Roald Dahl

The news that changes have been made to the works of best-selling children's author Roald Dahl has been met with anger from leading writers, ...

While he did not express support for the changes, he told BBC Radio 4's "Today" show on Monday that Dahl's books should be left to "fade away." Following the release of his 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses," the then-Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the his death. When publishing new print runs of books written years ago, it's not unusual to review the language used alongside updating other details including a book's cover and page layout. In a lengthy report published on Saturday, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph revealed that it had found hundreds of changes across the author's many children's books. It has now emerged that current editions of his books, published by Puffin, feature the following wording at the bottom of the copyright page: "Words matter. Fox, Willy Wonka and the Twits.

Famous works including “The Twits” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” have been adjusted.

Twit is simply “beastly” instead of “ugly and beastly,” as Dahl wrote in 1980. This is not the first time Dahl has been embroiled in controversy after his passing. “Those prejudiced remarks are incomprehensible to us and stand in marked contrast to the man we knew and to the values at the heart of Roald Dahl's stories, which have positively impacted young people for generations,” the company wrote on its website. Fox, to make them more inclusive, but some authors and critics have labeled the edits a form of censorship—here’s what to know about the revisions. [tweeted](https://twitter.com/SalmanRushdie/status/1627075835525210113?s=20) Dahl “was no angel but this is absurd censorship,” and said his estate should be “ashamed,” [calling](https://twitter.com/SalmanRushdie/status/1627375615165755392?s=20) those who edited Dahl’s writing “the bowdlerizing Sensitivity Police.” [reported](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/17/roald-dahl-books-rewritten-offensive-matilda-witches-twits/) that “hundreds” of words in Dahl’s books had been changed; the character Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now described as “enormous,” instead of “enormously fat,” as he was in the original 1964 version, and in The Twits, Mrs.

(JNS) One of history's great literary revisionism discussions ensues when Moses and God converse after the Golden Calf fiasco. If God does not forgive the ...

“One of the great gifts literature of the past offers us is the humble reminder that every age and every artist falls prey to blind spots,” said Swallow Prior. “I was emphatic in my communications with the school that I think Dahl’s books should absolutely be read, and the teachers should keep assigning them,” Weingrad told JNS. “The last thing we should be doing in 21st-century America is censoring books based on categories of judgment that were often invented a few years ago,” he added. He figured the principal and teachers were unaware that Roald Dahl Day was celebrating such a “personally vile” writer who was an “open antisemite and general creep.” They were embarrassed when he alerted them, and they stopped celebrating the day. “It’s a part of him, and it’s a part of reading his work, like his awful depictions of race,” she said. Either the work of art passes the test of time, or it does not,” she said. Classical literary works are abridged and translated all the time, “even the Bible,” she told JNS. [Dahl’s books](https://www.jns.org/opinion/no-one-needs-posthumous-apologies-from-an-anti-semitic-writer/), such as “James and the Giant Peach” (1961), “ [Charlie and the Chocolate Factory](https://stljewishlight.org/news/world-news/timothee-chalamet-set-to-play-anti-semite-roald-dahls-most-famous-character/)” (1964), “The BFG” (1982), “The Witches” (1983) and “Matilda” (1988). “We don’t read books to nod and turn the page. “It’s enough to make you wish the people behind this decision suffer the fates of Veruca Salt or Augustus Gloop.” (In Dahl’s book, the former goes down a garbage chute, and the latter is squeezed through a pipe.) It often ages poorly, and healthy cultures are able to grapple with that without sweeping it under the rug, which makes it hard for us to appreciate our progress, because we lose points of reference,” she said. The quality of the writing suffers as a result—and in at least one case, the very moral of the novel changes, too,” said Scalia.

(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Rishi Sunak joined criticism of changes to Roald Dahl's children's books after a series of edits by their publisher led to a ...

In 2020, his family apologized for the author’s antisemitic comments, saying they had caused “lasting and understandable hurt.” “If Dahl offends us, let him go out of print,” Pullman said. Dahl’s estate and Puffin Books asked so-called sensitivity readers — who check for potentially offensive content — to review his works, which remain hugely popular with children in the UK.

Salman Rushdie s'est exprimé après que l'éditeur anglais de Roald Dahl a modifié des passages de Matilda et Charlie et la Chocolaterie relatifs aux ...

