The Lad and the Lion is an adventure novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, written in February 1914. His working title for the piece was "Men and Beasts." It was first published as a three-part serial in All-Story Weekly in the issues for June 30, July 7, and July 14, 1917.The story was the first by Burroughs adapted to film, as a five-reel black and white silent movie released by the Selig Polyscope Company, premiering May 14, 1917, roughly simultaneously with the print serial. Despite this distinction, the story did not appear in book form for over twenty years. Only after the film was remade as The Lion Man (1936) was the first book edition published, by Burroughs's own publishing firm, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., in February 1938. The text was apparently expanded for book publication, as certain incidentals of the story reflect the political situation of Europe in the late 1930s rather than the mid-1910s. The book was reprinted by Grosset & Dunlap in 1939 and Canaveral Press in 1964. The first paperback edition was issued by Ballantine Books in September 1964, with a second appearing from Ace Books in May 1974, reprinted in June 1982.

バローズが描く少年とライオンの絆は、人間の高潔さと野生の峻烈さが共鳴する魂の叙事詩です。文明の欺瞞を脱し、猛獣との間に築かれる絶対的信頼は、読者の深層に眠る野生への渇望を激しく揺さぶります。没落と再生という古典的テーマに、著者の荒々しくも美しい生命賛歌が吹き込まれた、冒険文学の極致とも言える一冊です。 映像化作品が野生の躍動を直感的に伝える一方、書籍は加筆で深化した政治的背景や心理の陰影を緻密に描き出します。視覚的な興奮を補完するように、テキストは読者の想像力の中に、より気高く巨大な心の王者を造形するのです。二つのメディアを往来することで、物語は単なる娯楽を超え、人間性の根源を問う多角的な体験へと昇華されるでしょう。