Though I'm only on book two of Edgar Rice Burroughs "Tarzan" series, its easy for me to understand why this book is a classic, as its much more than a well-written story, but a statement about how the farther we move from the jungle, the less civilized we become, as so well stated in this line from page 17 of Book Two, the "Return of Tarzan", when Tarzan, now out of the jungle and living in civilization, laments his having left the jungle, and in commenting on man, he says:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '"')But they are all alike. Cheating, murdering, lying, fighting, and all for things that the beasts of the jungle would not deign to possess -- money to purchase the effeminate pleasures of weaklings. And yet withal bound down by silly customs that make them slaves to their unhappy lot while firm in the belief that they be the lords of creation enjoying the only real pleasures of existence . . . It is a silly world, an idiotic world, and Tarzan of the apes was a fool to renounce the freedom and the happiness of his jungle to come into it."



