A stately pile of ancient masonry rose in a great park of linden trees and ash and oak. There were broad, formal gardens and great expanses of level sward. There were gleaming marble fountains throwing their shimmering waters into the warm sunlight. There were men in uniform standing guard-tall, splendid fellows. A sad-faced old man walked along neat gravelled pathways through the gardens, past the marble fountains. He was a very erect old man whose unbending shoulders and firm gait belied his age, for he was really a very old man. At the old man's side walked a little boy; and when the two approached them, the soldiers snapped their burnished pieces smartly in salute. The old man was inordinately proud of the little boy. That was why he liked to have him walk with him in the gardens and down near the great gates where people often gathered to see them as they passed. He liked to have him ride with him through the city in one of the royal carriages where all the people might see him; for when the old man died, the little boy would be king. "The people seem to like us," said the boy, as they passed the gates and the crowd waved and smiled and cheered. "That is why I cannot understand why they killed my father." "They do not all like us," said the old man.

エドガー・ライス・バローズが描く本作の真髄は、王宮から放り出された少年が、百獣の王との絆を通じて真の「高貴さ」を掴む魂の遍歴にあります。文明社会の欺瞞と野性の純粋さを対比させ、統治者に必要な資質を問いかける冒険ロマンが、全編に力強く脈打っています。 映像版では少年と猛獣が心を通わせる躍動が鮮烈ですが、原作の深みは別格です。活字から立ち上がる少年の孤独や自然界の静謐な重圧感は、読者の想像力を極限まで刺激します。映像の迫力と書物が紡ぐ重厚な思索、その双方が重なり合うことで、この物語は不滅の輝きを放つのです。