Dahl has received criticism for anti-Semitic comments and his use of racial and sexual stereotypes. Reviewing Australian author Tony Clifton's God Cried, a picture book about the siege of West Beirut during the 1982 Lebanon War, Dahl used several antisemitic tropes, including claiming that the United States was "dominated by Jewish financial institutions". Following Dahl's death in 1990, multiple works of his were examined further, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, and Dahl's short story collection Switch Bitch. Dahl's comments received renewed attention in the years leading up to the controversy, with his family issuing an apology for his comments in 2020.
During his lifetime Dahl had enjoined his publishers not to "so much as change a single comma in one of my books",[1] but on 19 February 2023 Puffin Books announced it had hired sensitivity readers over the span of three years to assess Dahl's works, rereleasing his work with multiple changes regarding Dahl's depiction of race, sex, and character. A report from British newspaper The Telegraph determined that Puffin Books altered hundreds of passages in Dahl's work, including in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox, and The Witches. Facing backlash from readers and authors, on 23 February Puffin Books announced that Dahl's original publications would be released alongside the expurgated versions as "The Roald Dahl Classic Collection", but did not retract the revisions.
Various authors, politicians, and organisations have provided commentary on the controversy. In the following month it was announced that the works of Enid Blyton (author of The Famous Five) and Ian Fleming (author of James Bond) would be expurgated as well, and it was revealed that R. L. Stine's Goosebumps had already been expurgated, without the author's knowledge or consent.
Background
"They killed 22,000 civilians when they bombed Beirut. It was very much hushed up in the newspapers because they are primarily Jewish-owned. I'm certainly anti-Israeli and I've become antisemitic in as much as that you get a Jewish person in another country like England strongly supporting Zionism. I think they should see both sides. It's the same old thing: we all know about Jews and the rest of it. There aren't any non-Jewish publishers anywhere, they control the media—jolly clever thing to do—that's why the president of the United States has to sell all this stuff to Israel."
– Roald Dahl in an interview with The Independent[2]
Roald Dahl was a British author of children's literature. Dahl's works are published by Puffin Books, the children's imprint of the British publisher Penguin Books, while the rights to his works are managed by the Roald Dahl Story Company.[3] In September 2021, streaming service Netflix acquired the Roald Dahl Story Company.[4]
Dahl's comments and writing have received criticism. In the August 1983 issue of the Literary Review, a review by Dahl of Tony Clifton's God Cried appears, in which he writes that the United States is "so utterly dominated by the great Jewish financial institutions" and asks, "must Israel, like Germany, be brought to her knees before she learns how to behave in this world?"[2] In a 1990 interview with The Independent, Dahl said that he'd become antisemitic, "in as much as that you get a Jewish person in another country like England strongly supporting Zionism".[5]
Characters in Dahl's works have been criticised for perceived racist and sexist stereotypes. In 1972, children's book author Eleanor Cameron compared the Oompa-Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to African slaves in an article for The Horn Book Magazine.[6] These statements were echoed further following Dahl's death in 1990, with book critic Michael Dirda accusing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches of racism and misogyny, respectively, in an article for The Washington Post.[7] In the Jewish-American and feminist publication Lilith, Michele Landsberg argued that "evil, domineering, smelly, fat, ugly women are [Dahl's] favorite villains".[8] Dahl's short story collection Switch Bitch was criticised for its crude and disturbing themes.[9] In 1973, Dahl rewrote Oompa-Loompas, making them white in skin colour.[10] In 2020, Dahl's family apologised for his antisemitic comments.[11]
Revisions
On 19 February 2023, Puffin Books announced that it would be altering the language used in many of Dahl's books to expurgate what they deemed derogatory words and passages. The process took approximately three years, and was conducted in association with Inclusive Minds, a collective that promotes accessibility and inclusivity.[12] A report from British newspaper The Telegraph found hundreds of removed or altered words and passages.[13]
Some changes focused on race and ethnicity. Numerous changes were made to the use of colour descriptions, whether in reference to skin colour (a character having a face "white with horror", becoming "agog with horror") or otherwise (a person saying something "darkly", which is changed to "mysteriously").
