I read all of the novels in my early teens.
Tarzan was never gracious nor sophisticated.
He remained a Savage though he was capable of love, and some degree of loyalty. The graciousness and sophistication were a thin veneer.
Contemplating “Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar” the modern word which best categorizes Tarzan would be “sociopath”
That said, the books are a hell of a lot more fun to read than most modern books. If you’re fourteen anyway.
In the first book, the methods and ease with which he dispatched the natives was that of an animal, free of conscience, killing for it's own enjoyment.
Fourteen is about how old I was when I read the Tarzan series. I wonder how well they would hold up if I were to re-read them now in my late sixties.
When I left for Vietnam, I had 19 first edition Tarzan, Mars and Pellucidar novels sitting on a bookshelf in my room, they belonged to my father before me. And every one of them had been signed by Edgar Rice Burroughs. When I returned from Vietnam 3 years later, she’d cleaned the room and disposed of what she called my junk. She told me she gave all the books to Good Will.
He was fiercely loyal.
The books would be considered racist now. Tarzan said some mean things about the Natives!