14 minSummaryRead it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What good is a head full of books when hunger, wild animals and rival men test your strength?
In The Cave Girl, Edgar Rice Burroughs casts Waldo Emerson Smith-Jones into a harsh wild land. Comfortable American life leaves him thoughtful and well read, but unready for danger. Here, learning alone cannot keep him safe. He must find the courage to survive where others see only his weakness.
Nadara knows this world through hunting, strength and quick decisions. Bold and at home in the wild, she brings Waldo face to face with a harder way of living. Their meeting draws adventure and romance together, while each hardship presses a question: what truly makes a person worth admiring?
What you’ll discover
- A sheltered life tested Follow a bookish young man whose familiar strengths offer little shelter from immediate danger.
- Nadara's bold choices Meet a strong young woman who trusts her knowledge of the wild and acts quickly.
- Survival without comfort Face hunger, wild animals and rivals alongside a hero who must learn to fight.
- Romance amid hardship Discover a romance between two people shaped by very different ways of living.
- Strength beyond learning Explore the tension between polished manners, book learning and courage tested in the wild.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy lost islands, cave tribes and rescues, and who like a lively tale where a bookish hero learns to fight, love and lead.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Fear turns into unexpected action
- Nadara gives courage a personal meaning
- Desertion forces Waldo to see himself
- Rescue no longer means going home
- Strength cannot settle what remains unspoken
- Leadership rests on the people's choice
- Separation sends love across the sea
- Mind and muscle belong together
- Courage grows through responsibility and love
Who’s who
- Waldo Emerson Smith-JonesA frail, bookish young man from Boston who is stranded on an island and slowly grows into the cave man Thandar.
- NadaraA brave, quick cave girl who teaches Waldo to survive and who longs to be loved by him.
- FlatfootA brutal cave man who bullies his tribe and wants Nadara for his mate.
- KorthA fearsome cave man of great strength who terrorizes Nadara's people and tries to seize her.
- ThurgThe leader of the bad men, a cannibal brute who hunts Nadara and hates Thandar.
- John Alden Smith-JonesWaldo's father, who sends a yacht to search for his son and welcomes Nadara with kindness.
- Mrs. Smith-JonesWaldo's proud mother, who prizes breeding and culture and cannot imagine her son living among savages.
- Tsao MingA pirate chief whose life Thandar saves, and who repays the debt in his own rough way.
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The Cave Girl
by Edgar Rice Burroughs · 1913
A frail Boston scholar fights cave men on a Pacific cliff and learns courage from a girl in a panther skin.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“Waldo was coming on.”
In short
What happens when a young man who has read everything lands in a world where none of it helps? Waldo Emerson Smith-Jones is a thin, coughing Boston scholar.
The Cave Girl at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 30 min3 h 35 min fast, 5 h 25 min slow
- Length
- 64,800 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1913by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A frightened scholar chases his own fear
Waldo watches the forest edge at dusk. A dim shape creeps out as darkness settles, and he has seen it four times in three weeks. He has no shelter, no weapon and no plan, because his mother raised him to despise muscle.
On the fifth night his terror breaks. He screams and runs straight at the shadow, and it flees, shrieking too. It vanishes into a cliff face, and Waldo collapses at its foot.
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Details
- First published
- 1913
- Language
- English
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Burroughs, Edgar Rice. The Cave Girl. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-cave-girl.
Burroughs, E. R. (2026). The cave girl. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-cave-girl (Original work published 1913)
Burroughs, Edgar Rice. The Cave Girl. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-cave-girl.
@book{burroughs2026cave,
author = {Burroughs, Edgar Rice},
title = {The Cave Girl},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-cave-girl},
note = {First published 1913}
}
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What is The Cave Girl about?
It tells of Waldo Emerson Smith-Jones, a sheltered Boston scholar stranded on a Pacific island, who is helped by a cave girl named Nadara. He grows brave and strong, falls in love and fights to save her.
Who is Thandar in The Cave Girl?
Thandar is the name Nadara gives to Waldo Emerson Smith-Jones. She says it means the Brave One. As Waldo changes from a coward into a warrior and later a king, the new name becomes his own.
Who wrote The Cave Girl and when was it published?
Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of the Tarzan books, wrote it. It was published as a book in 1925. Its second half first ran as a magazine serial under the title The Cave Man.
The author
Edgar Rice Burroughs
1875–1950 · American adventure novelist
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American writer born in Chicago in 1875. He wrote novels about Tarzan and novels set on Mars. His first Mars story appeared in 1912 and became the book A Princess of Mars in 1917. He later lived in California and died in Encino in 1950.
“Waldo was coming on.”
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