References to other countries, regions, and ethnicities were sometimes removed or significantly altered, as were references to cultural practices, culturally-tied words, and indigenous lifestyles. For example, a character "hopping about like a dervish" in Fantastic Mr Fox became "like a frog".
Other changes focused on sex and gender. The word queer (in the sense of "strange") was regularly removed, and most references to "men and women", "boys and girls", "mothers and fathers", and similar were replaced with equivalent gender-neutral words and phrases such as "parents" or "siblings". Similarly, masculine pronouns were changed in certain general circumstances, such as the plan in The Witches to catch "the catspringer in his burrow" becoming "its burrow". In some cases, references to gender were changed, including changing the character of "Small Fox" in Fantastic Mr Fox from male to female.
References to roles traditionally associated with men or women were often altered, and some insults directed at women were often softened (such as "ugly old cow" becoming "ghastly old shrew" in The Twits). The stereotype of female shrillness was sometimes obscured. References to behavioral differences between men and women were also removed or altered, including the removal of some dialogue in The BFG about girls' and boys' dreams ("If I is giving a girl's dream to a boy, even if it was a really whoppsy girl's dream, the boy would be waking up and thinking what a rotbungling grinksludging old dream that was.")
Other changes focused on appearance and disabilities. Many references to people, especially women, being physically attractive or unattractive were removed. The word fat was regularly removed, being replaced with terms such as enormous or large, as were references to short height and similar descriptions. References to characters being old was sometimes altered or removed.
The words crazy and mad, along with similar words, were regularly removed, as were some descriptions of low intelligence and mental disorders, such as removing a line from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory about a character being "shut up in some disgusting sanatorium". References to physical deformity or disability, including deafness, were also commonly removed or altered.
References to lack of privilege were sometimes altered, such as removing a description of Sophie as "a little orphan of no real importance in the world" from The BFG.
References to poor personal hygiene were often removed, as were some references to drinking alcohol and smoking were also changed. In Fantastic Mr Fox, Small Fox sniffs a bottle of cider rather than taking a sip, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's Oompa Loompas are no longer described as "drunk as lords" on butterscotch and soda.
Other changes focused on violence. Comic references to violence were sometimes removed, and references to corporal punishment were changed. Mentions of deadly weapons such as guns and knives were often removed.
References to slaves and prisoners were removed, and certain references to death were removed.
Other changes focused on words that in British English usage have taken on more vulgar associations, such as horny and fanny.
Some changes removed whole lines or passages, while others replaced them with entirely new text. The centipede's songs in James and the Giant Peach that contrasted the "tremendously flabby" Aunt Sponge with the "thin as a wire" Aunt Spiker were changed to a more general lyrics about both characters being "nasty" and "frightful". Willy Wonka's anecdote about having tried Hair Toffee on an Oompa-Loompa in the Testing Room ("and immediately a huge black beard started shooting out of his chin") was changed to Wonka testing the sweet personally.
Editions
Following the announcement, e-book copies of Dahl's works were automatically updated.[14][15]
Dahl's publishers in the United States, France, and the Netherlands announced they had declined to incorporate the changes altogether.[16]
On 23 February, Puffin Books announced The Roald Dahl Classic Collection, consisting of Dahl's original texts. The expurgated versions will continue to be sold.[17]
Puffin Books' use of sensitivity readers to determine potentially offensive words or phrases renewed criticism of sensitivity readers as a whole; the use of sensitivity readers in the industry has increased following the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
American author Joyce Carol Oates wrote of the revisions, "One imagines unpaid interns gleefully censoring prose by renowned/no longer living writers. 'There, take that! See how it feels.'"[18]
British poet Kate Clanchy, whose own work was edited by sensitivity readers, wrote an essay in The Times in response to Puffin Books' revisions to Dahl, criticising sensitivity readers:[19]
After my Orwell Prize-winning memoir Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me became embroiled in a Twitter storm, my publishers sought to solve the problem by sending the book to sensitivity readers. I was quite happy to do this, I thought it would help. […] One of my sensitivity readers told me that I should remove all mentions of terrorism and violence as it was "too heavy a topic with minors involved". […] I think these young people would also have agreed terrorism was "too heavy a topic" for them. Nevertheless, it happened in their lives and could not be clipped away from their experience like a sentence. I wanted my readers to understand that, even if it did discomfort them, because it was the truth, and I didn't want to change it even if it did mean losing my books.[20]
