Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar

What It's About

The fifth novel in the Tarzan series finds the ape-man facing financial ruin and resolving to return to the lost city of Opar to reclaim a fortune in gold and jewels from its hidden treasure vaults. His journey is fraught with danger: a disgraced Belgian officer named Werper is tracking his movements, and within Opar itself, the high priestess La still burns with an obsessive love for Tarzan that he has repeatedly spurned, making her as much a threat as an ally. When an earthquake strikes during his escape, Tarzan is left with amnesia, reverting to the feral, ape-like mindset of his childhood and losing all memory of civilisation, Jane, or his own identity. Meanwhile, back at their estate, Jane finds herself in growing peril at the hands of Werper and a band of slave and ivory traders, unaware that the man who might save her no longer remembers who she is.

Key Concepts

The novel leans heavily into the "lost world" tradition popular in early twentieth-century adventure fiction, with Opar imagined as a decayed outpost of ancient Atlantis, inhabited by a degenerate race of ape-like men and ruled by the last of a once-great civilisation. Amnesia is used as a device to explore Tarzan's dual nature, stripping away his civilised identity and returning him to the primal state established in the earlier books. Themes of obsession and unrequited love run through La's storyline, while colonial-era anxieties are reflected in figures like the treacherous European officer preying on those around him.

About the Author

Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American writer, best known as the creator of Tarzan. Born in Chicago in 1875, he worked a series of unsuccessful jobs before turning to pulp fiction writing in his mid-thirties, finding immediate success and going on to become one of the best-selling authors of his era.