James Bond Novels Reworked to Remove Offensive Language
Ian Fleming's 'Bond' series will look a little different after the April rerelease.
The James Bond novels have been edited ahead of a rerelease in April in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the release of Casino Royale, the first book in the series.
The company that owns the literary rights to author Ian Fleming's work, Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, commissioned sensitivity readers to go through all of the spy thrillers and suggest improvements, as reported by The Telegraph.
The republished books will feature a disclaimer that reads: "This book was written at a time when terms and attitudes which might be considered offensive by modern readers were commonplace. Several updates have been made in this edition while keeping as close as possible to the original text and the period in which it is set."
Related: All 25 James Bond Movies Ranked, From 'Dr. No' to 'No Time to Die'
Fleming wrote the series during the '50s and '60s and used the word "n-----" to refer to black people, but The Telegraph reports that most instances of the word in the book series are removed in the new versions.
The word is either replaced by "black person" or "black man," or the reference to race is removed entirely.
The new release of the series still includes other dated descriptions and references to other races, including James Bond's use of racial terms for East Asian people and the character's depreciative opinion of Oddjob, Goldfinger's Korean henchman.
Other controversial phrases still included in the novels are "sweet tang of rape," "blithering women," failing to do a "man's work," and homosexuality being a "stubborn disability."
One scene altered for the rerelease depicts Bond in Harlem in New York City. The book notes that a strip tease at a club has the crowd, Bond included, agitated.
The original text reads, "Bond could hear the audience panting and grunting like pigs at the trough. He felt his own hands gripping the tablecloth. His mouth was dry!"
The revised version has the reference to pigs edited out and instead says, "Bond could sense the electric tension in the room."
Related: Benoit Blanc Makes Serious Bank! Inside Daniel Craig's Net Worth and How He Earned It
The Bond novels have been edited in the past, with Fleming giving editor Al Hart permission to revise sex scenes for American readers. At the same time, he also allowed U.S. publishers to tone down racial references in Live and Let Die.
Ian Fleming Productions said of the decision to revise the series: "We at Ian Fleming Publications reviewed the text of the original Bond books and decided our best course of action was to follow Ian's lead. We have made changes to Live and Let Die that he himself authorized."
The statement continues, "Following Ian's approach, we looked at the instances of several racial terms across the books and removed a number of individual words or else swapped them for terms that are more accepted today but in keeping with the period in which the books were written. We encourage people to read the books for themselves when the new paperbacks are published in April."
Related: New Book Reveals the Real James Bond
