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Dahl's Originals Return to Print


FILE: FILE - Books by Roald Dahl are displayed in New York on Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Critics are accusing the publisher of censorship after it removed colorful language from stories such as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Matilda” to make them more acceptable today.
FILE: FILE - Books by Roald Dahl are displayed in New York on Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. Critics are accusing the publisher of censorship after it removed colorful language from stories such as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Matilda” to make them more acceptable today.

Publisher Puffin UK on Friday announced it would release the original versions of Roald Dahl's children's books to keep the "classic texts in print" following a wave of criticism over their re-editing for a modern audience.

"We...recognize the importance of keeping Dahl's classic texts in print," said Francesca Dow, managing director of Penguin Random House Children's.

"We've listened to the debate over the past week which has reaffirmed the extraordinary power of Roald Dahl's books," she added.

Puffin made hundreds of changes to characters and language in Dahl's stories including making the diminutive Oompa-Loompas in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" gender neutral and calling Augustus Gloop enormous rather than fat.

Mrs. Twit in "The Twits" is also no longer ugly, but beastly instead, while the Cloud-Men in "James and the Giant Peach" are now "Cloud-People."

Novelist Salman Rushdie led condemnations on Monday after it was revealed that Dahl's books had undergone rewrites, calling it "absurd censorship" by "bowdlerizing sensitivity police."

While issuing his criticism of the rewriting, Rushdie, who lived in hiding for years due to a fatwa calling for his death over his 1988 book "The Satanic Verses," said
"Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship. Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed."

Queen Consort Camilla even appeared to weigh in, telling members of her online book club to "please remain true to your calling, unimpeded by those who may wish to curb the freedom of your expression or impose limits on your imagination."

Dahl's books have sold over 250 million copies worldwide.

Some of his most popular stories have been turned into blockbuster films such as last year's "Matilda the Musical" and "The BFG" (2016) which was directed by Steven Spielberg.

Others highlighted how the "nasty" elements of Dahl's stories were exactly what made them popular with children.

Laura Hackett, deputy literary editor of The Sunday Times newspaper, called the changes "botched surgery" and vowed on Twitter to hold on to her original copies so her children could "enjoy them in their full, nasty, colorful glory."

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