Tarzan of the Apes (Tarzan, #1)
Published 2003 · 324 pages · 89,100 words · about 4 hours at an average pace · Young Adult, Science Fiction, Historical Fiction
How hard is Tarzan of the Apes (Tarzan, #1) to read?
Tarzan of the Apes (Tarzan, #1) scores 26 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 30 out of 100
- Burroughs writes plain adventure prose with some period vocabulary and animal and jungle terms. It is easier than The Great Gatsby and close to a simple contemporary adventure.
- Sentence structure: 28 out of 100
- Sentences are short to medium and mostly declarative, driven by action. Like Orwell's 1984, the style prizes clarity over ornament.
- Abstraction: 30 out of 100
- The story is physical: fights, hunts, shipwrecks and rescues. Nature versus nurture sits under the plot but never takes over it.
- Information density: 30 out of 100
- The plot moves fast, with cliffhangers and incident but little exposition to track. The reading is as light as a pulp serial.
- Narrative indirection: 25 out of 100
- The omniscient narrator states events and motives plainly. Readers infer little beyond the racial and class assumptions in the telling.
- Symbolic density: 28 out of 100
- The cabin, the books and the knife carry clear meaning about heritage and civilization. Nothing is hidden or layered.
- Ironic distance: 12 out of 100
- The tone is earnest adventure with almost no irony. It stands near the sincere end, like The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
- Resolution withholding: 35 out of 100
- Plot threads close, though the romance is left open for sequels. The ending sets up the series more than it resists closure.
- Structural complexity: 22 out of 100
- The story is largely chronological, with a short frame at the start and an episodic jungle sequence. Like Beach Read, it follows a linear structure.
How Tarzan of the Apes (Tarzan, #1) is regarded
Tarzan of the Apes (Tarzan, #1) holds a literary regard score of 50 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.