The Beasts of Tarzan

The Beasts of Tarzan is an adventure novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, first serialized in 1914 and published in book form in 1916. It is the third Tarzan novel. Tarzan and Jane are living as Lord and Lady Greystoke when the Russian agents Nikolas Rokoff and Alexis Paulvitch return to pursue an elaborate revenge.

Rokoff's scheme separates the family: Jane and the infant Jack are carried toward the African interior, while Tarzan is left without weapons on a remote island. Forced back on instinct and skill, he rebuilds his strength through unlikely alliances.

Sheeta the panther, Akut and his great apes, and the warrior Mugambi become the “beasts” with whom Tarzan pursues the kidnappers up the Ugambi River. Their loyalty stands against the calculated cruelty of Rokoff, making rescue a collective jungle campaign.

The novel moves rapidly through captivity, escape, pursuit, and reversal, but its title also carries the central contrast. Burroughs repeatedly questions which characters deserve to be called savage, setting animal fidelity against human vengeance as Tarzan fights to reunite his family.

"The entire affair is shrouded in mystery," said D'Arnot. "I have it on the best of authority that neither the police nor the special agents of the general staff have the faintest conception of how it was accomplished. All they know, all that anyone knows, is that Nikolas Rokoff has escaped."