Agatha Christie’s novels are the latest works to be rewritten to remove verbiage that has been deemed insensitive or inappropriate, it has been reported.
Several of the passages in the author’s Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries have reportedly been reworked or cut entirely from new editions of the books.
Publisher HarperCollins removed text containing “slurs or references to ethnicity” as well as descriptions of certain characters’ physiques. The Telegraph informed.
Ms. Christie’s works are the latest to undergo a politically correct rewrite. It comes after books by Roald Dahl, Ian Fleming and Enid Blyton were edited for reasons of sensitivity.
Agatha Christie’s novels are the latest works to be rewritten to remove verbiage that has been deemed insensitive or inappropriate, it has been reported. Mrs Christie is pictured in 1950
Several of the passages in the author’s Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries have reportedly been reworked or cut entirely from new editions of the books. Pictured: David Suchet as Hercule Poirot and Toby Jones as Samuel Ratchett in Murder on the Orient Express
The new editions of Ms Christie’s novels, reviewed by the newspaper, showed that the publishers have made “many changes” to her books.
The novels, written between 1920 and 1976, were stripped of sections of “unsympathetic” dialogue, apparent insults, and character descriptions.
For example, the word ‘oriental’ was dropped from his 1937 Death on the Nile mystery, which follows detective Hercule Poirot as he investigates a murder on a luxury liner.
The editor changed the dialogue for the character of Mrs. Allerton, who was complaining about disturbing the children.
The original text read: “They go back and look, and look, and their eyes are just disgusting, just like their noses, and I don’t think I really like children.”
The rewritten version reportedly reads: ‘They go back and watch and watch. And I don’t think I like children very much.
In a Miss Marple novel, the text has been changed from ‘her Indian temper’ to just ‘her temper’ when describing an Indian judge having a fit of rage. Pictured: Joan Hickson as Miss Marple
References to the Nubian people of Egypt have also been from Death on the Nile, which means that a phrase like ‘the Nubian boatman’ is now simply read as ‘the boatman’. Pictured: A scene from the 2020 film adaptation of Death on the Nile
The publisher also removed the n-word from the characters’ dialogue and Ms. Christie’s prose. Pictured: Agatha Christie around 1965
References to the Nubian people of Egypt have also been removed, meaning that a phrase like “the Nubian boatman” is now simply read as “the boatman”.
A servant originally characterized as ‘black’ and ‘smiling’ is no longer identified by race and is instead described as ‘nodding’, according to The Telegraph.
Similar changes were made in the 1964 novel A Caribbean Mystery, which tells the story of detective Miss Marple’s vacation at a resort hotel in the West Indies.
Removed phrases including ‘so lovely white teeth’ and ‘beautiful teeth’, which were used to describe a smiling hotel worker.
The book no longer features text describing a female character with “a black marble torso such as a sculptor would have enjoyed.”
In later works by Miss Marple, the text has been changed from ‘her Indian temper’ to just ‘her temper’ when describing an Indian judge having a fit of rage.
Similar changes were made in the 1964 novel A Caribbean Mystery, which tells the story of detective Miss Marple’s vacation at a resort hotel in the West Indies. Removed phrases including ‘so lovely white teeth’ and ‘beautiful teeth’, which were used to describe a smiling hotel worker. Pictured: Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple in A Caribbean Mystery
‘Natives’ are now described as ‘locals’ and, in Poirot’s 1920 novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, the description of a character being ‘Jewish, of course’ was dropped.
The publisher also removed the n-word from the characters’ dialogue and Ms. Christie’s prose.
Ms. Christie’s novels have been altered in the past. Her 1939 book of hers was retitled And Then There Were None after her original name featured a racist term.
MailOnline has approached HarperCollins and Agatha Christie Limited, the company it understands handles the licensing of its works, for comment.
