Censoring literature to adapt to present times seems to have been the standard nowadays. Following children’s novelist Roald Dahl, mystery author Agatha Christie is the next subject of scrutiny. It appears that her novels are being edited to eliminate content that modern readers could find offensive. The publisher is attempting to make the novels relevant to contemporary readers, but some readers of literature believe this is a horrible idea.
HarperCollins has changed some passages from Agatha Christie’s books and deleted others entirely from its new digital editions
HarperCollins, the author’s publisher, has changed some passages from Agatha Christie’s books and deleted others entirely from its new digital editions. The writer’s inner monologue, in which she refers to several characters in a particular way, has been altered.
Hercule Poirot, the renowned investigator, refers to another character as “a Jew, of course” in her debut novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles as one such instance. The aforementioned passage has been entirely removed from the updated version.
The word “native” has been changed to “local” in Christie’s short story collection Miss Marple’s Final Cases and Two Other Stories. An edited sentence from the same book refers to a servant as “black” and “grinning.” The mention of his race has been dropped from the amended version, and his gesture has been modified to “nodding.”
There are references to “Nubian people” throughout her 1937 novel “Death on the Nile,” which have since been deleted.
According to reports, HarperCollins published the updated editions in 2020, and more are coming. The author and Agatha Christie Ltd. have not yet commented on the situation.
While modifications are being made, book lovers perceive them as censorship. There were a lot of uproars recently when Roald Dahl’s books received a similar treatment. Children’s books by Roald Dahl including James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory have long been favorites among readers of all ages.
Publisher Puffin announced that it will print two versions of his books—a revised version and a classic version—so that readers could select the ones they wanted to read in response to criticism.
Agatha Christie published her novels from 1920 to 1976, the year she died. Her works are a pleasure for fans of mysteries because Hercule Poirot solves crimes in most of them. Recently, the film adaptations of her works Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile starred stars including Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penelope Cruz, Kenneth Branagh, and Gal Gadot.
