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POLITIKOFF

Agatha Christie's classic detective novels are edited to remove potentially offensive language

Politiko 2023-03-28 15:49:12

Agatha Christie's classic detective novels are edited to remove potentially

The novels by the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, are the latest classics to be revised to remove racist references and other language deemed offensive to modern audiences.

According to British newspaper The Telegraph, publisher Harper Collins has edited some passages and removed others entirely from new digital editions of some of Christie's detective mysteries featuring Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

Variations of the books, published between 1920 and 1976, the year of Christie's death, include changes to the narrator's inner monologue. For example, Poirot's description of another character as "a Jew, of course" in Christie's debut novel, The Mysterious Case at Styles, has been removed from the new version.

Throughout the revised version of the short story collection The Last Cases of Mrs. Marple and Two Other Stories, the word "domestic" has been replaced by "local," reports The Telegraph.

A passage describing a servant as "black" and "smiling" has been revised and the character is now simply referred to as "nod", with no reference to his race. And in the 1937 novel Death on the Nile, references to the "Nubian people" are omitted throughout. The Telegraph reports that HarperCollins published some of the reprints in 2020, with others to be revealed. CNN has reached out to HarperCollins and Agatha Christie Ltd., the company that handles the late author's literary and media rights, for comment.

The changes to the source material come after it was revealed last month that Roald Dahl's classic children's books had received similar treatment. The changes to Dahl's books have divided fans of works including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach, with some arguing that the rewriting of classic literature is a form of censorship.

Publisher Puffin responded to the controversy by announcing that it would release two versions — one revised and one classic — to give readers "a choice in how they experience Roald Dahl's magical and wonderful stories."

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