The Secret of the Unicorn (The Adventures of Tintin) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "AN alarming rise in the number of robberies has been reported in the past few weeks..." (more)
Key Phrases: Old Street Market, Sir Francis Haddock

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Secret of the Unicorn was one of the first truly great Tintin adventures and Herge's personal favorite, combining a puzzling mystery with a ripping pirate yarn. When Tintin finds a magnificent model ship in the street market, his attempt to buy it for Captain Haddock leads him on a trail of pickpockets, burglars, and secret treasure, and Haddock enthralls him with a tale of his seafaring ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock (who was exclaiming "Thundering typhoons!" generations before the Captain ever did), and his fateful encounter with the fearsome pirate Red Rackham. The story is also notable for Herge's fantastic eye for ship detail as well as the first appearances of Nestor and Marlinspike Hall. The Secret of the Unicorn was Tintin's first official two-book adventure, continued in Red Rackham's Treasure. --David Horiuchi

Product Description

A clue hidden in a toy ship leads Tintin on a dangerous treasure hunt.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Paperback: 62 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; 1ST edition (June 30, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316358320
• ISBN-13: 978-0316358323
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 8.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #19,762 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 11 in The Adventures of Tintin Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Now why were they both so keen to buy my ship?", May 18, 2005

By	babydoh - See all my reviews

The Secret of the Unicorn - La Mystere de La Licorne, or the Mystery of the Unicorn, in the original French - is the eleventh installment in the Tintin series. It was also evidently the personal favorite of author Herge.

Like many other Tintin adventures, it spins out of something as seemingly innocuous as can be: Tintin goes to a street fair, sees a model of a ship that he likes, and decides to buy it. Almost instantly two mystery men are hot on his heels as he leaves the place, offering him exorbitant amounts of money. He manages to lose them before he gets back to the flat, but needless to say, this is not the last we've seen of these two in The Secret of the Unicorn.

It later turns out that the ship is a small replica of a real vessel, the Unicorn, that was commanded by none other than Sir Francis Haddock, ancestor of the Captain and possible originator of such Haddockisms as "thundering typhoons," etc. It also comes to light that hidden in the model are parchment scrolls indicating something important about the original ship, which sank ages ago. But by the time Tintin finds this out, his ship has mysteriously disappeared...!

The Secret of the Unicorn as it was originally published in the magazine Le Petit Vingtieme was far too long to be contained in one book; it spills over into a sequel, Red Rackham's Treasure, in which Tintin and friends take the sea to find the sunken Unicorn - but that will have to wait for another review!

(Incidentally, to anyone who wonders, the scale on which I am rating these books is one to five for Tintin, not one to five for everything else. In other words, it starts with great and goes on up from there. Three stars = no slouch.)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of the Tintin series, November 21, 1998

By A Customer

The first Tintin book I ever read was The Secret of the Unicorn. I still consider it among the best along with King Ottokar's Sceptre. The plot moves along, the dialogue is humorous, and the characters are vintage Herge. I highly recommend this one.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Secret of The Unicorn; A Funny Mystery Book, June 13, 1999

By A Customer

How would you feel if you bought a boat and found a treasure note inside? How would you feel then, if the boat got stolen? This is what happens to TinTin and his dog, Snowy, in The Secret of the Unicorn, by Herge. Once they try to find the boat, but are not successful. After looking for the boat, they start looking for the treasure. They search by submarine, by scuba diving,and by swimming in shark infested water. Do they find the treasure? Read The Secret of the Unicorn to find out.