![]() 'Dahl was no angel, but this is absurd censorship'Īlthough it's not part of his children's fiction, Dahl was also known for antisemitic comments made in later life, first in an interview and then a published article soon before his death in which he said he had "become an anti-Semite." The Roald Dahl Story Company apologized for this past in 2020, three decades after his death.īritish author Salman Rushdie, who lived in hiding for years because of an Iranian fatwa calling for his death over the 1988 book "The Satanic Verses," said Dahl had been a "self confessed anti-Semite, with pronounced racist leanings, and he joined in the attack on me back in 1989." The alterations come soon after the rights to Dahl's stories were sold to Netflix, with a view to making modern-era renditions of books already tackled by film directors like Steven Spielberg (The BFG) and Tim Burton (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). In a 1983 book, "The Witches," a supernatural woman posing as an ordinary person is said to adopt an appearance that could make her pass for a "top scientist or running a business," rather than a "cashier in a supermarket or typing letters for a businessman." Brown/AFP/Getty ImagesĪnother descriptor removed was "ugly " Mrs. In that, for instance, Augustus Gloop - "the great big greedy nincompoop" and chocolate-addicted young boy - was described not as "enormously fat," but instead as "enormous." The Oompa-Loompas singing that nincompoop line are now gender neutral, as the "Cloud-Men" in "James and the Giant Peach" are now "Cloud-People." Readers will be able to choose between a 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' with an 'enormous' and an 'enormously fat' Augustus Gloop Image: Frederic J. Passages relating to weight, mental health, gender and race were altered in several books such as the 1964 release "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Renowned author Salman Rushdie, the PEN writers' organization, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and even Queen Consort Camilla had appeared to be among those weighing in on softening Dahl's choice of wording in recent days. The Welsh-born author with Norwegian parents, whose first big hit was published in 1961, has sold more than 250 million copies worldwide and inspired numerous TV and film adaptations. The originals would be dubbed the "Roald Dahl Classic Collection" and published individually, Penguin said. "By making both Puffin and Penguin versions available, we are offering readers the choice to decide how they experience Roald Dahl's magical, marvelous stories," Francesca Dow, managing director of Penguin Random House Children's, said. ![]() Publisher Puffin UK announced on Friday that it would publish original Roald Dahl texts unedited under its adult Penguin logo, following a week of criticism over edits it had made to the 20th-century author's children's books.
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