Plans to rewrite literary works to conform to the standards of political correctness are thriving: the works of Roald Dahl and Agatha Christie have fallen victim, and those of P. G. Wodehouse are about to undergo censorship. However, the process has been widely criticised and now, in France, a bill is to be considered to prevent the rewriting of literary works.
The initiative comes from Les Républicains MP Jean-Louis Thiériot, himself a historian and author of several works on Franco-German history. Scandalised by the successive rewritings of novels by Anglo-Saxon authors, he wants to put to a vote a law “aimed at protecting the integrity of works from ideological rewritings.”
The effect of his proposal would be to amend the current Intellectual Property Code, which governs the status of literary works in France, by removing from an author’s beneficiaries what are known as the ‘right of withdrawal’ and the ‘right of repentance,’ i.e., the possibility of modifying the original work. These rights should belong to the author alone during his lifetime. The Intellectual Property Code would therefore be amended to read as follows:
The right to reconsider and withdraw may only be exercised by the author himself. It may not be transferred on death to the author’s heirs. Its exercise may not be conferred on a third party by virtue of testamentary provisions.
To justify his approach, the MP cites several examples of rewriting that have recently hit the headlines. He drew attention to the rewriting of Agatha Christie’s works, which caused a stir in 2020: the adventures of Miss Marple were stripped of insults and references to ‘ethnicity.’ The rewrites applied not only to the original editions but also the translations.
In France, a controversy arose over the title of one of the British novelist’s most famous novels. Previously published in French under the unacceptable Dix Petits Nègres, it has been sold, since 2020, under the title Ils étaient dix. Ten Little Niggers was the original English title when it was published in the UK in 1939. It changed to And Then There Were None in the U.S. in 1940, then in the UK in 1985.
Roald Dahl’s children’s books have undergone similar censorship, with corrections to all references to characters’ physiques or health that could be deemed potentially offensive. In Dahl’s case, however, French publishers refused to apply these corrections in their translations.
For novels by both Dahl and Christie, the changes were made by the authors’ legal successors for commercial purposes, with an eye toward boosting sales. Jean-Louis Thiériot believes that these decisions were made because of “pressure from the ‘wokist’ movement and ‘cancel culture.’”
The legislative change proposed by MP Thiériot, which appears to be common sense, would have been considered totally superfluous just a few years ago. But the movement to rewrite literary works is making headway and calls for action. Even among the progressive elite of Hollywood, the movement is far from unanimous, as demonstrated by the reaction of the American actor Tom Hanks in a recent interview given to the BBC on the publication of his first novel. Deeming the Dahl rewrites “infantilising,” he declared: “We’re all grown-ups. Let’s have faith in our acuity and intelligence instead of letting someone decide what may or may not offend us.”
