The revision includes the removal of the word “black”.
The James Bond super-detective novels will be republished without racial references that could be considered offensive, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the appearance of the first book in the series, ‘Casino Royale’.
The company that owns the rights to the books, Ian Fleming Publications, commissioned a review of the texts to a committee of readers and has decided to bring the novels back without those potentially offensive racial allusions, as revealed today by the Sunday Telegraph.
Among the changes, it is expected that the word “black” (sic) with which slaves of that race were designated in English will disappear, although other racial descriptions will also be suppressed, while others will remain unchanged.
Likewise, a warning will be introduced to accompany the adventures of 007 that will remind that “this book was written at a time when terms and attitudes that could be considered offensive by modern readers were common.”
“A number of updates have been made to this edition, while keeping it as close as possible to the original text and the period in which it is set,” the notice, revealed by the “Sunday Telegraph,” said.
The news comes after this week the publisher of the books of the British author Roald Dahl announced that it will modify parts of his works to eliminate possible offensive or offensive allusions.
After the controversy unleashed, Puffin pointed out that in addition to the altered versions, he plans to reissue the intact original books at the same time.
EFE