Tarzan the invincible
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS
ACE BOOKS, INC. 1120 Avenue of the Americas New York 36, N.Y.
This Ace edition follows the text of the first hard-cover book edition, originally published in 1930.
Cover art and title page illustration by Frank Frazetta.
Printed in U.S.A.
CONTEST OF JUNGLE CUNNING
A small band of white men encamped in the jungle, involved in some kind of expedition—seemingly innocuous, unimportant. But on the success or failure of their plan hung the destiny of Africa.
Only Tarzan could stop the mad machinations of Zveri and his fiercely determined comrades. But Tarzan would have to fight for his own life elsewhere, in the grim ruins of ancient Opar, whose strange priests were as fierce in their vengeance as its beautiful women were fierce in their love.
And Tarzan, lord of the jungle and all its creatures, would have to prove himself indeed invincible against the overwhelming odds of the most dangerous enemy—man.
FOREWORD
Master storyteller that he was, Edgar Rice Burroughs developed a variety of narrative techniques, applying different ones to different series of stories so that each series has a distinct feel of its own, not only in setting and characters, but in the very construction of the story and in the writing itself. For his Mars series, for instance, Burroughs began each story with a rather elaborate frame in which the story's hero was introduced. The hero then would tell the main story in the first person. The readers became so accustomed to this format that when one magazine published a Burroughs Mars story told in third person, there was an immediate uproar among the readers, and to this day many Burroughs fans challenge the authenticity of that story as Burroughs' own work!
For the Tarzan tales, Burroughs used a technique of introducing several sets of characters, starting each upon their own separate adventure, and then cutting from sequence to sequence in a style very much like that used in motion pictures. Skillfully drawing his characters together, Burroughs would finally reveal the grand pattern in which each element played its part.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
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CONTENTS
I
LITTLE NKIMA
II
THE HINDU
III
OUT OF THE GRAVE
IV
INTO THE LION'S DEN
V
BEFORE THE WALLS OF OPAR
VI
BETRAYED
VII
IN FUTILE SEARCH
VIII
THE TREACHERY OF ABU BATN
IX
IN THE DEATH CELL OF OPAR
X
THE LOVE OF A PRIESTESS
XI
LOST IN THE JUNGLE
XII
DOWN TRAILS OF TERROR
XIII
THE LION-MAN
XIV
SHOT DOWN
XV
"KILL, TANTOR, KILL!"
XVI
"TURN BACK!"
XVII
A GULF THAT WAS BRIDGED