How did the helpless child of the shipwrecked couple John and Alice Clayton become the superhuman legend that is Tarzan of the Apes, Lord of the Jungle? The twelve archetypal coming-of-age tales that compose this book tell the full story, finding their place alongside the richest and most meaningful allegories of mythology.
Tarzan grows to adulthood among the apes of the jungle, facing the dawning realization that he is not like them—he is a man. As he battles for survival against savage beasts and merciless cannibals, he experiences a growing intellectual maturity that includes the pangs of his first love, an emerging spirituality, and a longing to discover his place among his own kind.