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On page 43 of The Castafiore Emerald, in the bottom left panel Hergé draws Tintin reading a book, with the title in French.
As far as I can read it says L'ile ... Tre.. whatever this means!
Could it possibly be Treasure Island?
Was Hergé inspired somewhat by this work?

Good guess. L'île au trésor is the French title of Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson.

It's not impossible that Treasure Island may have been at the back of Hergé's mind when he worked on The Secret of 'The Unicorn' and Red Rackham's Treasure, but there are sources that suggest that his actual book reading was limited.

He may have read it or else he knew of it. Books like that and their plots are famous even if you have not actually read them.

It was serialized in Le Petit Vingtième from the 5th of November, 1931, with several illustrations by Hergé in the faux "wood-cut" style that he used quite a lot in the early years, especially for book/ story illustrations; these include a rather marvelous picture of Long John Silver on the cover of the edition containing the first episode.
It doesn't mean he actually read it, of course, as someone else may just have outlined for him what he was to draw, but at least we can say for certain he did know of it, as you suggest.
A couple of the covers are reproduced in my copy of Numa Sadoul's Tintin et Moi: Entretiens avec Hergé (mine is the fourth edition, but don't know if they are in every version).

I was just reading a French edition I have of Les Bijoux de la Castafiore and the book Tintin is reading is titled Schateiland; which is Treasure Island in Dutch.
I realise this is probably an anomaly (maybe somebody could check?), but I really like the idea that Tintin would be able to read a Dutch edition, as a bilingual Belgian.

In my copy, the title is in French.

Like I said above, the story of Treasure Island is famous even to those who have never read it - and I admit that I was one of them.

Rodney's bringing up the subject made me decide that it was time I did.
Imagine my shock when I reached chapter 28 in which one of the pirates says to Long John Silver:

I'd never wondered before where the translators got the name of Haddock's castle. I always assumed that it was made up.
I now know that a marlinspike is a tool used for work with ropes, such as the huge ropes that are used on ships.
I wonder if the translators picked it because of its connections to sea ships and the fact that Haddock and his ancestor are sailors, or did they actually come across it in Stevenson's novel, like I did?

I've always assumed so, yes, and because it has the same starting letter and same syllable pattern as Moulinsart, thus keeping something of the feel and rhythm of the original name whilst making it more British and more nautical-sounding.


Well maybe, though I think it's a reasonably well-known word anyway.
But that said, it would be highly likely that someone of Michael Turner's generation would have read Treasure Island as a boy (not that it's a particularly easy read for a child), so that may have been where he first encountered the term.

I don't think there's any doubt that he knew it.
Haddock says on page 25 "Red Rackham is dead! With a yo ho ho, and bottle of rum!" which is pretty much a direct quote (the "yo ho ho" bit) from the song Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest, which was written by Stevenson for Treasure Island.
What's more, the whole theme of the book, the pirates, treasure maps, etc. Treasure Island is the iconic pirate story, and its influence is massive.
It was definitely an influence on Hergé, without a doubt.

[In reference to which language Tintin reads Treasure Island in Castafiore Emerald]
Thanks cigee! Probably just a mis-pressing in mine then. But I like it!

Edit Note to mct16: I'm dreadfully sorry, I seem to have inadvertently deleted your post that came prior to this one, which was in reply to Balthazar. A slip of the finger I'm afraid, my apologies! If you wouldn't mind making it again it would get me out of trouble.

Note: this is an attempt to rewrite the post that Harrock n roll somehow deleted:

It's no easy matter for an adult in his forties either.
Stevenson's technical descriptions of the ship and its layout are not easy to follow, and neither is the jargon used by the rough crewmen such as the quote in my previous post.
Next time I'll buy a copy with references that will explain these terms.