Sunday, March 26, 2023

More bowdlerizing

And it continues:
Agatha Christie novels have been rewritten for modern sensitivities, The Telegraph can reveal. ....

The character of a British tourist venting her frustration at a group of children has been purged from a recent reissue, while a number of references to people smiling and comments on their teeth and physiques, have also been erased. ....

The new editions of Christie’s works are set to be released or have been released since 2020 by HarperCollins, which is said by insiders to use the services of sensitivity readers. It has created new editions of the entire run of Miss Marple mysteries and selected Poirot novels.

Digital versions of new editions seen by The Telegraph include scores of changes to texts written from 1920 to 1976, stripping them of numerous passages containing descriptions, insults or references to ethnicity, particularly for characters Christie’s protagonists encounter outside the UK.

The author’s own narration, often through the inner monologue of Miss Jane Marple or Hercule Poirot, has been altered in many instances. Sections of dialogue uttered by often unsympathetic characters within the mysteries have also been cut. ....
One can't have even "unsympathetic characters" portrayed as bigots?

Craig Simpson, "Agatha Christie classics latest to be rewritten for modern sensitivities," The Telegraph, March 25, 2023.

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