Just as many of the characters in the Tarzan series recur from book to book, so too do the plots. Burroughs wrote quickly, with a firm knowledge of what pleased his readers. He usually spent from one to three months on a novel, rarely rewriting except to accede to an editor's request. Writing at such speed almost necessitated the use of episodic plots, in which coincidences abound and logic usually disappears. Mutinies, shipwrecks, menacing beasts, sojourns in lost cities, kidnappings, rescues, chases, and wars pop up again and again. Burroughs also became adept at the cliffhanger ending; the ending of Tarzan of the Apes, in which Tarzan and Jane are separated, called out for a sequel. Since the novels were originally serialized in magazines and newspapers, most seem to break naturally into novelette-length episodes.

A recurring technique in the series is Burroughs's use of a frame...