The Adventures of Tintin, the Crab with the Golden Claws [Hardcover]

Herge (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 62 pages
• Publisher: Methuen (1958)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0416605001
• ISBN-13: 978-0416605006
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 8.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,597,387 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hergé, one of the most famous Belgians in the world, was a comics writer and artist. The internationally successful Adventures of Tintin are his most well-known and beloved works. They have been translated into 38 different languages and have inspired such legends as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. He wrote and illustrated for "The Adventures of Tintin" until his death in 1983.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oh Columbus! It's Captain Haddock!, May 14, 2002

By 

darragh o'donoghue - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Crab with the Golden Claws (The Adventures of Tintin) (Paperback)

The adventure every re-reader of Tintin waits impatiently for, Captain Haddock's debut. We first meet him on board the merchant ship Karaboudjan, his alcoholism being fuelled by a nefarious mate, the hatchet-faced Allan, who is smuggling opium in tins of crab meat. It is curious that such a weak, defeated, decadent figure should become such a beloved, even heroic character for generations of readers - in the context of the Nazi-Occupied Europe in which the book was written, the resonance of Haddock's spiritual progress - from manipulable weakling to tortured prisoner to victim of (collaborationist?) police brutality to ferocious resistant - is easier to fathom. Besides his inability to resist bottle-sized tipples, the captain is famous for a bellicosity unleashed in an inexhaustible gust of arbitrary, all-inclusive epithets ('Rats! Ectoplasms! Freshwater swabs! Bashi-bazouks! Cannibals! Caterpillars!'); his rage often sufficient to ward off enemies. Beneath these terrifying outbursts, however, and the tendency to Thom(p)son-like imbecilities (such as the drunken kindling of a fire on a longboat), Haddock is really a kind of human Snowy, someone whose essentially good instincts are led astray by appetite, someone who needs the affection, reassurance, security and stability offered by Tintin's tolerant friendship. He is a brave man of an earlier, more chivalrous age, stranded in a modernism blighted by criminals and the counterfeit.

This marvellously funny episode begins as a mystery story, with Thompson and Thomson investigating the death by drowning of a sailor whose remains include clues that prompt Tintin to investigate the Karaboudjan. In terms of incident and visuals, 'Crab' harks back to the earlier 'Cigars Of The Pharoah' (another introductory adventure, that time the Thom(p)sons), with its drug-smuggling plot, its misadventures at sea, its awesome African sandscapes and the delight offered by Thom(p)sonian buffoonery. The depiction of French Morocco, its eternal sunlight riven with omnipresent shadows, echoes the Metaphysical/Surrealist world of de Chirico, while there are many jokes inspired once again by silent cinema, especially two 'Gold Rush'-quoting hallucinations in which a thirst-crazed Haddock imagines Tintin as a bottle of champagne.

An added bonus are four full-page plates you will be sorely tempted to rip from the page and hang on your wall - a looming airplane terrorising our capsized heroes bobbing in a Hokusai sea; a panting Tintin and Haddock trekking an endless desert, happy Snowy chomping the massive bone of a dromedary skeleton and acknowledging the 'camera'; the trio in pursuit down a crowded Moroccan alley, amazingly detailed and coloured, and seemingly on the brink of collapse; and an archway-framed composition of the Thom(p)sons shadowing a suspect in one of their hapeless attempts at blending in with the locals, bournos failing to hide their ever-distinctive black suits, bowlers and moustaches. As ever, Tintin, like Sherlock Holmes, is much more successful with disguise, and learns something about the contempt directed at the poor in certain societies.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Morning, Captain Haddock..., August 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Crab with the Golden Claws (The Adventures of Tintin) (Paperback)

The Crab with the Golden Claws is great because it introduces us to one of our favorite characters: Captain Haddock! A "drunken wretch," he slowly evolves into the lovable, "upper class" mansion dwelling man in the later novels.

But the plot is really awesome! Drug smuggling rings in north Africa really present Tintin with a challenge, and sometimes I would ask myself, "How will you ever get out of this one!"

Some scenes are just incredibly well-drawn, and we get several big one picture pages that demonstrate Herge's talent...

Like all the rest, its truly great....

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Horray for Haddock!, September 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Crab with the Golden Claws (The Adventures of Tintin) (Paperback)

We are first introduced to Captain Haddock in this wonderful Tintin adventure. The Captain's introduction is hysterical, smart and witty. Herge's introduction of Haddock shows us how the Captian evolves from a pathetic drunk to a respectable man when we look at him in later adventures.