Tarzan and the Golden Lion

Tarzan and the Golden Lion is an adventure novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, first serialized in 1922–23 and published in book form in 1923. It is the ninth Tarzan novel. Its title refers to Jad-bal-ja, the lion Tarzan raises from a cub and trains as a powerful companion.

After the Greystoke family returns to its African estate, a group of conspirators exploits Tarzan's appearance and movements. The criminal Esteban Miranda bears an uncanny resemblance to the ape-man, making impersonation another weapon in a plot driven by money and revenge.

Drugged and abandoned, Tarzan falls into the hands of the priests of Opar. La, the high priestess, again refuses to sacrifice him, and the two flee toward a remote valley while Jad-bal-ja follows their trail. Behind them, betrayal unsettles Opar and the estate.

The novel combines the lost-city mythology of Opar with pursuit, mistaken identity, and animal partnership. Tarzan's command of the jungle is tested not only by direct danger but by an enemy able to borrow his face, while the golden lion becomes an agent rather than an ornament.

"Sabor, the lioness, suckled her young—a single fuzzy ball, spotted like Sheeta, the leopard. She lay in the warm sunshine before the rocky cavern that was her lair, stretched out upon her side with half closed eyes, yet Sabor was alert. There had been three of these little, fuzzy balls at first—two daughters and a son—and Sabor and Numa, their sire, had been proud of them; proud and happy."