The sixth book of Tarzan, King of the Jungle. This is actually a collection of several short stories all about the times when Tarzan was a young boy and a teenager being raised by the great apes. The young Tarzan was unlike the great apes who were his only companions and playmates. Theirs was a simple, savage life, filled with little but killing or being killed. But Tarzan had all of a normal boy's desire to learn. He had painfully taught himself to read from books left by his dead father. Now he sought to apply this book knowledge to the world around him. He sought for such things as the source of dreams and the whereabouts of God. And he searched for the love and affection that every human being needs. But he was alone in his struggles to grow and understand. The life of the jungle had no room for abstractions.

バロウズが描くターザンの真髄は、肉体の強靭さ以上に、野生の中で芽生える孤独な知性の葛藤にあります。本作は、弱肉強食が支配する密林で、文字を解し、神や愛といった抽象的な概念を追い求める少年の内面を鮮烈に描写しています。文明から隔絶された魂が、本能の境界を超えて人間性を探求する過程は、極めて高潔な文学的叙事詩といえるでしょう。 映像化作品では躍動感あふれるアクションが強調されますが、原作には視覚表現では掬い取れない思索の深淵が息づいています。映画が彼の外的な強さを謳歌するならば、本書は読者に彼の内なる宇宙を追体験させ、人であることの根源を問いかけます。野性と理性が火花を散らすこの傑作に触れることで、真のターザン像は初めて完成するのです。