Reaction
Readers
Many readers and fans expressed outrage at the idea that an author's words would be changed after death, or dismay at revisions. The backlash was so strong Puffin Books announced a few days later it would continue to publish the older versions of the books alongside the revised editions.[21][22][23][24]
Authors
The revisions were met with sharp criticism from numerous authors and literary groups. British-American novelist Salman Rushdie criticised the rewrites in a tweet, writing, "Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship. Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed."[25][16][26][27]Suzanne Nossel, the CEO of PEN America, spoke on behalf of the organisation to condemn Puffin Books' changes.[16][26][28] In an interview with Newsnight, author Margaret Atwood said concerning the revisions: "Good luck with Roald Dahl. You're just really going to have to replace the whole book if you want things to be nice. But this started a long time ago; it was the Disneyfication of fairy tales. What do I think of it? I'm with Chaucer, who said, 'If you don’t like this tale, turn over the page and read something else.'"[29] Author Christopher Paolini wrote in a tweet, "This is wrong. Ban a book if you must. Or put a content warning at the front. But don't rewrite it. Don't put words in an author's mouth (especially one who has no say in the matter)."[27] The revisions were further denounced by authors Walter Kirn,[30]Allison Pearson,[31]Kat Rosenfield,[32] and Christina Dalcher,[33] as well as the British Free Speech Union.[34]
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, referencing The BFG, stated that Puffin Books "shouldn't gobblefunk around with words."[16][26][36] Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson recited the opening line of the poem "Augustus Gloop" (which had been heavily edited by Puffin) and compared Puffin's actions to Thomas Bowdler's expurgation of William Shakespeare's work.[39]
Kemi Badenoch, British Minister for Women and Equalities, spoke publicly on the matter, saying, "If you change everything old to look new, then people don't know what things used to be like, which means that you lose the institutional memory, you lose the collective memory," adding, "Changing the words that someone wrote I don't think is right."[40]
Queen Camilla was reportedly "shocked and dismayed" upon hearing about the revisions, and publicly denounced them.[16][41][42][43]
Other contemporary reactions
Several journalists have written op-eds on the controversy. The Atlantic's Helen Lewis used Dahl's novel My Uncle Oswald—known for its vulgarity, sexism, and themes of eugenics—to state that grotesque description of people is rooted within Dahl's work, and as such cannot be omitted, describing the revisions as "corporate safetyism".[44] In a differing opinion, Matthew Walter of The Lamp viewed the controversy as insignificant, comparing the release of the collection to New Coke and Coca-Cola Classic.[45]
It was reported that following the Dahl edits, author R. L. Stine was reworking the text of some of his Goosebumps books. Stine denied this, saying that "The stories aren't true. I've never changed a word in Goosebumps. Any changes were never shown to me."[50] The publisher Scholastic clarified in a statement that some edits had been made to reissues of the books several years previously, saying that they had "reviewed the text to keep the language current and avoid imagery that could negatively impact a young person's view of themselves today, with a particular focus on mental health".[50]
A month later, it was announced Enid Blyton's works would be expurgated as well.[51][52][53]
Roald Dahl was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime fighter ace. His books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide. Dahl has been called "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century".
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 1964 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. The story features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka.
Sophie Dahl is an English author and former fashion model. Her first novel, The Man with the Dancing Eyes, was published in 2003 followed by Playing With the Grown-ups in 2007. In 2009, she wrote Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights, a cookery book which formed the basis for a six-part BBC Two series named The Delicious Miss Dahl. In 2011, she published her second cookery book From Season to Season. Her first children's book, Madame Badobedah, was released in 2019. She is the daughter of Tessa Dahl and Julian Holloway and the granddaughter of author Roald Dahl, actress Patricia Neal, and actor Stanley Holloway.
The BFG is a 1982 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. It is an expansion of a short story from Dahl's 1975 novel Danny, the Champion of the World. The book is dedicated to Dahl's daughter, Olivia, who had died of measles encephalitis at the age of seven in 1962.
Matilda is a 1988 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. It was published by Jonathan Cape. The story features Matilda Wormwood, a precocious child with an uncaring mother and father, and her time in school run by the tyrannical headmistress Miss Trunchbull.
