# Giant killer snails - anyone know what story this is? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 10, 2001, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-killer-snails-anyone-know-what-story-this-is/86473 "2001-10-10T01:43:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AndYrAStar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8edcca/32.png) [@AndYrAStar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndYrAStar)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-killer-snails-anyone-know-what-story-this-is/86473/1 "2001-10-10T01:43:39Z")
I remember reading a story quite a while ago about a man (field scientist?) who goes to some island which is inhabited by giant snails. Giants man-eating snails. Which he soon falls victim to. It was in a collection of stories (possibly aimed at young adults), and for some reason I think it might have been written by Hitchcock. Does anyone have any idea what I’m talking about, or am I just doing crazy? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-killer-snails-anyone-know-what-story-this-is/86473/2 "2001-10-10T02:11:05Z")
I read that story. Don’t remember the name of the story, or the author, but I can at least confirm that such a story exsists, and is not a figment of your imagination. I don’t _think_ that Hitchcock wrote it, as that would be the sort of detail that would stick with me. ---
**Author:** ![AndYrAStar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8edcca/32.png) [@AndYrAStar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndYrAStar)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-killer-snails-anyone-know-what-story-this-is/86473/3 "2001-10-10T02:46:11Z")
> [@](#): > > I don’t _think_ that Hitchcock wrote it, as that would be the sort of detail that would stick with me I wasn’t sure if it was BY Hitchcock, or in a book of stories which included one by him, or just one that used his name to try to sell their book. I just associated his name with it. But, I just got an email from someone who informed me that it is called “The Quest for Blank Claveringi” by Patricia Highsmith. Whee! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-killer-snails-anyone-know-what-story-this-is/86473/4 "2001-10-10T04:22:41Z")
There were a few juvenile collections that had Hitchcock’s name on them that The Master actually had nothing to do with – he neither wrote nor edited. know. I read a few of them. That said, I don’t know of any stories about giant snails. _do_ know about two movies with giant snails, though. My favorite is **The Monster That Challenged the World** , a perennial favorite on WNEW’s “Creature Feature”. They must have owned a copy. A not-bad flick, except that it’s hard to make snails evil. (“It’s a giant snail! Walk for your lives!!”) My favorite scene is the one where the crotchety old dam-keeper yells at what he thinks are some damned kids playing at his dam, while a snail the size of a Volkswagen slowly sneaks up behind him and bites his head off. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-killer-snails-anyone-know-what-story-this-is/86473/5 "2001-10-10T04:31:33Z")
> [@](#): > > **"It’s a giant snail! Walk for your lives!!"** Christ almighty … I’m laughing so hard I have tears in my eyes. Thanks for the laugh CalMeacham. 🙂 I’ve actually read the story mentioned in the OP. I’m glad that I, too, am not crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-killer-snails-anyone-know-what-story-this-is/86473/6 "2001-10-10T04:50:30Z")
**AndYrAStar** I _know_ that I remember a story like that. I think I read it in a magazine though, not a book. And even after all this time the kid I was remembers that the final line was something about the sounds of the snail as it munched the flesh of the scientist. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-killer-snails-anyone-know-what-story-this-is/86473/7 "2001-10-10T05:29:25Z")
Sounds like “The Quest for _Blank Claveringi_”, by Patricia Highsmith. I have it in the 1985 collection _Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural_. Originally published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1967 as “The Snails.” ---
**Author:** ![Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ben)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-killer-snails-anyone-know-what-story-this-is/86473/8 "2001-10-10T05:56:46Z")
I don’t remember the name of the story, but it’s in Hitchcock’s _Witches’ Brew_ collection for young adults. I’ve been trying to get this off [half.com](http://half.com), but they sent me another, different Hitchcock anthology of the same name. IIRC the same book had “That Hell-Bound Train”, and a story about a guy who got shrunk to a tiny size and run over by a toy train. -Ben ---
**Author:** ![broccoli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@broccoli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/broccoli)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-killer-snails-anyone-know-what-story-this-is/86473/9 "2001-10-10T15:47:26Z")
LOL! Yes! I totally remember those creature feature movies! The story, sadly, I do not remember. Sorry kiddo 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AndYrAStar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8edcca/32.png) [@AndYrAStar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndYrAStar)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-killer-snails-anyone-know-what-story-this-is/86473/10 "2001-10-10T20:25:29Z")
> [@](#): > > LOL! Yes! I totally remember those creature feature movies! The story, sadly, I do not remember. Sorry kiddo 🙂 YOU!!! Out of my thread! ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giant-killer-snails-anyone-know-what-story-this-is/86473/11 "2001-10-10T21:04:53Z")
I would just like to add that in the _Star Trek_ animated series, the crew went to a planet inhabited by giant (but not killer) snails. Mr. Spock found out during a mind meld that they thought he was handsome.:eek: