“Agatha Christie’s Texts Receive Editing from Sensitivity Readers”

A number of books by the British author Agatha Christie (1890-1976) have been taken care of by so-called sensitivity readerseditors who judge language use on statements, wording and characterizations that can be experienced as offensive.

Christie is one of the best-selling authors of all time. Her work is available in over a hundred languages. More than 3 billion copies of her books have been sold, of which 20 million in the Netherlands.

Her best-known titles are the 80 detective novels she wrote, often starring the detectives Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple. She has also published more than 200 short stories, nineteen plays (including the well-known The Mouse Trap) and six novels.

Like the earlier work of Roald Dahl and James Bond creator Ian Fleming, the texts of some of Christie’s books have now been ‘retranslated’ to modern times, British media report. References to ethnicity, such as black, Jewish or Gypsy, have been dropped. The same goes for terms like ‘oriental’ and the n-word. That had already been lost in the title of a book from 1939, which has been published since 1977. And Then There Were None is called.

A concept such as ‘indigenous’ (natives) has now changed to ‘locals’ (locals). A female upper body is no longer described as “black marble” and a judge no longer has an “Indian temperament”. And Miss Marple marvels A Caribbean Mystery no longer about “such beautiful white teeth”, which a hotel employee has in her eyes.

It is unclear whether, in addition to Christie’s edited texts, the original will also remain available, as is the case with the modernized books by Roald Dahl.

A number of Christie’s stories have been made into films with great success, such as Death on the Nile in Murder on the Orient Expres. Director Kenneth Branagh made a remake of both films, in which he appeared in Murder on the Orient Expres (2021) already translated the original to this time, among other things by using a diverse cast.