Novels by the “Queen of Crime” Agatha Christie are the latest classic works to be revised to remove racist references and other language considered offensive to modern audiences.

According to the UK’s The Telegraph newspaper, publisher HarperCollins has edited some passages and entirely removed others from its new digital editions of some of Christie’s detective mysteries featuring Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

The amendments to the books, published between 1920 and 1976, the year of Christie’s death, include changes to the narrator’s inner monologue.

Several Agatha Christie novels have been edited.
Several Agatha Christie novels have been edited after undergoing a sensitivity reading process. (Adobe Stock)

For example, Poirot’s description of another character as “a Jew, of course” in Christie’s debut novel, “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” has been stripped out of the new version.

Throughout the revised version of the short story collection “Miss Marple’s Final Cases and Two Other Stories,” the word “native” has been replaced with “local,” The Telegraph reports.

A passage describing a servant as “black” and “grinning” has been revised and the character is now simply referred to as “nodding,” with no reference to his race.

And in the 1937 novel “Death on the Nile,” references to “Nubian people” have been removed throughout.

The Telegraph reports that HarperCollins released some of the reissues in 2020, with more set to be unveiled.

Agatha Christie signs copies of her books in around 1950.
Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries written between 1920 and 1976 have had passages reworked or removed (Hulton Archive / Getty Images)

The changes to Dahl’s books divided fans of works including “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “James and the Giant Peach,” with some arguing that rewriting classic literature is a form of censorship.

Publisher Puffin responded to the controversy by announcing that it would release two versions – one amended and one classic – to give readers “the choice to decide how they experience Roald Dahl’s magical, marvellous stories.”

The worst accident in the history of American nuclear power

Sign up here to receive our daily newsletters and breaking news alerts, sent straight to your inbox.
You May Also Like

Inside Trump's defiant response to the markets' tariff meltdown

President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs are facing blowback from all corners…

'Pro-Palestinian' Activists Take Over McGill University in Montreal

It’s not an accident that the latest campus uprising is happening…

All the Ukrainian Known Knowns

Aside from the rhetoric, there is a growing consensus among Western…

South Carolina has chance for March Madness repeat after rout of Texas

TAMPA, Fla. — Joyce Edwards fed Tessa Johnson who pulled up for…