Penguin Random House Agrees to Issue ‘Classic’ Roald Dahl Books After Editing Backlash

The publisher will also continue to offer revised versions of the beloved stories to meet modern sensibilities

Ronald Dumont/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Augustus Gloop will go on being “enormously fat,” at least part of the time, after publisher Penguin Random House announced Friday it will publish “classic” versions of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and other novels written by Roald Dahl.

News of the publisher’s efforts to remove language deemed offensive from the late British author’s children’s novels with the goal of making the stories suitable for modern readers generated widespread backlash last week.

The company said that in addition to the revised editions, 17 of Dahl’s books will be published in their original form later this year as “The Roald Dahl Classic Collection,” The Associated Press reported, citing the company stating that “readers will be free to choose which version of Dahl’s stories they prefer.”

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