If you enjoy fantasy, you HAVE to read this book! If you enjoy philosophy, you HAVE to read this book. This author influenced so many authors it is hard to write them all down.
If you enjoy high adventure, this is a must read and worth your time! And if you have not read high adventure yet, this is one of the first books you pick up - particularly to taste the adventures of pirate.
This character should have been written into the comic and movie of the "League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen". This is a great adventure and this maybe one of the realistically toughest gentlemen every written into literature. A good story for this era or time.
A 'mucker' is made into a gallant gentleman. This is one of ERB's most sought after story and he had high hope the Billy Byrne would be one of his most popular characters - alas - it did not turn out so. Interesting to compare the first Tarzan story and see the contrasts and parallels between Billy Byrne and Tarzan and their character developements into gentlemen. Burroughs gives apes ('Kala') more humane traits than men of the inner cities and slums. Despite being an adventure story, ERB's book seems to make some indictment of the men of 'world' of the inner city and slums of the era. I wonder if he was influenced by 'muckracker' writers that started in the 1880's and continued into the 1920's.