Nestor (Tintin character)
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Nestor is a character from The Adventures of Tintin series of classic comic books drawn and written by Hergé. Nestor has become the epitome of a butler (or, in French, majordome) in French society filling a similar role to that of Jeeves in British culture (even though Jeeves was actually a valet, not a butler).
He is the long-suffering butler of Marlinspike Hall.
[edit] Overview
Nestor made his first appearance in The Secret of the Unicorn in which he dutifully served as a butler for the Bird Brothers, the estate's original owners. Tintin had been kidnapped by the Birds and locked in the cellar at Marlinspike. When he broke out he attempted to contact his friend Captain Haddock by phone. At that moment Nestor entered the room and asked who he was. Tintin claimed to be the Birds' new secretary and Nestor appeared to accept this, but at that moment one of the brothers called on the inter-phone that Tintin was a crook who had broken into the castle.
There then followed a series of fights and chases between Tintin, the Birds and Nestor, who loyally stood by his employers. However, Tintin's friends finally turned up and the brothers' criminal activities were exposed. The fact that they had told Nestor that Tintin was himself a crook seemed to clear him of any knowledge of their own criminality. This was also established at their trial.
Nestor later returned as butler to Marlinspike when Captain Haddock reclaimed the property. He remained a staple character in many of the subsequent Tintin stories.
In The Castafiore Emerald, he is depicted as being hostile to gypsies, while in Tintin and the Picaros he was shown drinking his master's whisky in secret and listening at doors as Tintin and Haddock argued. This is in contrast to his understatement that Prince Abdullah's visit in The Red Sea Sharks had been a little trying on him, in response to the Captain's pity.
