An Ape-Man for All Seasons: Tarzan for May Day

[Tarzan] toured much of England. He loved the Lake District when it was not raining. . . .But he was appalled by the grey, grimy, dismal factory cities of Manchester and Liverpool. What he learned of the lives of the factory workers enabled him to understand his [self-proletarianized Socialist] grandfather’s strong reactions. But he had no desire to emulate him. Why didn’t the workers change things for themselves? Why didn’t they just rise up and kill their overlords? He could not put up with such a life, if it could be called a life.

 

“The workingman’s conditions are far better now then they were when your grandfather was a young man,” Jane said. “And they are better because of what men like your grandfather did.”

 

“It takes too long,” Tarzan said, wrinkling his face with disgust. The odors of industry would kill him off if he stayed long in their neighborhood.

 

“They are civilized, and you are not, my jungle man,” Jane said. “Besides, if they did sweep out into the streets, and if they killed the police and soldiers, instead of being killed, then they would take away your titles and your lands and your money.”

 

Tarzan shrugged. If that happened, he would go back to Africa. He wished–almost–that that would happen.

— Farmer, Philip José. Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke. New York: Playboy Paperbacks, 1981. p. 118