The Agatha Christie novels are the latest works to be rewritten to eliminate vocabulary that has been deemed insensitive or inappropriate, it has emerged.
Several passages in the author’s Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries have reportedly been reworked or removed altogether from new editions of the books.
Publisher HarperCollins removed text containing “insults or references to ethnicity,” as well as descriptions of certain characters’ physiques. The Telegraph reported.
Mrs. Christie’s works are the last to be politically correct rewritten. It comes after books by Roald Dahl, Ian Fleming and Enid Blyton were edited due to sensitivity issues.
The Agatha Christie novels are the latest works to be rewritten to eliminate vocabulary that has been deemed insensitive or inappropriate, it has emerged. Mrs. Christie is pictured in 1950
Several passages in the author’s Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries have reportedly been reworked or removed altogether from new editions of the books. Pictured: David Suchet as Hercule Poirot and Toby Jones as Samuel Ratchett in Murder on the Orient Express
New editions of Mrs. Christie’s novels reviewed by the newspaper showed that editors made “dozens of changes” to her books.
The novels, written between 1920 and 1976, were stripped of parts of “unsympathetic” dialogue, apparent insults, and character descriptions.
For example, the word “Oriental” was removed from her 1937 mystery Death on the Nile, which follows Detective Hercule Poirot as he investigates a murder on a luxury cruise.
The publisher changed the character dialogue of Mrs. Allerton, who complained about harassing children.
The original lyrics read, “They come back and stare and stare, and their eyes are just disgusting, as is their nose, and I don’t think I really like children.”
The rewritten version reportedly reads, “They come back and stare and stare. And I don’t think I really like children.’
In a Miss Marple novel, the lyrics are changed from “his Indian temper” to just “his temper” when describing an Indian judge undergoing a fit of rage. Pictured: Joan Hickson as Miss Marple
References to the Nubian people of Egypt also originate from Death on the Nile, meaning that formulations such as “the Nubian skipper” are now simply “the skipper.” Pictured: A scene from the 2020 film adaptation of Death on the Nile
The publisher also cut the n-word from Ms. Christie’s character dialogue and prose. Pictured: Agatha Christie circa 1965
References to the Nubian people of Egypt have also been removed, meaning that phrases such as “the Nubian skipper” are now simply “the skipper.”
A servant originally characterized as “black” and “grinning” is no longer identified by his race, according to The Telegraph, and is instead described as “nodding.”
Similar changes were made to the 1964 novel A Caribbean Mystery, which tells the story of Detective Miss Marple’s vacation at a resort hotel in the West Indies.
Phrases such as “such beautiful white teeth” and “beautiful teeth,” which were used to describe a smiling hotel employee, have been removed.
The book also no longer contains text describing a female character as having “a torso of black marble such as a sculptor would have enjoyed.”
In later works by Miss Marple, the lyrics have been changed from “his Indian temper” to simply “his temper” when describing an Indian judge character undergoing a fit of rage.
Similar changes were made to the 1964 novel A Caribbean Mystery, which tells the story of Detective Miss Marple’s vacation at a resort hotel in the West Indies. Phrases such as “such beautiful white teeth” and “beautiful teeth,” which were used to describe a smiling hotel employee, have been removed. Pictured: Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple in A Caribbean Mystery
‘Natives’ are now described as ‘locals’ and in the 1920 Poirot novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, the description of a character who is ‘of course a Jew’ has been removed.
The publisher also cut the n-word from Ms. Christie’s character dialogue and prose.
Mrs. Christie’s novels have been modified in the past. Her 1939 book was retitled And Then There Were None after the original name contained a racist term.
MailOnline has reached out to HarperCollins and Agatha Christie Limited, the company that handles the licensing of her works, for comment.