The French translations of Agatha Christie’s novels are revised “to omit the terms and expressions seen as offensive or referring to the bodies or origins of the characters, and to bring them into line with other international editions,” the spokesperson to Masque, the publisher of Christie’s novels in French, told Agence France Press (AFP).
“The French translations of Agatha Christie's work are subject to the usual revisions and over the years have incorporated the corrections requested by [Agatha Christie Limited] to bring them into line with the other international editions,” stated Masque, a subsidiary of Hachette publishing.
The Telegraph reported, late May, that several paragraphs from the novels that explore “the investigations of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple released between 1920 and 1976 have been reformulated after a revision by a specialized board.”
The changes and omissions requested by the publisher include descriptions of some characters.
Among these paragraphs are one from the novel ‘Death on the Nile’, in which Mrs. Allerton complains from a group of kids and mock their noses, and another from the novel ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’, in which Hercule Poirot refers to “another Jewish character of course”.
In 2020, the title of the ‘Dix Petits Nègres’, one of the world’s best-selling novels, was replaced with ‘Ils Etaient Dix’ (They Were Ten).
Recent changes to Roald Dahl’s books have angered the UK. All references to weight, mental health, violence, and racism have been omitted from his works.
