Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
The fairy-tale ending I expected was Jane joining Tarzan in the jungle--that's what happened in the Disney version, and it's what I thought happened in all the movie versions; wasn't Jane in them, and didn't they have a son (Boy)?
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I think I had this problem too. The franchise spinoffs through time have been so successful at spreading a story (legend?) of Tarzan (faithfully or not to the initial book) that there was for me a basic expectation to the story ending, which is that Tarzan and Jane fall in love and have a boy. So, after I finished the book, I researched the rest of the books in the series to see if that's how they play out.
As an aside, I then also learned that the original silent films were more true to the plot than the more famous later ones - Jane's last name was changed from Porter to Parker and even nationalities (American vs British were changed too).
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
I have no reliable way to assess the book afresh, the story is too familiar to me. But I can understand how the ending might seem unsatisfying: a fairytale story like this should, perhaps, have a fairytale ending.
We might applaud the author for not bowing to a stereotypical ending, were it not that we know the intention was more cynical: if you are not satiated it suggests you care what happens next and so will buy the next book (or magazine or whatever). And sometimes it works, fantasyfan  . But not always, Catlady and Bookworm_Girl  .
But I would not characterise it as a cliff-hanger ending. The story is finished. The heroine is satisfying her idea of honour, intending to keep her promise, and William Clayton is a good man (and rich!), so we can't feel too sorry for her. The hero has satisfied his idea of honour and (we assume) will return to the jungle he knows. All the pieces are wrapped up and apparently finished, there is nothing more to be said or done (unless/until you say or do an entire book). There are many stand-alone books that leave much more unexplained than this one does. |
I believe that on one hand you can find the story is a finished ending. And to me it was a very unsatisfying ending as a stand-alone because of similar reasons that Catlady mentioned. I was not so thrilled with her honor-bound decision to continue into a marriage with a man she didn't love as much. But, because I know how the story continues on, then I did feel like it was a cliff-hanger because I know that something happens in the future to reunite Tarzan & Jane to meet what were my expectations.
If the book had ended like I did, and I didn't have any expectations of what was to come rightly or wrongly how those expectations were set by modern franchise expansion, then I wouldn't say it was a cliff-hanger too and was just an ending. Perhaps it would have been more satisfying that way in that moment in that time period!
In other words, I think that the success of the franchise continuation for the last 100 years has prevented even someone who has never read the book from approaching it with completely fresh eyes.