Hmm... I'm wondering what it says about my childhood. It seems everyone else was reading
Anne of Green Gables,
Little House ... and other wholesome tales, while I was madly devouring Tarzan adventures. Anyway, I can see your educations are sadly lacking, so...
I nominate
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
From
Kobo AU (Gateway edition):
Quote:
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Deep in the savage African jungle, the baby Tarzan was raised by a fierce she-ape of the tribe of Kerchak. There he had to learn the secrets of the wild to survive - how to talk with animals, swing through the trees, and fight against the great predators. He grew to the strength and courage of his fellow apes. And in time, his human intelligence promised him the kingship of the tribe. He became truly Lord of the Jungle. Then men entered his jungle, bringing with them the wanton savagery of civilised greed and lust - and bringing also the first white woman Tarzan had ever seen. Now suddenly, Tarzan had to choose between two worlds. (First published 1912)
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The book was published in 1912 and Burroughs died in 1950. So as far as I can tell this means the book should be public domain in most of our jurisdictions - but excluding the UK. (In Australia life+70 only came in for authors that died after 31-Dec-1954; In the USA now everything before 1924 is PD; Canada is life+50.)
Regrettably one of the better editions (from here on MR, an omnibus created by HarryT), is not available for download probably until next year, I guess.