RicardoOlcese:
English Wikipedia informs...
I think you will find that quite a lot has been said about this on these forums already, along with discussions of the merits (or otherwise) of localization of the stories, without having to look to Wikipedia!
Take a look around to save turning over too much old ground; try these for a start:
Captain Haddock: His nationality?Tintin: Is he Belgian in the books?Translation of Tintin character names?RicardoOlcese:
I think it's a chauvinistic, useless change in the story.
Well, again a bit of forum reading might pay off here too: you have to bear in mind that Casterman in 1952 had tried to launch several foreign-language editions of Tintin, and had failed to ignite interest in any of the markets it tried.
In addition to two of the books (
Unicorn and
Rackham) being launched in hardback, the British audience had also had a third story (
Ottokar) made available, in the highly popular and prestigious weekly, the
Eagle - and yet even with this level of publicity the series failed in Britain.
Both Casterman and Hergé were delighted and enthusiastic when Methuen proceeded with their relaunch of the books in new translations in 1958, and Hergé was both consulted on, and approved, any changes the translators made.
In both cases (the 1952 and 1958 versions) the books were modified to localize them, and as has been pointed out by other members, this was very much the case with children's literature both in the UK and on the continent, at the time, where Enid Blyton's British
The Famous Five became the French
Le Club de Cinq, and Anthony Buckeridge's English public school-boy
Jennings transformed into the Norwegian
Stompa at a Norwegian school (and, it has to be said, possibly exceeded the popularity of his original, as the character was adapted for several successful movies).
So I don't think the chauvinism charge has much weight behind it - the intention was simply to make the series as popular with a readership as possible, it was done in full cooperation with the original author and publisher (who undertook similar changes themselves), and it was a common practice in the publishing industry at the time.
As Shivam302001 says, if the changes bother you terribly, there are still the French originals.