Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar

Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar is an adventure novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, first serialized in 1916 and published in book form in 1918. It is the fifth Tarzan novel. A financial disaster sends Tarzan back to the treasure vaults of Opar to restore the Greystoke fortune.

In the lost city, the high priestess La still loves the man who rejected her, while rivals within the priesthood challenge her authority. Tarzan escapes with a new store of gold and jewels, but an earthquake leaves him injured and he loses his civilized identity.

The disgraced Belgian officer Albert Werper follows the treasure and joins the raider Achmet Zek. Theft, betrayal, and Jane's abduction entangle their plans with Tarzan's altered state, so that stolen jewels and a threatened family become parts of the same pursuit.

Burroughs returns to Opar but changes the balance through amnesia: Tarzan retains the abilities of the jungle while losing the relationships that guide them. The adventure tests what remains without personal history, combining lost-city fantasy with a struggle for recognition and reunion.

"Lieutenant Albert Werper had only the prestige of the name he had dishonored to thank for his narrow escape from being cashiered. At first he had been humbly thankful, too, that they had sent him to this Godforsaken Congo post instead of court-martialing him, as he had so justly deserved; but now six months of the monotony, the frightful isolation and the loneliness had wrought a change."