Back to the stone age [Hardcover]

Edgar Rice Burroughs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1963

The fifth installment of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Pellucidar series, Back to the Stone Age recounts the strange adventures of Lieutenant von Horst, a member of the original crew that sailed to Pellucidar with Jason Gridley and Tarzan who is left behind in the inner world. Von Horst wanders friendless and alone from one danger to the next among the Stone Age peoples, mighty reptiles, and huge animals that have been extinct on the outer crust for thousands of years. But woven among the tales of savage cave men in the country of the Basti, the hideous Gorbuses in the caverns beneath the Forest of Death, and the terrible Gaz is the story of the love this cultured hero feels for a barbarian slave girl who has spurned and discouraged him, working instead toward her own mysterious goal.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875–1950) is the legendary author of dozens of novels, including Tarzan of the Apes, The Land That Time Forgot, and Pirates of Venus, the latter two available in Bison Books editions. Gary Dunham provides an introduction to this Bison Books edition.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 318 pages
• Publisher: Canaveral Press; First Edition, Thus edition (1963)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0006AYXUW
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,093,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Guilty Pleasures of Edgar Rice Burroughs, August 11, 2010

By 

RodneySerling420 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Back to the Stone Age: (#5) (Pellucidar Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

Once again, ERB scores with a highly enjoyable read. If you're looking for great literature, skip Back to the Stone Age...or for that matter, virtually all of Burroughs' writing. However, if you appreciate pulp fiction from the first half of the 20th century, then it's hard to beat Edgar Rice Burroughs. Back to the Stone Age has all of his hallmarks: the incredible coincidences, the unique cultures and differing physical types of not-quite-human creatures, the extraordinary storytelling, and best of all, the hilarious insights into the human condition that ring true today. Here are some of my favorite passages from the book, regarding men and women and the timeless war between them:

"Wait until I get you," (Grum) screamed. "You'll wish you'd never been born."
Von Horst grinned as he featured the life that was in store for Horg should the Mammoth Man lose. Death would be sweeter.

Presently Grum came. Her little eyes were blood-shot, her frowzy hair at its frowziest. She was the personification of a stench, both morally and physically.
"Well," she said, "I guess Horg knows that he has a mate."
"Why did you beat him?" asked von Horst.
"You've got to start right with them," she explained. "If you give them the least little toe-hold you're lost, just as Mumal is."
He nodded in understanding of her philosophy; for, again, he had known women of the outer crust who were like her. Perhaps their technic was more refined, but their aim was identical. Marriage to them, meant a struggle for supremacy. It was a 50-50 proposition of their own devising--they took fifty and demanded the other fifty.

Burroughs went through a divorce about the same time this book was written, which may account for his rather jaded outlook on the bliss of married life. In any event, if you like ERB, put this one in your library.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the best Pellucidar book but not the worst, January 11, 2007

By 

Jay "SarahsJay" (Douglasville, GA, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Back to the Stone Age: (#5) (Pellucidar Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

Even though it was clear by the time ERB wrote this, the Pellucidar books were starting to falter, I greatly enjoyed this book. I have a few reasons for this: One, Von Horst (or Von) is a likeable hero who isn't quite as gratuitously stupid as some of Burroughs' other heroes. For another, I just liked the spunky, matter-of-fact heroine, La-ja. She's easily one of ERB's best heroines despite being cast in the standard mold of such a character. While parts of the book seemed overdone (ie, the Mammoth Men portion), others were quite appealing(the Gorbuses, Von's living death in the trodon cave). For me then this was a satisfying read that more than paid off when in the end Von finally fought Gaz. Surely not among ERB's best but definitely far above his worst.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lost in the Stone Age, April 12, 2007

By 

D. Lathrap "Book Dork" (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Back to the Stone Age (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) (Paperback)

Back to the Stone Age follows the adventures of Lieutenant von Horst of the airship O-220 in

Pellucidar as he attempts to find his fellow crew members after being separated from them during

a titanic herbivore stampede caused by hundreds of saber-toothed tigers conducting a mass

slaughter. Getting lost in Pellucidar, Edgar Rice Burroughs' world within our world, is rather easy to

do since it is virtually impossible to get one' bearings there. The Sun remains fixed in the center

of the sky and the horizon curves upward so even the tallest peaks tend to merge into the

background. This sort of enviorment tends to lead to much aimless wandering about, interrupted frequently

by the most unlikely of coincidences as characters separate and meet again a timely manner. This

precludes a coherent plot structure, but Von Horst does have some interesting adventures.