ABSTRACT
The 'serious novels' explore the ideas of Imperialism, it is the 'popular novels' which create the myths and myth-figures. They take facets of the archetypes analysed by Kipling, Buchan and Mason, strip them of their psychological depth and human frailty and magnify them to infinity. In both novels and films of Empire, one of the most common themes is the successful suppression by the British authorities of a plot or rebellion. In the twentieth century, in particular, this obsession found an outlet in two national phobias, characterized as 'The Red Peril' and 'The Yellow Peril'. 'The Red Peril' entered 'the pulps' and found adversaries in such characters as Bulldog Drummond and Tarzan. The cinema did Bulldog Drummond the service of cleaning up. The pathological Fascist thug of the books became a debonair gentleman adventurer on film. Tarzan first appeared in 1912 in All Story magazine and subsequently in book form, followed by no less than twenty-six sequels.
