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Tarzan the Magnificent

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Tarzan the Magnificent is two Tarzan novellas published together as one book. The first story has Tarzan facing off against a couple of evil dudes with magic gem stones. It’s pretty bad, and the gemstones are under utilized. The second story has Tarzan returning to the rival valleys of Cathne and Athne, last seen in Tarzan and the City of Gold. In that book the City of Ivory is mentioned, but not visited. Here Tarzan finally gets to go there. I rather liked City of Gold and was glad to see him return there, though not enough time was spent among the Elephant-Men. Tarzan books tend to be racist. This one is more racist than normal. A couple of villains throw the “n” word around. The latter part of the book is also very classist. I found myself somewhat rooting for the villains due to the class based derision heaped on them. At one point a character states he is going to marry a woman who is biracial. And one of the other characters warns him that doing so will subject the both of them to a living hell due to the racist social structure of “the great democracy of the U.S.A.” I wonder if Burroughs was self aware enough to recognize his own racism as he bemoaned the horrors of racisms. Quotes:“Why only last night we were planning on the future, after we got married.”Van Eyk shook his head. “Have you ever really stopped to think about what that would mean, Stan? What it would mean to you both in the future — in America? I’m thinking just as much of her happiness as yours, old man. I’m thinking of the Hell on earth that would be your lot — hers and yours. You know as well as I what one drop of colored blood does for a man or woman in the great democracy of the U.S.A. You’d both be ostracized by the blacks as well as the whites. I’m not speaking from any personal prejudice; I’m just stating a fact. It’s hard and cruel and terrible, but it still remains a fact.”Pg. 91 “What a terrible thing to say, Stanlee,” cried Gonfala. “Do you think that we would be like that?”“Oh, we’re different,” Wood assured her; “these people are beasts.”“Not beasts,” Tarzan corrected. “They are human beings, and they act like human beings.”Pg. 167
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