Edgar Rice Burroughs

Tarzan And The Jewels Of Opar Edgar Rice Burroughs

Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar is a novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the fifth in his series of twenty-four books about the title character Tarzan. It first appeared in the November and December issues of All-Story Cavalier Weekly in 1916, and the first book publication was by McClurg in 1918. Son of Tarzan was an attempt to meet reader and editor demands for more Tarzan tales (1915 in writing, 1916 in publication); yet, Burroughs was suffused by the success of his stories and editor demands for more--as well as a burning desire to capitalize on his works--ERB wrote Jewels of Opar in 1915 as an extension of his already proven Tarzan stories. Jewels of Opar appears to be an experiment in plot, characterization, and misdirection. Burroughs rarely (never?) lied to the readers. His characters were placed in situations extreme, such as Tarzan's amnesia, and we eagerly devoured the stories anxiously awaiting the resolution. Edgar Rice Burroughs had a knack, a SKILL, in his ability to involve the reader in the adversities of his characters. The significant ramifications suggested above are these: In Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar Burroughs finally hits full stride his now famous writing formula of cliff-hanger action chapter-to-chapter and book to book. We can view this success two ways: Glad and comfortable, knowing there's a good story to be told, or glad (because we love ERB and are willing to forgive) the formula works, or as literary critics disappointed ERB rides a One-Trick-Pony. The one thing that DID occur when Burroughs wrote Jewels of Opar is the author's realization that any subsquent books should stand alone. Any Tarzan (or Barsoom, etc.) story told after 1916 should be generally complete for the reader and does not require knowledge of prior works. Burroughs had settled in for the long run, the write-until-I-die, and write he did!Tarzan returns to Opar, the source of the gold where a lost colony of fabled Atlantis is located, in order to make good on some financial reverses he has recently suffered. While Atlantis itself sank beneath the waves thousands of years ago, the workers of Opar continued to mine all of the gold, which means there is a rather huge stockpile but which is now lost to the memory of the Oparians and only Tarzan knows its secret location. A greedy, outlawed Belgian army officer, Albert Werper, in the employ of a criminal Arab, secretly follows Tarzan to Opar. There, Tarzan loses his memory after being struck on the head by a falling rock in the treasure room during an earthquake. On encountering La, the high priestess who is the servant of the Flaming God of Opar, and who is also very beautiful, Tarzan once again rejects her love which enrages her and she tries to have him killed; she had fallen in love with the apeman during their first encounter and La and her high priests are not going to allow Tarzan to escape their sacrificial knives this time. In the meanwhile, Jane has been kidnapped by the Arab and wonders what is keeping her husband from once again coming to her rescue. A now amnesiac Tarzan and Werper escape from Opar, bearing away the sacrificial knife of Opar which La and some retainers set out to recover. There is intrigue and counter intrigue the rest of the way