The recent publication of Robin Maxwell’s adventure romance “Jane, The Woman Who Loved Tarzan” has sparked a welcome reassessment of the famous heroine, wife and lifelong love of the legendary John C. Tarzan, Lord Greystoke. Those who try to write of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ books and characters without really knowing anything about them consistently make the mistake of promulgating the idea that ERB’s females were chiefly flimsy window-dressing, fainting damsels requiring rescue as the main impetus for the furtherance of plot and action. We who have read the books know differently. Robin Maxwell has done a splendid job of fleshing out Jane Porter Clayton and her book, though describing events differently than ERB does, deserves a place in every Burroughs library and I hope to post a longer review in the near future.
In the meantime, however, I want to bring you a wonderful essay by John “Bridge” Martin of EDGARDEMAIN which was written for ERB-apa No. 22 back in the summer of 1989. John succinctly and entertainingly makes the case that Jane was no fainting flower but a strong and capable woman who was more than willing to take on the circumstances thrust upon her by her decision to love a man raised in the jungle and surrounded by exotic dangers of every kind. My thanks to John for permitting me to reprint this essay over the next couple of weeks.
JANE OF THE JUNGLE by John “Bridge” Martin
Part 1: A Very Special Someone
Consider the daring and heroic characters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and who leaps to mind? Tarzan? John Carter? David Innes? Billy Byrne? Shoz-Dijiji?
Intrepid adventurers all, but no list of ERB protagonists would be complete without inclusion of his heroines. They were as brave and as bold in many ways as their male counterparts, and shone with matchless beauty as well. And taking a back seat to no one in this department is the daughter of a genteel Baltimore, Maryland, family who, over the space of 11 books, developed into a true queen of the jungle.
Jane Porter Clayton mastered the ability of coping with wild beasts and wild humans alike, without ever losing any of the grace and charm that her upbringing by a professor-minister must have included.
Here is an admirable lady indeed, one who, as Lady Greystoke, can properly entertain guests, whether in her London town house, her African bungalow, or the Cafe Savoy in Paris. She can also lead a group of city people who are stranded in the jungle, or command a platoon of jungle-wise Waziri warriors, and in many ways perform as competently as Tarzan of the Apes himself.
Fate brought her to the shores of a hostile jungle. but she came to love that jungle as much as her savage but noble mate, Tarzan of the Apes, who had been reared in that unforgiving land by the fierce mangani.
If Tarzan is Lord of the Jungle, then Jane has as much right to the female version of that title as she does to the appellation of Lady Greystoke.
Dian the Beautiful, empress of Pellucidar; Dejah Thoris, princess of Helium; La, high priestess of Opar. These beauties were raised in savage surroundings and at an early age learned the art of survival in their respective worlds. But in Jane’s Baltimore there was no training for how to deal with abducting apes, hungry lions and murderous femme fatales.
If Robert Canler was the worst man she had to deal with in America, of what preparation was that for the likes of Nikolas Rokoff, Albert Werper, Lt. Obergatz, Mo-Sar, or Luvini?
Yet, Jane proved more than equal to the requirements her savage society of choice thrust upon her.
Why? How? What circumstances in her life brought about this change from soft-spoken Maryland debutante to seasoned Jane of the Jungle?
I believe there are four forces that stand out in the stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs:
1. Tarzan of the Apes
2. The Waziri tribe
3. Her father, Professor Archimedes Q. Porter
4. Jane and her own indomitable spirit
To Be Continued Next Week
Copyright ©1989 John Martin