Summary
Summary of Tarzan the Terrible
Tarzan the Terrible at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 5 h 55 min4 h 40 min fast, 7 h slow
- Length
- 84,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1921by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
A faint trail keeps hope alive
Tarzan has learned from a dead German captain's diary that Lady Jane is still alive. After months of hunger and thirst, he follows scattered evidence southwest, across a waterless steppe and into a marsh filled with snakes and huge reptiles. He has little certainty, but he keeps going.
His search leads toward Pal-ul-don, a hidden country where living dinosaurs share the forests with tailed people. The hope of finding his wife draws him beyond familiar ground and into dangers he cannot yet understand.
Key idea 2
Shared danger creates an unlikely friendship
When Tarzan sees a tailed stranger fleeing a lion, he drops from a tree and joins the fight.
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Key idea 3
Division leaves people open to rule
From a mountain path, Tarzan sees the lakes and white cliffs surrounding A-lur, where he hopes to find Jane.
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Key idea 4
Om-at refuses a cruel custom
Pan-at-lee escapes when the chief Es-sat tries to seize her, fleeing across dangerous cliffs and finally jumping into a pool to avoid a lion.
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Key idea 5
Observation turns danger into a tool
Searching for Pan-at-lee on Om-at's behalf, Tarzan finds her in the gorge of the gryfs.
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Key idea 6
Tarzan uses belief to gain authority
In A-lur, Tarzan's lack of a tail becomes an advantage.
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Key idea 7
A broken bluff threatens the search
Lu-don gathers evidence against Tarzan and puts him on trial.
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Key idea 8
Jane rebuilds her freedom through skill
Jane's own story reveals captivity, escape, and the struggle to survive alone.
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Key idea 9
Knowledge matters as much as strength
Tarzan's search for Jane brings together physical courage, close attention to nature, and an understanding of people.
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Who it’s for
Readers who love lost worlds, jungle tracking, dinosaurs beside ancient cities, and heroes who rely on nerve and bluff as much as strength will enjoy this novel.
What this book is
Two months of hunger and thirst have passed since Tarzan of the Apes read a dead German captain's diary and learned that his wife, Lady Jane, is still alive. He follows scraps of evidence southwest, across a thorny steppe without water and into a marsh full of snakes and huge reptiles.
What do you do when the only trail leads into a country no white man has ever seen? Tarzan simply keeps going. He has scraps of evidence and a feeling, and both urge him onward.
Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote Tarzan the Terrible soon after the First World War. It sends the ape-man into Pal-ul-don, a hidden land where living dinosaurs share the forests with tailed people.
In this summary
- 1A faint trail keeps hope aliveFree
- 2Shared danger creates an unlikely friendship
- 3Division leaves people open to rule
- 4Om-at refuses a cruel custom
- 5Observation turns danger into a tool
- 6Tarzan uses belief to gain authority
- 7A broken bluff threatens the search
- 8Jane rebuilds her freedom through skill
- 9Knowledge matters as much as strength
A husband follows a faint trail into Pal-ul-don
The story opens at midnight. A lion creeps after a creature with a long white tail, a black fur loincloth, and a belt that glitters with gold and jewels. Its great toes stick out like thumbs. Is it an ape or a man?
Tarzan reasons the matter out coolly. The steppe and the marsh have kept outsiders away, but the evidence convinces Tarzan that he must seek Lady Jane beyond them. Something inside him says she crossed. So he hunts, climbs, and searches the foothills.
One night he wakes in a lone tree to see the tailed man racing toward him with a lion behind. Tarzan dives from the branches and fights the beast with his father's knife. The stranger, whose name is Ta-den, helps kill it and sprinkles a powder on Tarzan's wound. They greet each other by laying a hand over their own heart and a palm on the other's chest.
At a brook a huge, shaggy black warrior leaps from the branches and clubs Ta-den senseless. Tarzan throws himself on the attacker. A striped, saber-toothed hybrid creeps up behind them, and the enemies stop fighting at once and face the cat side by side.
The hairy man is Om-at, of the Waz-don. Ta-den fled rather than become a priest, and Om-at lost his love when his chief drove him out. The three draw their knives and swear to stand as one to the death.
Shared danger can turn the sharpest enemies into the surest friends.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
What brings Tarzan, Ta-den, and Om-at together?
Right. “The three draw their knives and swear to stand as one to the death.”Not quite. “The three draw their knives and swear to stand as one to the death.”
How does Tarzan gain authority when he enters A-lur?
Right. “Tarzan claims to be the son of the god.”Not quite. “Tarzan claims to be the son of the god.”
What helps Jane survive after escaping the canoe?
Right. “For the first time in months she feels free, and she remembers how to live as Tarzan taught her.”Not quite. “For the first time in months she feels free, and she remembers how to live as Tarzan taught her.”
Go deeper: the whole of Tarzan the Terrible
About 6 h 10 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 84,400 words
- Reading timeAbout 5 h 55 min
Questions about Tarzan the Terrible
What is Tarzan the Terrible about?
Tarzan searches for his wife, Lady Jane, who has been taken captive. His trail leads over a marsh into the hidden land of Pal-ul-don, where dinosaurs, tailed men, and a scheming priesthood stand between them.
Who are the Ho-don and the Waz-don?
They are the two peoples of Pal-ul-don. The Ho-don are hairless and white and live in carved cities under a king. The Waz-don are black and hairy and live in cliff caves under many chiefs.
What is a gryf in Tarzan the Terrible?
A gryf is a living triceratops, a horned dinosaur with a bony frill. The book says the Tor-o-don, a primitive man-like creature, rides it with a stick and a whee-oo cry, and Tarzan learns to do the same.
Cite this edition
Burroughs, Edgar Rice. Tarzan the Terrible. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/tarzan-the-terrible.
Burroughs, E. R. (2026). Tarzan the Terrible. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tarzan-the-terrible (Original work published 1921)
Burroughs, Edgar Rice. Tarzan the Terrible. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tarzan-the-terrible.
@book{burroughs2026tarzan,
author = {Burroughs, Edgar Rice},
title = {Tarzan the Terrible},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tarzan-the-terrible},
note = {First published 1921}
}
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