The Lad and the Lion
First edition cover
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| Author | Edgar Rice Burroughs |
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| Cover artist | John Coleman Burroughs |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. |
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Publication date
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1938 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 317 p. |
The Lad and the Lion is an adventure novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, written in February 1914. His working title for the piece was "Men and Beasts." It was first published as a three-part serial in All-Story Weekly in the issues for June 30, July 7, and July 14, 1917. The story was the first by Burroughs adapted to film, as a five-reel black and white silent movie released by the Selig Polyscope Company, premiering May 14, 1917, roughly simultaneously with the print serial. Despite this distinction, the story did not appear in book form for over twenty years. Only after the film was remade as The Lion Man (1936) was the first book edition published, by Burroughs's own publishing firm, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., in February 1938. The text was apparently expanded for book publication, as certain incidentals of the story reflect the political situation of Europe in the late 1930s rather than the mid-1910s. The book was reprinted by Grosset & Dunlap in 1939 and Canaveral Press in 1964. The first paperback edition was issued by Ballantine Books in September 1964, with a second appearing from Ace Books in May 1974, reprinted in June 1982.
When the king of a small European country is murdered by conspirators, his young grandson and heir Prince Michael is spirited away by a faithful retainer, carrying out the orders of the dead king, who had wind of what might be afoot. The diverging fates of Michael and his former country then unfold in parallel, in alternating chapters.
The ship the prince is put aboard is wrecked in a storm and he is injured and swept overboard. Climbing aboard an empty lifeboat, he is rescued by an mad, epileptic old man piloting a tramp steamer. Also aboard is a caged lion. The old man beats the prince and tortures the lion, keeping them prisoner on the craft for years. Michael, his memory gone, makes friends with the lion, which ultimately breaks free and kills their tormentor. The steamer, now adrift, eventually strikes shore on the coast of northern Africa.
The lad and the lion live and hunt together in the wild at the margin of the jungle and desert. Eventually they encounter a band of Arabs, whose flocks they prey on. They rescue Nakhla, daughter of the Arabs' chieftain Sheik Ali-Es-Hadji, from marauders and return her to the band. Afterward she meets with Michael secretly, dissuading him from raiding her people and gradually teaching him how to speak and dress as an Arab, shoot, and ride a horse. As he cannot even remember his own name, she dubs him Aziz. The lion, meanwhile, has taken up with a lioness, giving Michael two lion friends. Eventually the Arab warrior Ben Saada, who desires Nakhla, discovers her meetings with Michael and informs her father. The two proceed to separate the pair, the sheik by forbidding Nakhla to visit him, and Ben Saada by lying to Michael that she has married another and is no longer interested in him.
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