Tous les « petits » changements ont été « pesés », a déclaré la firme. [Salman Rushdie](https://www.vanityfair.fr/culture/article/salman-rushdie-revient-sur-agression-new-yorker) fait partie des auteurs et fans de Roald Dahl qui ont réagi à la nouvelle écriture des romans. [L'auteur des Versets sataniques](https://www.vanityfair.fr/culture/article/salman-rushdie-ne-fera-pas-la-promotion-de-son-nouveau-livre-victory-city), visé par une fatwa et agressé le 12 aout 2022 à New York, a notamment déclaré sur Twitter : « Roald Dahl n'était pas un ange mais c'est une censure absurde.

Une photo de Roald Dahl est affichée dans le musée consacré à son oeuvre, à Robin Millard Agence France-Presse Une photo de Roald Dahl est affichée dans le ...

Tous les changements sont « réduits et soigneusement réfléchis », a assuré un porte-parole de la Roald Dahl Story Company. Le créateur de Matilda et du Bon gros géant avait notamment fait des déclarations ouvertement antisémites Ainsi, le terme « gros » n’est plus employé pour décrire Augustis Gloop de Charlie et la chocolaterie. « Lors de nouveaux tirages de livres écrits il y a des années, il n’est pas inhabituel de passer en revue les termes utilisés et de mettre à jour d’autres éléments comme la couverture et la mise en page », a affirmé le porte-parole de la Roald Dahl Story Company, soulignant la volonté de conserver l’histoire, les personnages et « l’irrévérence et l’esprit affûté du texte original ». [a déclaré](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sensitivity-readers-are-twits-to-mess-with-the-magic-of-roald-dahl-zxk928mdz) qu’elle garderait ses éditions originales de Roald Dahl afin que ses enfants puissent « les apprécier dans toute leur gloire méchante et colorée ». Les « hommes-nuages » de James et la pêche géante deviennent le « peuple nuage ».

Des termes jugés offensants seront expurgés et remplacés dans les rééditions de plusieurs livres de l'auteur britannique pour enfants Roald Dahl.

Tous les changements sont « réduits et soigneusement réfléchis », a assuré un porte-parole de la Roald Dahl Story company. Fin 2020, sa famille avait présenté des excuses pour les propos antisémites tenus par l’auteur il y a 40 ans. Ainsi, le terme « gros » ne sera plus employé pour décrire Augustis Gloop de Charlie et la Chocolaterie.

Fini les adjectifs «gros», «blanc» ou «noir»: la nouvelle édition britannique des romans pour la jeunesse de Roald.

«Nous voulons nous assurer que les merveilleux personnages et histoires de Roald Dahl puissent être encore aujourd’hui appréciés par tous», a déclaré un porte-parole. Des suppressions ou reformulations approuvées par la Roald Dahl Story Company, qui gère les droits de l’écrivain. C’est à un vrai lifting qu’a été soumis le cultissime roman de Roald Dahl (1916-1990), tout comme Mathilda, Sacrées Sorcières ou encore Les Deux Gredins.

Children's books implicitly shape the minds of young readers - and are covertly censored in many ways. But revising occasional words will usually not shift ...

Most notably, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) was partially rewritten by Dahl in 1973 after [pressure from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People](https://daily.jstor.org/roald-dahls-anti-black-racism/) and children’s literature professionals. Librarians and teachers may select, or refuse to select, books because of the potential for complaint, or because of their own political beliefs. It also enables discussion of topics such as racism and sexism with parents and educators, more easily achieved if the original language remains intact. This option works as a covert form of censorship, given the power adults hold over what books children can access. [The Family Shakespeare](https://archive.org/details/familyshakespear00shakuoft) was published in 1807 and contained 20 of the author’s plays. Third, we can allow children to read any version of a book, original or bowdlerised. Children’s literature implicitly shapes the minds of child readers by presenting particular social and cultural values as normal and natural. [Was the Cat in the Hat Black? In Matilda, the protagonist no longer reads the works of Rudyard Kipling but Jane Austen. For instance, Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is no longer “fat” but “enormous”. which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family”, specifically in front of women and children. Mrs Twit, from The Twits, has become “beastly” rather than “ugly and beastly”.

L'éditeur anglais Puffin publie une version réécrite de l'œuvre de l'auteur de «Charlie et la chocolaterie». L'objectif? Éviter de choquer.

