''Tarzan and the Ant Men'' is a novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the tenth in his series of twenty-four books about the jungle hero

Tarzan 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 adv ...

. It was first published as a seven-part serial in the magazine '' Argosy All-Story Weekly'' for February 2, 9, 16 and 23 and March 1, 8 and 15, 1924. It was first published in book form in hardcover by A. C. McClurg in September 1924. The story was also adapted for

Gold Key Comics Gold Key Comics was originally an imprint of American company Western Publishing, created for comic books distributed to newsstands. Also known as Whitman Comics, Gold Key operated this way from 1962 to 1984. Currently, Gold Key Comics is owned b ...

in ''

'' #174-175 (1968). In the book '' Master of Adventure: The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs'', Richard A. Lupoff places ''Tarzan and the Ant Men'' in his list of essential Burroughs novels and states that it represents Burroughs at the peak of his creative powers.

Plot summary

The story begins 1 year after the end of the previous novel (#9, ''

Tarzan and the Golden Lion ''Tarzan and the Golden Lion'' is an adventure novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the ninth in his series of twenty-four books about the title character Tarzan. It was first published as a seven part serial in ''Argosy All-Story We ...

'') which would place it around 1936 which would make Tarzan around 47 years old. His son Korak, now at about 23 has a verbal child, the grandchild of Tarzan. Tarzan, the king of the jungle, enters an isolated country called Minuni, inhabited by a people four times smaller than himself, the Minunians, who live in magnificent city-states which frequently wage war against each other. Tarzan befriends the king, Adendrohahkis, and the prince, Komodoflorensal, of one such city-state, called Trohanadalmakus, and joins them in war against the onslaught of the army of Veltopismakus, their warlike neighbours. He is captured on the battle-ground and taken prisoner by the Veltopismakusians, whose scientist Zoanthrohago conducts an experiment reducing him to the size of a Minunian, and the ape-man is imprisoned and enslaved among other Trohanadalmakusian prisoners of war. He meets, though, Komodoflorensal in the dungeons of Veltopismakus, and together they are able to make a daring escape. Spanish actor/Tarzan lookalike Esteban Miranda, who had been imprisoned in the village of Obebe, the

cannibal Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, bo ...

, at the end of the previous novel, ''

'', also appears in this adventure.

Major themes

Burrough's view on what is a natural relationship between the sexes is neatly illustrated by a secondary narrative thread in the novel, that one about the Alali or Zertalacolols, an ape-like matriarchal people living in the thorny forests which isolate Minuni from the rest of the worlds. When the enslaved and persecuted Alali males see that Tarzan is a male too and yet stronger and more formidable than any Alali female, they go to war against the females, and by killing or maiming several of them, subjugate them. When Tarzan, towards the end of the novel, meets the Alali again, the females are submissive and obedient to their mates and actually prefer it that way. The Minunian city states and their politics are strongly reminiscent of those of Barsoom. They also share the Barsoomian philosophy of perpetual war as a good and commendable state, as illustrated by the words of Gefasto, the Commander in Chief of the Veltopismakusian armed forces:

We must have war. As we have found that there is no enduring happiness in peace or virtue, let us have a little war and a little sin. A pudding that is all of one ingredient is nauseating—it must be seasoned, it must be spiced, and before we can enjoy the eating of it to the fullest we must be forced to strive for it. War and work, the two most distasteful things in the world, are, nevertheless, the most essential to the happiness and the existence of a people. Peace reduces the necessity for labor, and induces slothfulness. War compels labor, that her ravages may be effaced. Peace turns us into fat worms. War makes men of us.''''Tarzan and the Ant-men'', chapter ten.

Importance

''Tarzan and the Ant Men'' marks the end of a sequence that began with ''

Tarzan the Untamed ''Tarzan the Untamed'' is a book by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the seventh in his series of twenty-four books about the title character Tarzan. It was originally published as two separate stories serialized in different pulp magazines; ...

'' and continued through ''

Tarzan the Terrible ''Tarzan the Terrible'' is a novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the eighth in his series of twenty-four books about the title character Tarzan. It was first published as a serial in the pulp magazine '' Argosy All-Story Weekly'' in ...

'' and ''Tarzan and the Golden Lion'' in which Burroughs' vivid imagination and storytelling abilities hit their peak, and which is generally considered a highlight of the series. The novel is also the last in the series to focus primarily on Tarzan's own affairs and to routinely feature the customary locales and supporting cast of the early novels. In later novels Burroughs largely dropped the use of such important characters as Jane and Korak, as well as the familiar base of Tarzan's African estate. Formerly pivotal characters would return only occasionally; Jane, La of Opar and Paul d'Arnot would each reappear once, while the Waziri or

Jad-bal-ja Jad-bal-ja, the Golden Lion is a fictional character in Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan novels, and in adaptations of the saga to other media, particularly comics. Character Jad-bal-ja serves as a companion to Tarzan, to whom he is attached as a do ...

the golden lion would only be brought in as needed to get Tarzan out of a tight spot. The Ape Man would become a seemingly rootless adventurer intervening in the affairs of an endlessly changing gallery of secondary characters whose goals and entanglements were henceforth to form the basis of the novels' plots. This shift in plot-type had first been presaged by the introduction of strong secondary characters as early as ''Tarzan the Untamed''; after ''Tarzan and the Ant Men'' it would become dominant.

References in other literature

''Tarzan and the Ant Men'' is referred to in Harper Lee's novel ''

To Kill a Mockingbird ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' is a novel by the American author Harper Lee. It was published in 1960 and was instantly successful. In the United States, it is widely read in high schools and middle schools. ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' has become ...

'' (1960) as a book read by the young protagonist, Jean Louise ("Scout") Finch.

Comic adaptations

The book has been adapted into comic form by

in ''Tarzan'' nos. 174-175, dated June–July 1969, with a script by

Gaylord DuBois Gaylord McIlvaine Du Bois (sometimes written DuBois) (August 24, 1899 – October 20, 1993) was an American writer of comic book stories and comic strips, as well as Big Little Books and juvenile adventure novels. Du Bois wrote ''Tarzan'' for Del ...

and art by

Russ Manning Russell George Manning (January 5, 1929"United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VMMT-NZN : accessed 28 Aug 2014), Russell Manning, Dec 1981; citing U.S. Social Security Administration ...

References

External links

* *
Text of the novel at Project Gutenberg Australia

Formatted epub version of the book on edgar-rice-burroughs-ebooks.blogspot.com
*

* ttp://www.erblist.com/erblist/tzantsum.html Edgar Rice Burroughs Summary Project page for ''Tarzan and the Ant Men''
Tarzan comic series at the Grand Comics Database
* {{Tarzan 1924 American novels 1924 fantasy novels A. C. McClurg books Novels first published in serial form Tarzan novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs Works originally published in Argosy (magazine)