The Eternal Savage by Edgar Rice Burroughs

It makes no sense because Edgar Rice Burroughs could find no convincing way to have the man and woman from different timelines meet, so he created a lot of silly mumbo-jumbo in the hope that readers will not notice. The caveman's major success in the first part of the book somehow results in his death at the end. This is a the story of a caveman who somehow comes forward in time then returns and the woman who somehow lives in both timelines, but without a clear memory of her life in either. The romance between the two lovers is vivid and touching (if you suspend all rational judgment and allow for some non PC moments) The characters are unforgettable and its simply a great tale. It’s more or less The Eternal Savage without the clever bits on reincarnation and time travel.Īs a hopeless romantic I would recommend this book highly. The meeting of tribes, the generally wrong facts about the life of our ancestors. If you have seen A Million Years BC (and perhaps admired Raquel Welsh and a cohort of savage women) you will have seen a film largely stolen from Burroughs’ Eternal Lover. It would be easy but unfair because Burroughs is not about literature or reason he is about stories and escapism. There are earthquakes occurring when you need them and extraordinary luck as heroes stumble on villains just before they ravish the maid. It would be easy to harp on about the plot coincidences and inconsistencies – Nu travels forwards (and back) in time and his girlfriend Victoria Custer travels back (and forward) so that they can consummate their eternal relationship. This one was written in 1925 after the ninth Tarzan novel (Tarzan and the Antmen) and the fifth Martian (The Chessmen of Mars) and is, as always with Burroughs, a flawed masterpiece. John.īurroughs was a master story teller and as prolific as they come. Just look at that for an illustration by one of the giants of the Arts, J. So begins ‘The Eternal Savage’ or as my older edition terms it ‘The Eternal Lover.’ The latter is the title I prefer. His handsome head with its shock of black hair, roughly cropped between sharpened stones, was high held, the delicate nostrils questioning each vagrant breeze for word of Oo, hunter of men.’ ‘NU, THE son of Nu, his mighty muscles rolling beneath his smooth bronzed skin, moved silently through the jungle primeval.

The Eternal Savage by Edgar Rice Burroughs