[les livres jeunesse](https://www.slate.fr/dossier/35531/litterature-jeunesse) auront été ainsi expurgés? [que certains ne les comprennent pas](https://www.slate.fr/story/216129/enfants-comprennent-pas-ironie-sarcasme-communication) ou en seront offensés, c'est condamner cette génération au malheur de rester engluée dans sa condition misérable d'albatros [que ses ailes de géant empêchent de marcher](https://www.poetica.fr/poeme-127/charles-baudelaire-albatros/). Pour ces enfants-là, [la lecture](https://www.slate.fr/dossier/143/lecture) est une échappatoire précieuse, une sortie de secours. [les mots](https://www.slate.fr/dossier/4649/mots) d'une réalité sans fard dans la littérature qui leur est accessible permet de qualifier leur propre malheur, de donner un sens à leurs ressentis, de comprendre que si la vie, la vraie, est parfois intolérable, ils ne sont pas seuls et on peut, grâce à la littérature, y échapper, mais à la seule condition de cesser de prétendre que la cruauté du monde n'existe pas. [la littérature](https://www.slate.fr/dossier/557/litterature). [jeunesse](https://www.slate.fr/dossier/343/jeunesse): vouloir gommer, effacer, lisser des récits parce qu'ils décrivent une réalité qui ne serait pas idéale porte un très grave préjudice aux trop nombreux enfants pour qui la littérature est un des rares moyens de donner un sens à une vie difficile. [Matilda](https://www.gallimard-jeunesse.fr/9782070601585/matilda.html), une référence à [Joseph Conrad](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Conrad) a laissé la place à une autre à [Jane Austen](https://www.slate.fr/dossier/14845/jane-austen) (une femme, et donc bien plus politiquement correcte), et [Rudyard Kipling](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling) (épouvantable promoteur des colonies britanniques) a été remplacé par [John Steinbeck](https://www.slate.fr/culture/66815/steinbeck-nobel-litterature-anouilh-archives) (chantre des opprimés). On n'ose l'imputer à de l'incompétence, il ne reste donc que la raison de l'idéologie: [les éditions Puffin](https://actualitte.com/article/110356/edition/shocking-reecrire-roald-dahl-pour-le-rendre-appreciable-par-tous) ont décidé que les textes de Roald Dahl ne se rangeaient pas suffisamment dans le camp du bien pour être publiés tels quels. Tous les [écrivains](https://www.slate.fr/dossier/10109/ecrivains) choisissent et pèsent leurs mots. [L'école](https://www.slate.fr/dossier/6487/ecole) est gratuite et obligatoire. Ces nouvelles versions ont été passées à la moulinette de [sensitivity readers, ou lecteurs ès-offenses](https://www.slate.fr/story/143567/pardon-pour-mon-roman). Charlie et la Chocolaterie, Matilda, [Sacrées sorcières](https://www.gallimard-jeunesse.fr/9782070601592/sacrees-sorcieres.html), James et la grosse pêche: des générations d' [enfants](https://www.slate.fr/dossier/4877/enfants) ont connu la joie de ces récits drôles, imagés et fantaisistes, plein de personnages improbables, attachants ou répugnants.

Books by Roald Dahl are being edited to remove words that could be deemed offensive. Dahl wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James and the ...

The Ronald Dahl Story Company Rushdie was stabbed in August and [lost vision in one eye and has nerve damage](https://www.npr.org/2023/02/07/1155111717/salman-rushdie-victory-city). [that have been translated into 68 languages](https://www.roalddahl.com/about/). The company said it worked with Inclusive Minds, an organization that works for inclusivity in children's books. Instead he is described as "enormous," The Telegraph reports. In his 1983 book The Witches, he writes that witches are bald beneath their wigs.

Les dernières éditions en anglais des livres de l'auteur britannique pour enfants Roald Dahl ont été modifiées pour supprimer les passages risquant d'être ...

Dahl a réécrit les personnages à la fin des années 1960 pour les "dé-négroser", selon ses propres termes. Puffin Books et les ayants droit de Roald Dahl devraient avoir honte". Dans "Un amour de tortue", où "les tortues sont des créatures très arriérées. [Walt Disney - AFP]Dans "Le Bon Gros Géant", plus question d'imprimer la phrase "Aucun géant ne mange de Grecs, jamais. Dans "Sacrées Sorcières", "a flock of ladies" (une nuée/un troupeau de femmes) est remplacé par un "group" (groupe). Ce livre ayant été écrit il y a de nombreuses années, nous révisons régulièrement la langue pour nous assurer qu'elle peut continuer à être apprécié par tout le monde aujourd'hui": telle est la discrète notice qui figure au bas de la page de copyright des dernières éditions des livres de Roald Dahl sorties en langue originale chez l'éditeur britannique Puffin Books.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak author Salman Rushdie and more have joined in the criticism of changes to books by Roald Dahl for language deemed offensive.

