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StoryPDFA Princess of MarsEdgar Rice Burroughs

A Princess of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Complete text
NovelEnglish

John Carter, a former cavalry officer prospecting in Arizona, recounts an inexplicable passage to Mars. Stranded among unfamiliar peoples and creatures, he must learn new customs while his unexpected physical advantages draw him into conflicts and the company of Dejah Thoris.

28 sections65,803 wordsAbout 4 h 59 min
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About A Princess of Mars

Carter presents extraordinary events as a soldier's personal testimony, combining practical observations with astonishment. Much of the adventure turns on reading signs, learning speech and deciding whom to trust. His assumptions about honor and loyalty travel with him, making encounters with Martian societies as consequential as his feats of strength.

Reading focus

Compare Carter's confident judgments with the customs he must learn before he can act effectively.

This reading edition contains 65,803 words in 28 original sections. Read the text online with adjustable type and three colour themes, or keep a printable PDF.

Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Language: English. Reading edition: 28 October 2026.

Opening excerpt

I am a very old man; how old I do not know. Possibly I am a hundred, possibly more; but I cannot tell because I have never aged as other men, nor do I remember any childhood. So far as I can recollect I have always been a man, a man of about thirty. I appear today as I did forty years and more ago, and yet I feel that I cannot go on living forever; that some day I shall die the real death from which there is no resurrection. I do not know why I should fear death, I who have died twice and am still alive; but yet I have the same horror of it as you who have never died, and it is because of this terror of death, I believe, that I am so convinced of my mortality.

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Contents

All sections
  1. CHAPTER I ON THE ARIZONA HILLS12 min
  2. CHAPTER II THE ESCAPE OF THE DEAD8 min
  3. CHAPTER III MY ADVENT ON MARS12 min
  4. CHAPTER IV A PRISONER10 min
  5. CHAPTER V I ELUDE MY WATCH DOG7 min
  6. CHAPTER VI A FIGHT THAT WON FRIENDS8 min
  7. CHAPTER VII CHILD-RAISING ON MARS10 min
  8. CHAPTER VIII A FAIR CAPTIVE FROM THE SKY10 min
  9. CHAPTER IX I LEARN THE LANGUAGE7 min
  10. CHAPTER X CHAMPION AND CHIEF16 min
  11. CHAPTER XI WITH DEJAH THORIS11 min
  12. CHAPTER XII A PRISONER WITH POWER9 min
  13. CHAPTER XIII LOVE-MAKING ON MARS11 min
  14. CHAPTER XIV A DUEL TO THE DEATH15 min
  15. CHAPTER XV SOLA TELLS ME HER STORY15 min
  16. CHAPTER XVI WE PLAN ESCAPE18 min
  17. CHAPTER XVII A COSTLY RECAPTURE14 min
  18. CHAPTER XVIII CHAINED IN WARHOON7 min
  19. CHAPTER XIX BATTLING IN THE ARENA8 min
  20. CHAPTER XX IN THE ATMOSPHERE FACTORY16 min
  21. CHAPTER XXI AN AIR SCOUT FOR ZODANGA16 min
  22. CHAPTER XXII I FIND DEJAH16 min
  23. CHAPTER XXIII LOST IN THE SKY11 min
  24. CHAPTER XXIV TARS TARKAS FINDS A FRIEND12 min
  25. CHAPTER XXV THE LOOTING OF ZODANGA9 min
  26. CHAPTER XXVI THROUGH CARNAGE TO JOY10 min
  27. CHAPTER XXVII FROM JOY TO DEATH9 min
  28. CHAPTER XXVIII AT THE ARIZONA CAVE4 min

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Is this the complete A Princess of Mars?

This edition contains the complete English literary text, with 28 sections and 65,803 words. This reading edition preserves the checked English text and its section order. No study notes have been added.

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