References to weight, gender or racial issues will be removed from the original texts of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” or “Matilda”. These changes do not affect the French versions of these classics of children’s literature.
In Charlie and the chocolate factory, Roald Dahl portrayed characters “lower case” And “no higher than my knee”, they are now only “little ones”. He presented them as “little men”they become “little people”. And Augustus Gloop will be no more “fat” in the description made by the author of books that have become classics of children’s literature, who died in 1990 at the age of 74. So many modifications of the original texts decided by the British publisher Puffin (Penguin Random House group), who made this choice so that these stories “continue to be enjoyed by all children today”.
Exit, therefore, everything that could evoke discrimination related to gender, weight, mental health or even skin color. In the original version of Matilda, the heroine was reading Rudyard Kipling, a man, she is now turning the pages of Jane Austen, a woman. A witch who wanted to go incognito became “supermarket cashier” or typed “letters for a businessman”there she is “top scientist or business executive” in 2023. The “cloud men” of James and the Giant Peach become the “cloud people”.
This rewrite of Roald Dahl’s novels was revealed by the British daily The Telegraph. The review of books was launched at the initiative of his successors in title in 2020, before the takeover in 2021 by Netflix of the catalog of the writer for children. The French editions are not currently concerned, assures the French publisher of Roald Dahl, Gallimard. “We have never modified the texts of Roald Dahl, and to date it is not planned”noted Gallimard Youth. The spokesman for the company that manages the work, the Roald Dahl Company, justifies himself and argues that “when reprinting books written years ago, it is not unusual to review the language used and update other elements like the cover and the layout”, justified
“Absurd censorship”, claims Salman Rushdie
These alterations to the original texts by Roald Dahl provoked strong reactions across the Channel. “Roald Dahl was no angel, it’s absurd censorship”, British writer Salman Rushdie, icon of freedom of expression, was indignant on Twitter, victim of a violent attack six months ago. For Suzanne Nossel, patron of PEN America, an organization of 7,000 writers for freedom of expression, “selective editing to make the words of literature conform to particular sensibilities could represent a dangerous new weapon”. THE Times is also outraged. “The editor should be ashamed of this botched surgery” daily prevails.
The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, himself opposed these changes, believing that the words should be “preserved” rather than “retouched”said his spokesperson on Monday. “If Dalh offends us, let’s not reprint it”launched for his part the writer Philip Pullman, Monday on the BBC.