"11 - John Carter of Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burroughs Edgar Rice)

quality which endures beyond their times, and makes their works part of the
enduring body of the literature of the English language which stands a solid
chance of living for centuries to come. The presence here of Burroughs' A
PRINCESS OF MARS is perhaps the first important sign that this author, whose
works have enjoyed public acclaim from the first, is beginning to receive the
acceptance of educators and serious critics as well.
Having raised Carter, in three books, from a naked and unarmed stranger to the
Warlord of the red planet, Burroughs faced the question, What do you do for an
encore? Faced with the same question in his Tarzan series, Burroughs carried the
Ape Man off into a seemingly interminable series of exotic settings, lost cities
and forgotten empires dotting the African landscape so that they must ultimately
have crowded one another into the sea!
In the Martian series, ERB tried another approach, I think a more daring one,
and a completely successful one. Transferring his attention from John Carter and
Dejah Thoris, Burroughs called the fourth book of the series TRUVIA, MAID OF
MARS. The title figure had been introduced in THE GODS OF MARS as an equivocal
character. She was the plaything of the degenerate group of cultist priests,
involuntarily so, in fact the term "white slave" might be applied except that
for Thuvia, it would have to be "red slave."
Rescued by John Carter from her unhappy life, Thuvia at the end of the book is
imprisoned with Dejah Thoris and a third Martian woman, the beautiful but
treacherous Phaidor, in a sort of horizontal ferris wheel which is a Martian
prison. Entrance to or exit from each cell is blocked for a year at a time as
the giant wheel rotates through a huge hollow rock. As the cell containing the
three women passes from sight, Phaidor lunges at Dejah Thoris with a murderous
knife-thrust, Thuvia throws herself between the two, seeking to save Dejah
Thoris, and ... The tag line is not "continued in the next thrilling
installment," but "continued in the next thrilling book, THE WARLORD OF MARS."
But Dejah Thoris and Thuvia escape, of. course, and by the book following
WARLORD, Thuvia had reached the status not only of lead heroine, but of title
character, an honor shared with Dejah Thoris herself (the princess of PRINCESS)
and with the granddaughter of John Carter and Dejah Thoris, LLANA OF GATHOL
(tenth volume of the series). The action of THUVIA, MAID OF MARS, is no mere
rehash of the adventures of John Carter, but blazes new trails across the
Barsoomian horizon. The novel is full of invention and intrigue, the most
brilliant probably being the Bowmen of Lothar, a phantom army of archers created
by the sheer mental power of the Lotharians to counter the aggression of the
Warhoons, their hereditary enemies.
THUVIA was first published in 1916, and following it, Burroughs turned his
attention to other matters, including several books in his Tarzan and Pellucidar
series, as well as several "singles." In 1922 he resumed the Martian series,
producing THE CHESSMEN OF MARS. Again, Burroughs changed focus, this time making
his hero Gahan of Gathol, a Martian noble, with the heroine this time Tara of
Helium, the younger sister of Carthoris. Again, not mere action and adventure,
but wondrous creations of imagination mark the book. The outstanding creations
of CHESSMEN may well be the rykors and the kaldanes, inhabitants of the city of
Bantoom.
Strange symbiotes, these two races, the rykors resemble headless humans, while
the kaldanes are little more than animated heads, provided by evolution with
chelae with which they attach themselves to rykors and control the bodies. A