Roald Dahl’s publishing house is doing it just right after all

When even Salman Rushdie speaks up because he smells absurd censorship, then it’s not just a storm in a teacup! The announcement by Roald Dahl’s British publishers that they would, well, mutilate his works for well-intentioned reasons caused a worldwide sensation. The company had asked a well-known institution to subject the star author’s books to a revision in order to be able to rule out possible psychological injuries among young readers in the future. A procedure that also applies to other literary greats.

The result became known very quickly, the details range from comprehensible (a grotesquely plump boy in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is now only enormous and no longer enormously fat) to socio-politically motivated (in “Hexen witches must no longer exclusively”. the talk of stenographers, because that would be too low-threshold as a profession for female careers, which should also serve as role models).

Everyone gets what they think is right

Now the Puffin publishing house is convincingly doing exactly what is appropriate in this situation: the new edition with the corrected text remains, but there is another edition that refrains from any further changes to the text. In short: Attentive or very sensitive adults can present their pupils with a new edition that largely rules out confusion (not so easy with Dahl, and that’s a good thing – but that’s another story…), hard-boiled or nostalgic people get what they can expect from the Dahl literature brand and that probably also largely explains the immense success of his books – from “Matilda” to “Sophiechen und der Riese”. This author gave his young readers credit for something.

This also had an influence on other forms of art: Filmmakers who are as diverse as they are talented have hardly ever paid homage to a writer who is best known for his children’s books by converting his material for the big screen with a corresponding amount of stubbornness and aesthetic daring.

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