Tarzan of the Apes

Tarzan took the envelope and tore it open. The message was from D'Arnot. It read: Fingerprints prove you Greystoke. Congratulations. D'ARNOT.

Origin → ape upbringing → civil contact → identity reveal engine is pulp-clean, so plot scores 86.

Not so with Kala; she held the small form of the little Lord Greystoke tightly to her breast, where the dainty hands clutched the long black hair which covered that portion of her body. She had seen one child fall from her back to a terrible death, and she would take no further chances with this.

Tarzan's dual nature; Kala/Kerchak; Jane as adventure romance anchor—solid pulp ensemble, so cast scores 84.

When my convivial host discovered that he had told me so much, and that I was prone to doubtfulness, his foolish pride assumed the task the old vintage had commenced, and so he unearthed written evidence in the form of musty manuscript, and dry official records of the British Colonial Office to support many of the salient features of his remarkable narrative.

Episode action keeps moving; serial DNA visible but not stalled, so pace scores 88.

The task was an arduous one and required the better part of a month, though he built but one small room. He constructed his cabin of small logs about six inches in diameter, stopping the chinks with clay which he found at the depth of a few feet beneath the surface soil.

Functional pulp; vivid set pieces over fine style, so prose scores 78.

During the long hours of darkness they caught but fitful snatches of sleep, for the night noises of a great jungle teeming with myriad animal life kept their overwrought nerves on edge, so that a hundred times they were startled to wakefulness by piercing screams, or the stealthy moving of great bodies beneath them.

Jungle law + colonial contact zone forms a durable pulp secondary world, so world scores 90.

From the records of the Colonial Office and from the dead man's diary we learn that a certain young English nobleman, whom we shall call John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, was commissioned to make a peculiarly delicate investigation of conditions in a British West Coast African Colony.

Abandoned cabin / ape foster opening is strong; the frame narrative pulls immediately, so hook scores 91.

Tenderly Kala nursed her little waif, wondering silently why it did not gain strength and agility as did the little apes of other mothers. It was nearly a year from the time the little fellow came into her possession before he would walk alone.

Defines modern feral-hero franchise template, so innov scores 87.

"Yes," she whispered. That evening in the little waiting room at the station Tarzan caught Jane alone for a moment. "You are free now, Jane," he said, "and I have come across the ages out of the dim and distant past from the lair of the primeval man to claim you."

Civilized identity payoff with sequel hooks intentional—Jane chooses Clayton while Greystoke title resolves via cable, so ending scores 85.