Now ALL new editions of PG Wodehouse’s novels are getting a global trigger warning from publishers over concerns they contain “outdated language, themes or characterizations”
- Penguin claims the deletions ‘do not affect the story’
Publishers have given PG Wodehouse’s works a blanket trigger warning over concerns that it contains “outdated” social views.
Novels, including Leave it to PSmith and Something Fresh, have both been republished by their publisher, Penguin, with caution, despite neither being flagged as potentially offensive or containing racist terminology.
Any news releases of Wodehouse’s work will come with warnings saying that his novels depict outdated attitudes, the Telegraph reported.
Penguin’s trigger warning read: “Please note that this book was published in the 1920s and may contain language, themes, or characterizations that you may consider outdated.”
The move comes after publishers rewrote Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster books in April to remove “unacceptable” prose.
Publishers rewrote Wodehouse’s (pictured) Jeeves and Wooster books to remove ‘unacceptable’ prose, in April
Novels including Right Ho, Jeeves have both been modified by Penguin
In a note in the reissue of Thank You, Jeeves explained that publishers “tried, at a minimum, to edit words that we consider unacceptable to contemporary readers.”
The warning adds that the changes “do not affect the story” of the novel, the first full-length work starring Jeeves and Wooster, who were played by Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry in a 1990s ITV adaptation.
Changes were also made to last year’s edition of Right Ho, Jeeves, which also includes a warning.
The 1934 book used a racial term to describe an “old school minstrel.”
Wodehouse isn’t the only author whose books have been purged of language that might offend modern readers, novels by both Agatha Christie and Ian Fleming have also been reissued.
Racist terminology was taken out of Fleming’s work, while Christie’s work was changed more drastically.
An entire passage in Christie’s Dead on the Nile, which describes how a British tourist expressed her frustration at a group of children, was removed during a recent issue.