The Witches is a 1983 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. A dark fantasy, the story is set partly in Norway and partly in England, and features the experiences of a young English boy and his Norwegian grandmother in a world where child-hating societies of witches secretly exist in every country. The witches are ruled by the vicious and powerful Grand High Witch, who arrives in England to organise her plan to turn all of the children there into mice.
James and the Giant Peach is a popular children's novel written in 1961 by British author Roald Dahl. The first edition, published by Alfred Knopf, featured illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. There have been re-illustrated versions of it over the years, done by Michael Simeon, Emma Chichester Clark, Lane Smith and Quentin Blake. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1996 which was directed by Henry Selick, and a musical in 2010.
The Twits is a 1980 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. It was first published by Jonathan Cape. The story features The Twits, a spiteful, idle, unkempt couple who continuously play nasty practical jokes on each other to amuse themselves, and exercise their devious wickedness on their pet monkeys.
George's Marvellous Medicine is a children's novel written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. First published by Jonathan Cape in 1981, it features George Kranky, an eight-year-old boy who concocts his own miracle elixir to replace his tyrannical grandmother's regular prescription medicine.
Esio Trot is a 1990 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. The title is an anadrome of "tortoise". It was the last of Dahl's books to be published in his lifetime; he died just two months later.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 2005 musical fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and written by John August, based on the 1964 British novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. The film stars Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka and Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket, alongside David Kelly, Helena Bonham Carter, Noah Taylor, Missi Pyle, James Fox, Deep Roy, and Christopher Lee. The storyline follows Charlie as he wins a contest along with four other children and is led by Wonka on a tour of his chocolate factory.
Puffin Books is a longstanding children's imprint of the British publishers Penguin Books. Since the 1960s, it has been among the largest publishers of children's books in the UK and much of the English-speaking world. The imprint now belongs to Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann.
The Enormous Crocodile is a British children's story, written by British author Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. A picture book written for younger readers than Dahl's other works, the story tells of a hungry crocodile who aims to eat human children via using various, not-quite-impenetrable disguises.
Fantastic Mr Fox is a children's novel written by British author Roald Dahl. It was published in 1970, by George Allen & Unwin in the UK and Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S., with illustrations by Donald Chaffin. The first Puffin paperback, first issued in 1974, featured illustrations by Jill Bennett. Later editions have featured illustrations by Tony Ross (1988) and Quentin Blake (1996). The story is about Mr Fox and how he outwits his farmer neighbours to steal their food from right under their noses.
Eleanor Frances (Butler) Cameron was a children's author and critic. She published 20 books in her lifetime, including The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (1954) and its sequels, a collection of critical essays called The Green and Burning Tree (1969), and The Court of the Stone Children (1973), which won the U.S. National Book Award in category Children's Books.
David Seltzer is an American screenwriter, producer and director, perhaps best known for writing the screenplays for The Omen (1976) and Bird on a Wire (1990). As writer-director, Seltzer's credits include the 1986 teen tragi-comedy Lucas starring Corey Haim, Charlie Sheen and Winona Ryder, the 1988 comedy Punchline starring Sally Field and Tom Hanks, and 1992's Shining Through starring Melanie Griffith and Michael Douglas.
An expurgation of a work, also known as a bowdlerization or fig-leaf edition, is a form of censorship that involves purging anything deemed noxious or offensive from an artistic work or other type of writing or media.
The Family Shakespeare is a collection of expurgated Shakespeare plays, edited by Thomas Bowdler and his sister Henrietta ("Harriet"), intended to remove any material deemed too racy, blasphemous, or otherwise sensitive for young or female audiences, with the ultimate goal of creating a family-friendly rendition of Shakespeare's plays. The Family Shakespeare is one of the most often cited examples of literary censorship, despite its original family-friendly intentions. The Bowdler name is also the origin of the term "bowdlerise", meaning to omit parts of a work on moral grounds.
A sensitivity reader is someone who reads a literary work, looking for perceived offensive content, stereotypes and bias, creating a report for an author or publisher with suggested changes. The use of sensitivity readers has attracted criticism from some authors and members of the public, particularly with respect to edits to re-editions of previously published works of literature.
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