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Author of numerous pulp fiction heroic adventures. The most famous are Tarzan set in Darkest Africa and John Carter of Mars, but other lands are used: jungles and islands thoroughout the world, Venus, and the hollow center of the earth Pellucidar, one of several literary examples of the Hollow World.
Trope Maker for many aspects of Planetary Romance. An influence on Sword and Sorcery, despite the SF veneer to all the marvels. Lots of books here
Most definitely not to be confused with William S. Burroughs.
Works by Edgar Rice Burroughs with their own trope pages include:[]
- Tarzan series
- John Carter of Mars series
- Pellucidar series
- The Monster Men
Tropes featured in his other works:[]
- Altar the Speed: In the backstory of The Mad King.
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Neither his mother nor his father had ever returned to the little country since the day, thirty years before, that the big American had literally stolen his bride away, escaping across the border but a scant half-hour ahead of the pursuing troop of Luthanian cavalry. |
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- Badass Damsel: His heroines never lack pluck and while not the fighter the hero is, often can weigh in on a fray.
- Blue Blood: Constantly. A hero not of Royal Blood is at least this.
- Born in the Wrong Century: Tom Billings in The People That Time Forgot.
- Cannot Spit It Out: All over the place.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: The boy kind in The Mad King.
- Contemporary Caveman: The novel The Eternal Lover and the short stort "The Resurrection of Jimber Jaw".
- Contrived Coincidence: His plots are stuffed with them.
- Culture Clash: An ingredient of a big percentage of Burroughs' books, especially in the Lost World and Planetary Romance stories.
- Damsel in Distress: Almost every major female character at one point or another.
- Dirty Coward: More than one of his villains.
- Emergency Impersonation: The Mad King
- Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: Caprona, aka Caspak, the Land That Time Forgot.
- Frazetta Man: Burroughs' books are full of these guys. It's also worth noting that just having a Frank Frazetta painting on a book's cover is said to have sold a lot of books that might not have sold otherwise.
- Hollow World: Apart from the Pellucidar series, The Moon Maid offers a hollow and inhabited moon.
- Human Aliens
- Hunting Accident: Proposed for Von der Tann in The Mad King.
- Literary Agent Hypothesis: Used for many of his works, including the Amtor novels, where he is visited psychically by the protagonist, Carson Napier of Venus (who oddly enough, rarely uses his psychic powers for anything other than giving Burroughs infodumps).
- Loin Cloth: The official dress code in many a Burroughs novel.
- Lost World: Several, including Caprona (or Caspak in native-speak).
- Love At First Sight: Common method of choosing a mate for a Burroughs hero.
- Love Hurts: Common result of choosing a mate for a Burroughs hero.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: In Beyond Thirty, a savage tribe is advanced enough to recognize paternity, but matrilineal because of this trope, and not being advanced enough to pull of monogamous marriage.
- Mighty Whitey: Carson Napier, Bowen Tyler... the list goes on. Practically every hero who gets thrust into a "savage" environment.
- Mysterious Antarctica: The Land That Time Forgot and its sequels.
- Nice to the Waiter: Von der Tann in The Mad King. One of the villains is aware of it, but considers it a bad point:
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You know the old fox has always made it a point to curry favor with the common soldiers. When he was minister of war he treated them better than he did his officers. |
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- Oblivious to Love: Your typical Edgar Rice Burroughs hero needs to be hit over the head with a club, several times, before he realizes that he has fallen in love with the heroine.
- Oh Wait, This Is My Grocery List: Happens to the Prime Minister in Minidoka: 937th Earl of One Mile Series M.
- Planetary Romance: Apart from the famous Mars (Barsoom) series, there was another set on Venus.
- Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: The Prime Minister in Minidoka: 937th Earl of One Mile Series M.
- Reincarnation: The Julian heroes in the Moon duology.
- Royal Blood: constantly.
- Royal Brat: The Leper King Lodivarman in The Land of Hidden Men.
- Somewhere a Paleontologist Is Crying: The Land that Time Forgot series has, among other issues, a Tyrannosaurus Rex running on all fours.
- Strictly Formula: Burroughs stuck, most of the time, to a formula plot. His occasional departures were often less successful.
- The Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer: Tom Billings, the hero in The People That Time Forgot, adapts to life very easily in the primeval Lost World of Caspak and elects to stay there with the woman he loves.
- Vichy Earth: The Moon Men, at least the first half.
- Whip Sword: The spear-whips in Minidoka: 937th Earl of One Mile Series M.
- World War One: The Land That Time Forgot.