TARZAN of the Apes ~ John Clayton, Lord Greystoke
Valthor ~ Shiftas' prisoner from Athne (city of ivory)
Tomos ~ Queen's Councillor in Cathne (city of gold)
Gemnon ~ noble of Cathne, old family
Althides ~ under-officer (sergeant) of Cathne
Phobeg ~ prisoner in Cathne, gladiator vs Tarzan
Erot ~ court hanger-on, Nemone's favorite
Nemone ~ Queen of Cathne
Xertsle ~ Gemnon's palace apartment mate
M'Duze ~ old hag at Nemone's palace
Belthar ~ Nemone's fighting lion
Alextar ~ Nemone's brother, rightful king, imprisoned
Doria ~ beloved of Gemnon, daughter of Thudos
Thudos ~ aristocrat, advocate of Alextar's rule
Pindes ~ officer of the guard, Erot's enemy
Hafim ~ Galla slave in Cathne freed by Tarzan
Niaka ~ Hafim's brother, slave in Cathne gold mine
Maluma ~ lady-in-waiting to Nemone
Phordos ~ Gemnon's father

When Tarzan of the Apes freed the white man who was being tortured by the savages, he was surprised to learn that the stranger came from no race or country the ape-man knew. He was from the fabled land of Onthar, where lay two ancient cities unknown to the outside world. One was Athne, city of ivory; the other was Cathne, city of gold and evil. There great prides of trained lions were used to hunt down men and wage eternal war. And there Tarzan met the beautiful queen Nemone, who was determined to have Tarzan as her king. . . or feed him to the lions!

 

TARZAN AND THE CITY OF GOLD 
Review contributed by Doc Hermes ERB Reviews

From 1932, where it was serialized in six parts in ARGOSY for March and April, this is pretty unrewarding. Most of the book has such an unpleasant, bitter attitude that it's difficult to find any excitement or pleasure in it. In the third half (errr the final third), though, everything comes together for a strong, tense finish... so if you are a diehard Tarzan or Edgar Rice Burroughs fan, the ending alone would make it worth trudging through the build-up. 

Wandering around Abyssinia for no good reason, the Apeman finds, yes, another pair of lost cities locked in endless pointless war. By this time, he seems to take it for granted that Africa is dotted with remnants of ancient civilizations populated by Europeans. This time, the City of Gold and the City of Ivory are apparently the surviving outposts of early Greeks (they use drachmas and have names like Xerstle and Gemnon). It's never explained. Tarzan never troubles to ask, "Say, what are you boys doing out here, anyway?" Possibly Burroughs intended to explore the backstory in a planned sequel called TARZAN AND THE CITY OF IVORY but although our Apeman does return to the area in the second part of TARZAN THE MAGNIFICENT, we still don't learn the history of this bunch.

Our hero finds himself a prisoner in the warlike Cathne, where the people worship lions, use lions for hunt and for war, and in general suffer from leomania. They also use gold for just about everything, which may be impressive but (considering how soft and easily worn away it is), might not be practical. The Cathneans are caught up in the usual unending series of raids and sorties which these lost empires are prone to; their rival city Athne uses elephants the way the Cathneans prefer lions.

(An all-out battle between armies of lions and elephants sounds pretty colorful but again apparently Burroughs was saving it.)

The City of Gold is ruled by an absolute tyrant Queen Nemone, who is absolutely gorgeous and who either suffers from manic depression or has just been ruined by the way she was brought up. Cruel, vindictive, imperious, demanding absolute obedience, she's like Madonna with a pet lion. And because Tarzan isn't intimidated she naturally tumbles for him hard. He never mentions Jane (neither does the narrative, although La of Opar is mentioned), and while he finds her fascinating and even tragically appealing, her sick personality keeps him from quite falling in love with her. Nemone has a strong sexual charge that just about crackles off the page, though. The tug of war between Nemone and Tarzan is really what this book is all about.

By this time, I expected to find mean-spirited sermons by Burroughs on how abominable human beings are and how saintly wild animals are by contrast. But the rhetoric seems more harsh than usual, and Tarzan seems unpleasantly smug as he keeps rubbing it in (there's a huge vanity there, too, because he himself is morally superior to all other humans in his own eyes). But toward the end of the story, almost against his will, Tarzan starts caring about the friends he starts to make; he risks his life to rescue helpless sacrifices to the sacred lions; and he starts to seem genuinely heroic and noble for the first time. 
The uneasy relationship between Tarzan and Nemone makes up most of the book. Although unhappy, it does have a certain resonance of a doomed romance in the making. After about the halfway point of the series, the Apeman apparently abandoned his wife, his son and daughter-in-law, even his grandchild, not to mention the Waziri. It seems to happened at about the same time Edgar Rice Burroughs' own marriage started to turn sour.

Now this is just an obvious interpretation, but Burroughs' increasing sullenness and loss of good-natured humour in his writing, as well as the way Tarzan runs away from his obligations like a deadbeat jungle lord, kind of suggests that the aurthor was acting out his own inner struggles on the page. It's almost inevitable with writers. Two years after he wrote this agonized book, Burroughs seperated from his wife of thirty years and applied for divorce. It wasn't until after he re-married his new love that Jane returned to the printed page. So reading TARZAN AND THE CITY OF GOLD as a sort of playing out of the author's conficts gives the book some depth the text itself doesn't provide.

Aside from the psychodrama underlining the story, there's not much in this book that we didn't find better done in early entries in the series. I will say this for Jad-Bal-Ja, though... that cat knows how to make an entrance! (Think about the symbolism of that final scene, too, as Nemone sends her soul-mate lion Belthar to chase and devour Tarzan; that lends itself to several bad puns.) 

Doc Hermes