Just weeks after the announcement that the novels of Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming were to be partially rewritten to take into account 2020s sensitivities, the editor's pen has now been turned on the works of Agatha Christie.
A number of the Queen of Crime's novels have been rewritten for modern audiences to remove terms perceived as racist and to amend potentially contentious passages of text. Stories featuring the author's most famous characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, have been altered, with certain passages rewritten or in some cases completely removed in newly issued reprints published by HarperCollins.
According to articles in The Independent and The Telegraph, the rewrites began in 2020 and will continue in forthcoming re-issues. The quote publishing house insiders as saying the author's works were reworded after consultations with so-called "sensitivity readers". Numerous changes have reportedly been made to books written by Christie between 1920 and 1976, altering any passages containing references to ethnicity, be they insults or descriptions.
The Independent reported that some vocabulary had also been changed. The term “Oriental”, for example, has gone, along with other "racial" labels in any cases. In the 1937 Poirot novel Death on the Nile, a passage describing a black servant as grinning as he understood the need to remain silent about an incident, describes him neither as black nor smiling. Instead, he simply nods.
In the latest reprint of the Miss Marple novel A Caribbean Mystery (1964), the book's narrator notices a West Indian character’s “lovely white teeth”. This has been removed, as is any reference to “beautiful teeth”. Also removed is a mention in the mystery story describing a female character as having “a torse of black marble such as a sculptor would have enjoyed”. A passage in which a character fails to see a Black woman in the bushes at night has also been removed.
The N-word has also been cut, both in cases of Christie’s prose and the dialogue spoken by her characters, the Independent's article continues. "In Death on the Nile (1937), references to the Nubian people have been cut, with 'the Nubian boatman' now referred to as 'the boatman'.
Christie’s debut novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) has been amended, removing Poirot’s comment that another character is “a Jew, of course”. And a young female described as being “of gypsy type” now only enjoys the label “young woman”.
The 1979 short story collection Miss Marple’s Final Cases and Two Other Stories, contained a reference to an angry judge with an “Indian temper”. This has been amended to read simply “his temper”.
The word “native” has either gone altogether or has been replaced with the word “local”.
Agatha Christie’s books have been altered in the past. Her 1939 novel And Then There Were None was originally released under a title that included a racist term.
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Agatha Christie Ltd, the company run by the writer’s great-grandson James Prichard which is understood to handle licensing for her literary and film rights, and HarperCollins, have been approached for comment but have so far not responded.
In February, it was reported that Roald Dahl’s books were being rewritten to remove language considered offensive. However, the publisher, Puffin UK, was forced to back down on its censorship following the intervention of The Queen Consort. Shortly afterwards, news emerged that Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels were also being reworked, with racial references and racist language either amended or cut following a "sensitivity review" similar to that adopted for the Christie books.
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