Roald Dahl’s books in Spanish will not be altered, says publisher

The Alfaguara publishing house, responsible for publishing in Spanish the texts of Roald Dahlannounced that it would maintain the original texts of the British author without modifying the words or the references that the organization responsible for managing the legacy of the British writer replaced in the United Kingdom, sparking a controversy over the limits of authorship and the convenience of adopting children’s literary works in search of a more inclusive message.

“After discussions with the Company of the Roald Dahl CompanyAlfaguara Infantil y Juvenil will maintain its editions with the author’s classic texts without modifying its publications in Spanish,” said sources from the publishing house, which publishes the famous children’s author’s texts in Spain and Latin America.

Also contrary to the alteration of the original texts by the author of Charlie and the chocolate factory The publishers of the prestigious French label Gallimard have come out against these practices of “rewriting” or retouching and have warned that they will not make any adjustments to their French translations of the works of Dahl. “We never rewrote the books of Roald Dahl. They were translated from English and they haven’t changed that translation since,” a spokesperson for the publisher said. The Guardian.

Contrary to copyright rules in the United Kingdom and the United States, authors retain in France “moral rights” which cannot be assigned and are passed on to the authors’ heirs. During the lifetime of the author, modifications cannot be made to his work without his consent, but after his death, they can be made with the prior agreement of the heirs.

French translator and critic Berengere Viennot written on the site slate.fr that “a novel of Roald Dahl rewritten is no longer a novel Roald Dahland described the changes as “unacceptable on many levels”: “They’re not fooling anyone, it’s censorship disguised as an update.”

the british newspaper The Daily Telegraph caused controversy a few days ago when he claimed that there would no longer be “fat” or “ugly” in the novels of Dahl by decision of the publisher Puffin Books. The revision involved the removal of references considered controversial around characters’ weight or physical appearance, mental health, violence, gender, and race in the book author’s stories such as Charlie and the chocolate factory oh Matilda.

“This book was written many years ago, so we regularly review the language to make sure everyone can continue to enjoy it today,” the UK label said in its defense.

The controversy was not long in coming, and even the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, who criticized the measure through an official spokesperson: “It is important that literary works and works of fiction are preserved and not published.” “We have always defended the right to freedom of speech and expression,” he observed.

Also the author Salman Rushdiewho was stabbed to death last August by a Muslim fanatic after being sentenced to death years ago by the Iranian regime after the publication of the novel satanic versescriticized the measure on Twitter, noting that although Roald Dahl was “no angel”, it is “absurd censorship”.

The books of Dahl They have been translated into 63 languages ​​and sold more than 300 million copies worldwide, which is why he is considered one of the most relevant children’s literature authors in history.

Throughout his life, the writer made many anti-Semitic comments, such as in an interview with the magazine The new statesman in 1983, when he said that “there is a trait in the Jewish character which causes animosity, it is perhaps a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews”. Or “There is always a reason for the ‘anti-something’ to arise. Even a villain like Hitler did not harass them for no reason.”

This is not the first time that the debate over the possible modification or banning of old children’s and children’s literature books has been raised, as was the case in 2021 with the burning of nearly 5,000 books in schools in Canada. , including comics by Tintin, Asterix there lucky Lukebelieving that they were propagating stereotypes about indigenous peoples.

Source: OS screen

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