[Salman Rushdie](https://deadline.com/tag/salman-rushdie/). “Read all these [other] wonderful authors who are writing today, who don’t get as much of a look-in because of the massive commercial gravity of people like Roald Dahl.” [told](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64702224) local media, “When it comes to our rich and varied literary heritage, the prime minister agrees with the BFG that we shouldn’t gobblefunk around with words. [PEN America](https://deadline.com/tag/pen-america/) CEO Suzanne Nossel joined the chorus saying “we are alarmed at news of ‘hundreds of changes’ to venerated works by Roald Dahl.” We have always defended the right to free speech and expression.” Titles like James and the Giant Peach, The BFG, Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory have been altered by modifying words that are now deemed offensive.

Photo: Andrew Burton Archives Associated Press La réécriture effectuée par l'éditeur anglais de Roald Dahl soulève la polémique. Sur la photo, des oeuvres ...

« Un truc fou » est devenu « un truc bizarre ». Roald Dahl (1916-1990) a commencé à être traduit en français dans les années 1960. Un personnage « énormément gros » est devenu « énorme ».

Publishers Puffin have made hundreds of changes to characters and language in Dahl's stories for children, including making the diminutive Oompa-Loompas in ...

“This rewrite only concerns Britain,” a spokesperson for the French publishers Gallimard said. In France, the translator and commentator Bérengère Viennot wrote on the Slate.fr website that “a rewritten Roald Dahl novel is no longer a Roald Dahl novel”. [Rishi Sunak](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/20/roald-dahl-books-editing-philip-pullman), all weighing in on the debate.

L'éditeur français de Roald Dahl, Gallimard, a indiqué mardi qu'il comptait laisser intacts les textes des livres jeunesse de cet auteur britannique, ...

« Un truc fou » est devenu « un truc bizarre ». Roald Dahl (1916-1990) a commencé à être traduit en français dans les années 1960. Un personnage « énormément gros » est devenu « énorme ».

The changes in the new editions of Dahl's classic works are meant to make the texts more inclusive, says a spokesperson from Roald Dahl Story Company.

More than 300 million copies of his books have been sold, according to the Roald Dahl Story Company, which was acquired by Netflix in 2021. Speaking with the BBC World Service, British poet and author Debjani Chatterjee said it’s a “very good thing” that publishers are reviewing Dahl’s work. The emailed statement added the review process was done in partnership with Inclusive Minds, “a collective for people who are passionate about inclusion and accessibility in children's literature.” “We want to ensure that Roald Dahl’s wonderful stories and characters continue to be enjoyed by all children today,” the statement read. A self-avowed antisemite, Dahl “I think it's been done quite sensitively,” she said. Canadian MP Anthony Housefather also waded into the debate, tweeting Monday: “As a child, I loved the Roald Dahl books. If anything, I actually think 'enormous' is even funnier.” We cannot go back and apply today’s standards to classic literature. References to characters’ races, genders and physical appearances, in particular, were heavily edited. In a statement to the Toronto Star, a spokesperson for the Roald Dahl Story Company, which manages Dahl’s trademarks and copyrights, said the changes have been “small and carefully considered.” In “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” for instance, the Oompa-Loompas are no longer “small men” but rather “small people,” according to The Telegraph, while the word “fat” has also been removed from every book.

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Rewriting history to make Roald Dahl into a nice person he wasn’t is over-generous to Dahl and insufficiently so to readers of all ages. And more generally, assigned reading (as in, you demonstrate comprehension of this book or you don’t graduate) is different from available reading (as in, it’s in the school library). No, the point is not that everyone must have the worst of the written word metaphorically shoved down their throat at every opportunity, but rather that books are testaments to the truth of human experience. Books contain the range of human experience, including the uplifting, the curious, and so on. Also complicated: Yes, people are products of their time, and the range of acceptable opinion differs according to era. A Nazi text being analyzed in a class on the horrors of the Holocaust is different from a Nazi propaganda novel being suggested as beach reading.

The celebrated children's book author was the mastermind behind bestsellers such as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "James and the Giant Peach," "Matilda" ...

The language within Dahl's works were reviewed in partnership with publisher Puffin Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and Inclusive Minds, a collective with a mission to make children's literature more inclusive, diverse and accessible. You start out wanting to replace a word here and a word there, and end up inserting entirely new ideas (as has been done to Dahl's work)." Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed."

