Readers' feedback on French publisher altering classic books

Regarding your article on French publishers’ decision to alter some of the content of Agatha Christie’s work, I should like to make the following comments: Books are a reflection of the times in which they are written with the language and mores of those times – and should be regarded and read as such.

If the reader finds them offensive he or she is not obliged to read them.

Are we really going to take the works of Austen, Dickens, Molière, Shakespeare, the Bible etc. apart to make them more ‘politically correct’ for today’s readers?

Do today’s readers even want this?

Next we’ll be putting fig leaves back on nude paintings and statues!

I find the whole concept beyond belief and so very misguided – and particularly in the light of the vicious and sexually explicit language in some of today’s publications.

The word hypocrisy springs to mind!

Connexion reader Susanne Walters, by email

If an author has written a book many years ago that is now deemed offensive by certain groups, it should not be changed.

History cannot be rewritten and neither should classic books.

Let us all move on and learn from the past but to change these books is downright ridiculous and almost sacrilegious.

Connexion reader Anne Harding, by email

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