Now ALL new editions of PG Wodehouse’s novels are given blanket trigger warning by publishers over concerns they contain ‘outdated language, themes or characterisations’
- Penguin maintains that the removals ‘do not affect the story’
Publishers have issued the works of PG Wodehouse with a blanket trigger warning over concerns that it contains ‘outdated’ social attitudes.
Novels including Leave it to PSmith and Something Fresh have both been reissued by their publisher, Penguin, with a caution, despite the fact that neither have been flagged for potentially offensive or contain racist terminonlogy.
All news editions of Wodehouse’s work will come with warnings saying that his novels depict obsolete attitudes, the Telegraph reported.
The trigger warning issued by Penguin read: ‘Please be aware that this book was published in the 1920s and may contain language, themes, or characterisations which you may find outdated.’
The move comes after publishers rewrote Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster books to remove ‘unacceptable’ prose, in April.
Publishers rewrote Wodehouse’s (pictured) Jeeves and Wooster books to remove ‘unacceptable’ prose, in April
Novels including Right Ho, Jeeves have both been altered by Penguin
A note in the reissue of Thank You, Jeeves explained that publishers ‘sought to edit, minimally, words that we regard as unacceptable to present-day readers’.
The warning adds that the changes ‘do not affect the story’ of the novel, which is the first full-length work to feature Jeeves and Wooster, who were portrayed by Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry in a 1990s ITV adaptation.
Edits were also made to last year’s edition of Right Ho, Jeeves, which also contains a cautionary warning.
In the 1934 book, a racial term used to describe a ‘minstrel of the old school’ was culled.
Wodehouse isn’t the only author whose books have been purged of language that might offend modern readers, novels by both Agatha Christie and Ian Fleming have also been reissued.
Racist terminology was taken out of Fleming’s work, meanwhile Christie’s work was changed more drastically.
A whole passage in Christie’s Dead on the Nile, which described a British tourist venting her frustration at a group of children, was removed during a recent issue.
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