PVLF 2025

Agatha Christie's Novels Edited to Remove Potentially Offensive Language

According to the newspaper, the modifications eliminated terminology like "Oriental" and the N-word and allusions to race, such as calling a character black, Jewish, or Gypsy or describing a female character's chest as "of black marble.
on Mar 27, 2023

Agatha Christie's novels were reworked to remove potentially offensive language. Several of Agatha Christie's books have been edited to remove potentially unpleasant material, such as racial slurs and allusions.

In updated versions of Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries released by HarperCollins, parts that current audiences find insulting have been rewritten or eliminated, especially those regarding the persons' Christie's protagonists meet outside the UK. These mysteries were written between 1920 and 1976.

The alterations were visible in digital copies of the new editions, including the Miss Marple series and a few Poirot books that will be issued in 2020 or have already been published, according to the Telegraph.

The revisions come after works by Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming were edited to eliminate objectionable allusions to race and gender to keep them relevant to readers today.

The 1937 Poirot book Murder on the Nile, in which Mrs. Allerton complains that a bunch of kids is bothering her and that "their eyes are utterly horrible, and so are their noses, and I don't suppose I really like children," is one of the examples of changes noted by the Telegraph.

In a recent edition, this has been condensed to read: "They come back and gaze, and stare. And I don't think I enjoy kids.

The publication stated that the amateur detective's remark that a hotel employee smiling at her had "such gorgeous white teeth" has been deleted from the revised version of Miss Marple's 1964 book A Caribbean Mystery.

In the last two years, sensitivity readers—a relatively new phenomenon in publishing—have attracted a lot of attention. Although some are given relatively little salaries, they check both new publications and older works for potentially objectionable language and descriptions and endeavor to increase diversity in the publishing sector.

Christie's 1939 work and Then There Were None was originally published under a different title that featured a racial slur that was last used in 1977, even though this is the first time the text of one of Christie's novels has been altered.

The author's literary and cinematic rights are believed to be licensed through Agatha Christie Ltd, a business managed by her great-grandson James Prichard. We've been in touch with the business and HarperCollins for a response.

To ensure that the books "may continue to be appreciated by everybody today," Dahl's publisher, Puffin, recruited sensitive readers to rework significant portions of the author's content, yet, it will still print the original versions.

The phrases "fat" and "ugly," as well as antisemitic overtones, such as the characters' large noses in The Witches, were among the derogatory terms used to describe how characters looked.

Also, gender-neutral terminology was added; rather than the Oompa Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory being "little guys," they are now "small people." James and the Giant Peach's Cloud-Men have evolved into Cloud-People.

A complete collection of the suspense novels will be reprinted to commemorate 70 years since the publication of Casino Royale, Fleming's debut novel featuring the British spy James Bond. This time, they will offer the following warning: "This work was published during a time when language and attitudes that today's readers could find offensive were widespread."

Racist terminology has undergone several alterations. Rather than "quite law-abiding lads I should have thought, except when they've drunk too much," Bond says in Live and Let Die of potential African crooks in the gold and diamond markets.

The words "crowd panting and grunting like pigs at the trough" have been altered to "Bond could sense the electric tension in the room" in a scene when Bond attends a nightclub in Harlem.