Tarzan and the Lion Man – Edgar Rice Burroughs (1934)
In this audacious 17th Tarzan novel, Edgar Rice Burroughs blurs the line between fiction and reality with a metafictional twist: Hollywood arrives in Africa to film “The Lion Man,” a movie about a white jungle hero raised by lions—a thinly veiled parody of Tarzan himself. When the production crew ventures into uncharted territory, they encounter the real Lord of the Apes, who finds himself entangled in their hubris and mishaps.
The story splits into parallel narratives: one follows Stanley Obroski, a gentle giant and actor playing the Lion Man, who is mistaken for his fictional counterpart by the savage Goroko Tribe; the other tracks Tarzan’s confrontation with Godfrey “Ideal” Baine, a narcissistic director whose reckless exploitation of the jungle sparks disaster. The plot thickens when the expedition stumbles upon the Land of the Sepulcher, a hidden valley ruled by a cult of immortal, telepathic albino beings who worship a sinister “Death God.”
Burroughs satirizes Hollywood’s exoticism and the Tarzan archetype while delivering classic adventure—sword duels, lion hunts, and a climactic volcano eruption. The novel’s standout creation is Rhonda Terry, a sharp-witted script girl who outshines the male heroes with her courage and wit.
“A hall of mirrors where myth meets man—and the jungle always wins.”
