Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar was serialized in All-Story Cavalier Weekly from November 1915 to January 1916, then published in book form by A.C. McClurg & Co. in 1918. The novel returns Tarzan to Opar — the lost Atlantean city first discovered in The Return of Tarzan — where vaults of gold and jewels await beneath the sacrificial altars of the priestess La.
Tarzan’s need for treasure is economic rather than adventurous: the Greystoke estate requires money, and the gold of Opar is his private reserve. But during his approach to the city, a blow to the head erases his civilized personality entirely, returning him to the feral state of his youth. He becomes, once again, a purely savage creature — enormously strong, supremely capable, but without memory of Jane, his identity, or his obligations.
This amnesia device is one of Burroughs’s most effective narrative strategies: it allows him to write the primitive Tarzan — the character readers find most compelling — without requiring a permanent regression. The civilized Tarzan is a somewhat dull English lord; the savage Tarzan is a force of nature, terrifying and magnificent. By periodically wiping the civilized overlay, Burroughs can have both characters within the same series.
Meanwhile, multiple villains converge on the same territory: Belgian army deserter Lieutenant Werper, Arab raider Achmet Zek, and the priestess La, who desires Tarzan and despises Jane. The plot becomes a complex mechanism of captures, escapes, pursuits, and confrontations.
Collecting Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
First edition (A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1918): Red cloth binding.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $800–$2,000
- Very good/very good: $300–$800
- Good: $100–$300