The heroes of the books by Roald Dahl corrected weight, gender, race and wigs

In the children’s books of the British writer Roald Dahl, beloved by many generations, published by Puffin Books, emotionally colored words, expressions, and even entire paragraphs that existed in the original began to disappear. Instead, they appear neutral, smooth wording, often changing the meaning of the text. But new lines appeared with explanations of what was written. Critics accused the publishing house of “absurd censorship” of books to please modern trends.

Changes in the texts of books published by Puffin Books were noticed by numerous readers and connoisseurs of the work of the famous British writer Roald Dahl. It turned out to be easy to notice them, since they number in the hundreds and in places simply change the original meaning of the text, writes The Daily Telegraph.

One of the heroes of the book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” Augustus Gloop stopped being “fat” and became “huge”.

The Oompa-Loompa men working at the chocolate factory went from “tiny” and “short” to “small”, and the indication of their belonging to the male gender disappeared.

In the book “Matilda” the phrase “boys and girls” turned into “children”, the three sons of the protagonist of the fairy tale “Amazing Mr. Fox” turned into daughters, and the “black, bloodthirsty, monster-like” tractor from the same book lost the word in the description “black”. The heroine of the book “Matilda” now reads not Rudyard Kipling, but Jane Austen.

Mrs. Tweet from The Tweet Family was “ugly and nasty” and now she’s just “nasty.”

The witch from the book “Witches” after editing the publishing house does not work as a cashier in a supermarket, but as a “leading scientist”. And where Roald Dahl originally explained that witches are generally bald and therefore wear wigs, the new version has an unauthorized line: “There are many different reasons why women wear wigs, and there is nothing special about it.” Somewhere the words “black” and “white” have disappeared, and now the heroes cannot “turn white with fear”, but only “turn pale”. Somewhere the words “crazy” and “crazy”, which were used with a comic connotation, have disappeared.

Readers and critics are outraged. Thus, the writer Michael Shellenberger called the incident “totalitarian censorship” and called on the literary community to condemn such actions.

Writer Salman Rushdie also criticized. In his opinion, the publishing house should be ashamed of this “absurd censorship”. Susan Nossel, head of PEN America, a writing community of more than 7,000 authors, said: “Those who welcome the specific editing of Dahl’s works should consider that the right to rewrite books can be used by those who do not share their values ​​​​and concepts of mental vulnerability. “.

The publisher itself sees no problem or fault in the rewriting. Moreover, it warned buyers and readers in advance that the text had undergone changes. “Words matter. The beautiful words of Roald Dahl can take you to other worlds and introduce you to wonderful characters. This book was written many years ago, and we regularly review the language to ensure it can still be admired today,” the copyright page reads.

According to Puffin Books, the changes were “minor and well thought out” and, in addition, they were discussed with Roald Dahl Story, which owns the rights to publish books by Roald Dahl.

The work of replacing the words was undertaken by the organization Inclusive Mindswhich specializes in adapting children’s literature to make it more understandable and inclusive.

The activity of this organization has always been surrounded by a mass of contradictions and scandals. According to one of their critics, British journalist Daniel Greenfield, their passion is to destroy other people’s work. “I can’t wait for Inclisive Minds to take on George Orwell’s 1984 to revisit the language and add more inclusiveness. “Big Brother” can become “Big Sister” there,” he remarked.

Alena Miklashevskaya