Tarzan of the apes

First published in the pulp magazine 'All-Story Magazine' in October, 1912, 'Tarzan of the Apes' is the first novel in a series of adventure novels that was so popular that it would spawn some two dozen sequels. It is the coming of age story of John Clayton, the son of an English couple, Lord and Lady Greystoke, who are marooned in the western coastal jungles of equatorial Africa. When his father is killed by the savage king ape Kerchak and his mother dies of natural causes when he is just one year old, Clayton is adopted by the she-ape Kala and renamed Tarzan, or 'white skin' in the ape language. As Tarzan grows up he begins to recognise that he is different from his ape peers, a realisation that stirs within him feelings of alienation and drives him to discover his true heritage. Tarzan discovers his true parents' cabin and there, in books, he learns of others like himself.