Jungle Tales of Tarzan

Jungle Tales of Tarzan was published in 1919, gathering twelve interconnected short stories that Burroughs had originally written for The Blue Book magazine in 1916. The stories all take place chronologically before the events of Tarzan of the Apes, when Tarzan was still a young man living among the apes of his upbringing and had not yet met any other humans.

The stories work as a kind of mythological cycle for the early Tarzan years. The Witch-Doctor Seeks Vengeance has Tarzan encountering African ritual magic for the first time. The Lion has him confronting Numa in his earliest serious one-on-one fight. The Nightmare gives Tarzan a dream sequence that reveals the unconscious workings of his half-feral mind. The Battle for Teeka involves a young ape Tarzan loves but cannot win in the ape mating customs. The eventually-iconic moment of Tarzan deciding he is human rather than ape comes near the end. As a stand-alone introduction to the world of Tarzan, this collection works better than the novels because it focuses on character rather than plot.