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The Broken Ear

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English-edition cover
English-edition cover

The Broken Ear (originally L'Oreille Cassée) is a one of a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. The Broken Ear was serialized in 1935, and first collected in book form in French in 1943. Although the publishing history of the Tintin books is complex, it is generally considered the sixth in the Tintin series.

Synopsis

The story begins when a fetish which originally belonged to a tribe of South American indians is stolen from the Museum of Ethnography. The following day it is back in the museum, along with a note apologizing for the inconvenience caused, saying that the reason had been a bet. Tintin, who is among the reporters looking into the story, realizes that the replacement is a fake, the distinction being a broken ear.

He finds a book with an image of the fetish, drawn by an explorer: it confirms that one of the ears is damaged, while the one back in the museum is not. Tintin then reads that a wood carver called Balthazar has died. Suspecting that Balthazar made a duplicate of the fetish and was murdered, Tintin tries to obtain the man's parrot in order to get a clue to the killer.

But he soon discovers that a pair of South Americans are also on the trail of the fetish, following the same clues and employing more ruthless methods!

A lead takes the three men, and their attempts to outwit each other, to South America, where the plot thickens.

Trivia

Like The Blue Lotus, The Broken Ear includes a political subtext. Much of the middle part of the story is set in the fictional South American dictatorship of San Theodoros in which local generals feud for power.

The conflict between San Theodoros and Nuevo-Rico was based on the Chaco War of 1932 to 1935. Western businessmen were accused of provoking the war in order to get their hands on the local oil fields. This view is reflected in shady businessman Trickler who tries to bribe Tintin and, when that fails, resorts to attempted murder and false evidence to get rid of him.

Arms dealer Basil Bazarov, who sells weapons to both sides, is based on the real-life Basil Zaharoff.

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