Tarzan and Jane

Tarzan and Jane are among the best-known literary characters in the world. The characters have appeared in films, radio, television programs, comic strips, and comic books. Perhaps Tarzan and Jane are best known today from the 1930's-40's films starring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan.

Tarzan, a fictional character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, first appeared in the 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes, and then in twenty-three sequels. He is the son of a British Lord and Lady, marooned on the coast of Africa by mutineers. His parents died when he was an infant, and he was raised by Great Apes of a species unknown to science. Kala is his ape mother. Tarzan is his ape name; his English name is John Clayton, Lord Greystoke. As a young adult, he meets Jane, and when she returns to America he leaves the jungle in search of his true love. Tarzan and Jane marry, and he lives with her for a time in England. They have one son, Jack, who takes the ape name Korak. Tarzan is deeply in love with Jane and totally devoted to her. Always the gentleman, in numerous situations where other women express their attraction to Tarzan, he politely and as kindly as possible declines their attentions. Tarzan is contemptuous of the hypocrisy of civilization, and he and Jane return to Africa where, both being immortal, they still live.