Tarzan of the Apes

By: Edgar Rice Burroughs

Narrated by: Benjamin May

Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

A man and his wife are left deserted on an island after the crew onboard the ship they are traveling on mutinies. With nothing but their luggage and some supplies, the couple must find a way to survive in the intense jungle environment. They hunt and gather food, but are never safe from the vicious creatures lurking in the jungle. Finding refuge and living in a treehouse, they end up having a son together, but soon after, Alice, the mother, dies, and the father is killed by a vicious gorilla. The baby is adopted by a grieving gorilla mother and raised amongst them as one of their own. He is named Tarzan.

As Tarzan ages, he starts to become confused about the obvious differences between the apes and himself. He begins to search for his true identity and discovers the tree house that he was born in. There, he finds books and weapons and he learns how weapons can be advantageous to him when he kills an ape with his biological father's hunting knife. After mischievous encounters with the African people, Tarzan collects more weapons, and kills the jealous ape leader, becoming the leader himself.

Everything changes though when a new group of people come to the jungle, including a woman that will turn his world upside down. Tarzan must decide whether to stay true to his ape family or to discover a whole new civilized world that he is completely foreign to.

©2016 A.R.N. Publications (P)2016 A.R.N. Publications

Great Story but SoSo Reader

What made the experience of listening to Tarzan of the Apes the most enjoyable?

The story.

What did you like best about this story?

I like this story as written better than any of the movie versions, and so I'm not sure why none of the films since the 80s follow the original story more faithfully. Honestly the Disney animated version seems to come closest. Understanding what happened to Tarzan's parents, how they came to be marooned etc. is really great. The way Tarzan becomes 'domesticated' and how he learns to read and speak English is charming. The way Tarzan is painted as much more a beast while living in the jungle raised by the apes also adds complexity to this character always depicted in film as being a fairly two dimensional character. I highly recommend this original story to anyone who enjoys the idea of Tarzan.

Did Benjamin May do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Character differentiation was fair, at times he loses the professor and defaults to a Clayton voice. His Jane could use some work as well. The one main issue with this reader isn't voice quality or inflection but rather that he says 'Greystroke' interchangeably with 'Greystoke'.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

There are many moments that make this story hard to put down. It is thrilling!

Greystoke, not GreySTROKE.

How is it possible that the narrator mispronounced this for the ENTIRE book? Umm, editor?