TARZAN
THE INVINCIBLE

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

ACE BOOKS, INC.
1120 Avenue of the Americas
New York 36, N.Y.

This Ace edition follows the text of the first hard-cover
book edition, originally published in 1930.

Cover art and title page illustration by Frank Frazetta.

Printed in U.S.A.

CONTEST OF JUNGLE CUNNING

A small band of white men encamped in the jungle, involved in some kindof expedition—seemingly innocuous, unimportant. But on the success orfailure of their plan hung the destiny of Africa.

Only Tarzan could stop the mad machinations of Zveri and his fiercelydetermined comrades. But Tarzan would have to fight for his own lifeelsewhere, in the grim ruins of ancient Opar, whose strange priestswere as fierce in their vengeance as its beautiful women were fierce intheir love.

And Tarzan, lord of the jungle and all its creatures, would have toprove himself indeed invincible against the overwhelming odds of themost dangerous enemy—man.

FOREWORD

Master storyteller that he was, Edgar Rice Burroughs developed avariety of narrative techniques, applying different ones to differentseries of stories so that each series has a distinct "feel" of its own,not only in setting and characters, but in the very construction of thestory and in the writing itself. For his Mars series, for instance,Burroughs began each story with a rather elaborate "frame" in which thestory's hero was introduced. The hero then would tell the main storyin the first person. The readers became so accustomed to this formatthat when one magazine published a Burroughs Mars story told in thirdperson, there was an immediate uproar among the readers, and to thisday many Burroughs fans challenge the authenticity of that story asBurroughs' own work!

For the Tarzan tales, Burroughs used a technique of introducing severalsets of characters, starting each upon their own separate adventure,and then "cutting" from sequence to sequence in a style very muchlike that used in motion pictures. Skillfully drawing his characterstogether, Burroughs would finally reveal the grand pattern in whicheach element played its part.

In Tarzan the Invincible Burroughs applies this technique tothree groups of protagonists. First are a band of communist agentsprovocateurs assembled from many lands and determined to stirrebellion in all of Africa. Second are the beautiful rival priestessesof fabled Opar, golden remnant of an ancient Atlantean colony. Thirdis Tarzan, lord of the jungle, who stands ready to face any challengeto his savage domain. Weaving these together in masterful fashion,Burroughs produces a tale of high adventure, spine-tingling action andsuspense amidst colorful and exotic settings.

—Richard Lupoff
Editor, Xero, a fantasy
fiction fan magazine.

CONTENTS