Tarzan first appeared in the October 1912 issue of The All-Story magazine. The original novel, Tarzan of the Apes , tells the story of John Clayton, the son of British aristocrats who is orphaned and raised by a fictional species of great ape called the Mangani in West Africa.

Burroughs used Tarzan to explore a "contest between heredity and environment," portraying his protagonist as naturally noble and intelligent. In the books, Tarzan is highly articulate and self-taught, eventually learning to read and write English before ever meeting another human. This contrasts sharply with later film portrayals of the character as a monosyllabic "primitive". The Cinematic Evolution

The legacy of , a character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912, has transformed from a pulp magazine serial into one of the most enduring media franchises in history. Over more than a century, the "Lord of the Jungle" has been featured in nearly 30 novels, over 50 films, and dozens of television series, comic strips, and video games. Literary Origins and Themes