Agatha Christie becomes latest author revised by sensitivity readers: Report
Heather Hunter
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Best-selling author Agatha Christie’s books have reportedly become the latest target of sensitivity readers reworking or removing original passages in new editions of Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries published by HarperCollins.
These novels were written between 1920 and 1976, and now, it is reported that the revised editions are being stripped of certain language and descriptions that are deemed offensive.
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Some examples of the reported revisions include erasing references to people smiling and descriptions of their teeth and physiques and insults or references to ethnicity, such as “Oriental,” per the Telegraph.
HarperCollins did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for confirmation and comment.
Dialogue by “unsympathetic characters” has also reportedly been cut out.
The sensitivity readers are said to have edited down dialogue from Christie’s character Mrs. Allerton from the 1937 Poirot novel Death on the Nile. In the text, she criticized a group of annoying children, saying, “their eyes are simply disgusting, and so are their noses.” The new version reportedly removes this description.
“The Nubian boatman” is now just “the boatman” in the same novel.
The 1964 Miss Marple novel A Caribbean Mystery had a few revisions as well, with the new edition missing the description of a West Indian hotel worker as having “such lovely white teeth.” A reference to a female character having “a torso of black marble such as a sculptor would have enjoyed” was also done away with. A racial slur used against individuals with black or brown skin was further removed from the book.
In her 1920 debut novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, the Poirot’s comment about another character being “a Jew, of course” has additionally been cut. In the same book, all references to gypsies have been deleted.
As for her book Miss Marple’s Final Cases and Two Other Stories, the new edition changes the description of an angry character from “his Indian temper” to just “his temper.”
“Natives” has also reportedly been replaced with the word “local.”
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The revisions to Christie’s original work in new editions come as the book publishing industry has increasingly made revisions to classic works in the name of inclusivity to attempt to accommodate modern sensitivities.
Roald Dahl, Ian Fleming, and R.L. Stine were among a few authors who’ve seen their work revised by book publishers.