so, it was with great skepticism that I started with Tarzan of the Apes, and was I surprised! The writing was very simple, the story captivating and the characters endearing, even if stereotypical - be it the pretty, pretty Jane, the absent minded Professor or the mighty Tarzan. The never ending victories of Tarzan were not dull, nor were the highly noticeable and distinct villains bothersome. The repetitive fainting of poor Esmeralda did get on my nerves a few time, but well, she had a character to play as well, did I mention stereotypical?The ending of the book didn't lack in flourish either and I am left wondering, whether to dare the sequel and risk getting my impression shattered or go the way of Dune and Ender's Game and leave the series on a high with fond memories and none of the regrets.4/5
    • 3/5
      Here's a case of a book being pretty much overwhelmed by its own success in popular culture. From Johnny Weissmuller to "Me Tarzan, you Jane" to being Disney-fied, everyone knows the story of Tarzan. Or at least, some version of it. The thing about reading the book is that you might find out the version you know didn't come from the book. I'll admit I'm not too familiar with the various adaptations of the story, but I didn't quite expect what I got.Lord Greystoke and his young, pregnant wife are marooned on the coast of Africa after a mutiny on board the ship on which they were traveling. They make a reasonably comfortable life for themselves on the isolated beach, just outside the beginning of a deep jungle. The baby is born, and when by the time he's just over a year old, both his parents are dead and he's been stolen by an ape who is grieving for her own lost baby. The rest of the book has to do with Tarzan's place as an outsider with the tribe of apes, and his experiences with native tribes and eventually, the first white people he sees. Burroughs' writing is serviceable, and the plot will keep you going even in the midst of completely unbelievable coincidences and other developments - that stretch of beach is apparently the happening place for maroonings, for example, and Tarzan is a super-genius who can teach himself to read without ever having been introduced to the concept of a written language. The racism, sexism, classism and support for imperialism that reflect his time are a little hard to swallow for the modern reader. Jane, as a woman, "was created to be protected." Tarzan isn't disturbed by the natives' cannibalism until their potential victim is a white man. Tarzan instinctively reacts to Jane's courtesies in kind as "the hall-mark of his aristocratic birth, the natural outcropping of many generations of fine breeding." Jane's black servant is a malaprop-spouting, eye-rolling, fainting-at-the-drop-of-a-hat stereotype. Even with those caveats, it's worth reading just to know where the story really began.Recommended for: fans of swashbucklers and adventure, anyone who can hear the Tarzan yell in their head (which must be everyone), people who don't mind occasionally shaking a fist at the attitudes in the book.Quote: "Jane Porter -- her lithe, young form flattened against the trunk of a great tree, her hands tight pressed against her rising and falling bosom, and her eyes wide with mingled horror, fascination, fear and admiration -- watched the primordial ape battle with the primeval man for possession of a woman -- for her."
    • 3/5
      While I’m willing to suspend belief and read about Tarzan being brought up by apes, fitting into their culture, etc., I can’t suspend belief regarding his ability to teach himself to read English, or to learn to speak it – and French – in record-breaking time. Other aspects like this spoil what could’ve been a gripping adventure novel. It does have some engaging moments, notably Tarzan’s time spent with the apes, but it goes downhill once he grows ‘civilised’.This is one of several ‘classics’ that I’ve read after watching countless film and TV adaptations, thus beforehand I expected something wonderful, only to be disappointed.In short, it’s not a bad read, but the unbelievability brings it down.
    • 4/5
      The "true" story of the Lord of the Jungle--Tarzan. Read the story of a young boy, orphaned, then adopted and raised by the apes. Read of his struggles and how he finds his heritage and the woman who changed his life--Jane. The story of Tarzan has been told over and over; read the book for yourself
    • 3/5
      For Christmas, I ordered an mp3 player (Library of Classics) that was pre-loaded with 100 works of classic literature in an audio format. Each work is in the public domain and is read by amateurs, so the quality of the presentation is hit or miss. Tarzan of the Apes is a cultural classic. I grew up during a time when Saturday morning was filled with Tarzan cartoons and movies. “Me Tarzan, you Jane” is almost a cultural tagline. However, this is the first time I was exposed to the original novel, written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The story is well known. The child of English nobility is raised from birth by a band of apes, with very little exposure to human influence. Upon reaching maturity, he is finally faced with members of his own species.I found this to be a relatively decent story, right up to the point that the party of English travelers was deposited upon Tarzan’s shores. Now, I had a problem with Tarzan teaching himself how to read, strictly by virtue of his discovery of a set of books left behind by his dead parents. That is pretty absurd on its face, however, when the English travelers actually included Tarzan’s first cousin, the very person that succeeded to the lordship upon the death of his father, the author lost me. Coincidence? Africa is a mighty large continent for two such closely related people to accidentally run into each other.There follows several highly implausible occurrences, such as Tarzan’s mastery of the French and English languages and operation of near seamless transition into upper class society. In any event, a tolerably entertaining story deteriorated rapidly at about the midway point, in my opinion.
    • 3/5
      Very strong first half - like a Jack London survival tale, but the second act gives way to social farce & plodding romance with a very rushed, sloppy ending.
    • 4/5
      I was surprised at how much I liked this book. For its genre, the writing is excellent. It is fast-paced, evocative,and dramatic. I was drawn in immediately. I'm actually reading this book to my partner at bedtime each night. Not every book reads well out loud, but this one does. Clearly, the book was written in another era that was unconscious about issues like white supremacy and colonization. While understanding the historical context, it still leaves me uneasy with the realization that this book would be offensive to Black people, who are depicted as "savages", in contrast to Tarzan, who is at the same time the ape-man and also the noble Lord Greystoke. The book is a classic, not because it's high literature, but because it's a rolicking good adventure. It also has had a major cultural impact, particularly, as an earlier reviewer pointed out, on Hollywood. This book is inspiring me to return to some of the other classic adventure stories that I haven't read for decades.
    • 4/5
      The first and best book about Tarzan. The credibility of this kind of stories is questionable, but it reads well, and you do not see the flaws immediately. Simply a good and entertaining read.
    • 5/5
      Definitely a dated classic, but wonderful for all that. I re-read it for The Pulp magazine group I'm in & am glad I did. You really want to read the next book, "The Return of Tarzan" immediately after since we're left with a cliff hanger.Burroughs hasn't aged as well as some authors, mostly because of his handling of PC subjects such as racism & sexism. It is too easy to see the outward signs of both in his books, but careful reading shows that while he may have catered to the views of the day, he didn't seem to really believe in the racism, in this book.For instance, the majority of blacks in this book are degenerate brutes. They're a tribe of barbaric cannibals who killed the 'mother' of our hero, though. They have the misfortune to have a society that Burroughs denigrates at every opportunity. Esmeralda, Jane's servant/confidant/nanny, is also an object of humor, but then so is her father & his secretary/companion. All are caricatures, as is Tarzan himself. When it comes right down to it, Burroughs makes a point that fingerprints from an ape might be simpler, but there was no difference between those of a black & a white. This admission of equality of physical evolution wasn't common in his day. He treats the white pirates the same way as the black tribesman - they're bad guys & so contemptible. The story hinges on coincidence & stupid, heroic restraint consistently & that doesn't do it any favors nor did the cliff hanger ending. Still, it was a fun read & I'd highly recommend it to anyone. Tarzan has been so warped by movies, TV & add-ons that it's nice to see the original.
    • 4/5
      A very enjoyable adventure story though the colonial and class attitudes overwhelm the story at times.