Les nouvelles éditions de certains livres pour enfants de Roald Dahl seront réécrites dans le but de remplacer certains mots jugés offensants.

[Salman Rushdie](https://leclaireur.fnac.com/article/238683-six-mois-apres-son-agression-salman-rushdie-publie-le-roman-victory-city/), figure de la liberté d’expression a notamment réagi sur Twitter : « Roald Dahl n’était pas un ange, mais la censure de ses œuvres est absurde ». L’entreprise assure que ces changements ne modifieront pas l’histoire et les personnages d’œuvres comme [James et la pêche géante ](https://www.fnac.com/a9710641/Roald-Dahl-James-et-la-grosse-peche?Origin=leclaireur#int=S:NonApplicable%7CNonApplicable%7CNonApplicable%7C9710641%7CNonApplicable%7CL1)(1961, Gallimard) ou [Charlie et la chocolaterie](https://www.fnac.com/a9710637/Roald-Dahl-Charlie-et-la-chocolaterie?Origin=leclaireur#int=S:NonApplicable%7CNonApplicable%7CNonApplicable%7C9710637%7CNonApplicable%7CL1) (1964, Gallimard). [ Roald Dahl](https://www.fnac.com/Roald-Dahl/ia6144?Origin=leclaireur).

Alors que la polémique sur les modifications des textes de Roald Dahl agite le Royaume-Uni et toute la communauté littéraire, notre journaliste, ...

Code promo Amazon Comme s’il lisait par-dessus mon épaule, l’auteur de ce mail avait usurpé le nom de Roald Dahl (1916 – 1990). Avec mon chat sur les genoux, ma pipe à la bouche et mon feutre rouge, j’étais en train de

Changes made to Roald Dahl's books have sparked a debate about the nature of censorship, and what to do about problematic authors.

It should be noted that the sensitivity purge to Dahl’s works was not made in response to a campaign demanding a kinder, gentler Roald Dahl. After all, there is no danger in allowing old stories to age badly; new stories that reflect progressive values and subvert harmful tropes are being born all the time; today’s cosmic horror is imbued with the existential dread of H.P. If publishers are going to smooth over all the rough edges of classic stories, we might as well leave fiction writing to the AI sludgebots, and be done with it. In a 1973 revision of the book, Dahl rewrote the Oompa-Loompas as fantastical creatures, akin to pixies or dwarves. A ban on the word ‘fat’ yet keeping in the rest of the description in which Augustus Gloop is clearly fat.” Nothing was lost in this change, aside from a racist caricature, although it’s notable that Dahl himself chose to make the edit. When rereading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it's obvious that there’s something wrong with Willy Wonka; he seems to be deliberately pushing these children into temptation, for his own amusement. Some of the word changes, however, don’t seem to make much sense at all. A content warning at the beginning of Dahl’s books would surely suffice, as it does for offensive Disney cartoons; if children are old enough to read and enjoy Dahl’s stories, they’re old enough to understand context. Dahl’s fixation with punishing the children in his story for the crimes of “chewing gum,” being “fat” and “watching TV” are incredibly revealing, not just about Dahl’s personal pathologies, but about the cold, merciless environment he grew up in. The words “black” and “white” have been removed; the BFG no longer wears a black cloak, for some reason, and characters no longer turn “white with fear,” [acquired the literary estate in 2021](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/inside-netflix-roald-dahl-deal-1235018948/) for a reported $1 billion, and plan to use Dahl’s stories as a launchpad for “the creation of a unique universe across animated and live-action films and TV, publishing, games, immersive experiences, live theater, consumer products and more.”

Le quotidien britannique <em>Daily Telegraph</em> avait révélé vendredi que les ayants droit avaient entrepris de lisser le langage de tous les romans pour ...

Or, l’esprit de Roald Dahl est un peu ironique, très vif». «Un truc fou» est devenu «un truc bizarre». Ils souhaitent respecter la culture de chaque pays», a-t-elle déclaré au quotidien Le Figaro. «La Roald Dahl Company a reconnu avoir travaillé pour le marché anglais. L’hebdomadaire culturel Télérama a pointé du doigt le «risque d’effacer au passage la bienveillante irrévérence» de l’auteur à l’humour décapant. Un personnage «énormément gros» est devenu «énorme».

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has declared Roald Dahl's work needs to be "preserved" instead of "airbrushed" as he weighed in on the censorship row erupting ...