Publisher says it will release original, un-censored versions of Roald Dahl’s work

Penguin Books this week announced that it would be releasing an uncensored line of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s books even as a subsidiary of the publisher debuts a sanitized version of the author’s works.

The Penguin children’s imprint Puffin had announced this week that it would be publishing a series of edited copies of Dahl’s writings that removed or changed words and phrases that the publisher deemed insensitive or offensive. 

After backlash to the censorship announcement, Penguin announced on its website that Puffin would be simultaneously releasing a “classics collection” of unedited Dahl works at the same time as the censored version. 

The original books “​​will sit alongside the newly released Puffin Roald Dahl books for young readers,” Penguin said, adding that “readers will be free to choose which version of Dahl’s stories they prefer.”

Dahl, a British author, died in 1990.