The literary world expressed shock and dismay Sunday after reports surfaced that the books of a beloved children’s author, Roald Dahl, have been edited by his publisher to conform with contemporary sensibilities about such issues as gender, body image, mental health, and race.

London’s Daily Telegraph reports that Puffin publishing, the children’s imprint of Penguin Books, has altered hundreds of passages from from Mr. Dahl’s works in order to “ensure that [the works] can continue to be enjoyed by all today.” The Telegraph reports that there have been tweaks to his work in the past to address charges of anti-semitism and racism, but the latest editions have made changes that — in some cases — alter the meaning or tone of the passages entirely.

Mr. Dahl, a native of Wales who died in 1990, was a fighter pilot who turned to writing following the Second World War. Among his works, which have sold 250 million copies worldwide, are the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory novels, as well as The Witches, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, James and the Giant Peach, and two memoirs, Boy and Going Solo.

Comparing the 2001 edition of The Witches, a 1983 novel about a boy growing up in a world ruled by a coven of witches, with the 2022 version, the Telegraph noted extensive changes to Mr. Dahl’s depiction of women. The word “chambermaid” was changed to “cleaner,” “Great flock of ladies” became “great group of ladies,”and “You must be mad, woman!” was changed to “You must be out of your mind!”

The sentence “Even if she is working as a cashier in a supermarket or typing letters for a businessman,” was changed to “Even if she is working as a top scientist or running a business.” Other alterations involved references to overweight characters or the physical attractiveness of those characters. A “great horsey face” in the Matilda novel was changed to simply her “face,” and “Eight nutty little idiots” changed to “eight nutty little boys.”

The Telegraph reports that even some of the books’ illustrations fell prey to the sensitivity scrubbing. Earlier editions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory depicted one of the main characters, Mike Teavee, sporting toy pistols from his belt. The guns, and related sentences in the text, are gone in the latest editions.

Puffin and the holder of Mr. Dahl’s copyrights, the Roald Dahl Story Company, teamed up with “Inclusion Ambassadors” at a company called Inclusive Minds — described as “a collective for people who are passionate about inclusion and accessibility in children’s literature”— to make the changes.

“We want to ensure Roald Dahl’s wonderful stories and characters continue to be enjoyed by all children today,” a spokesperson for the Roald Dahl Story Company told the Telegraph. “When publishing new print runs of books written years ago, it’s not unusual to review the language used alongside updating other details including a book’s cover and page layout. Our guiding principle throughout has been to maintain the storylines, characters, and the irreverence and sharp-edged spirit of the original text. Any changes made have been small and carefully considered.”

Many in the literary community, however, were aghast at the changes.

The chief executive of PEN America, a free speech advocacy group based in New York, Suzanne Nossel, said that while the impulse to ensure that great works don’t alienate modern children or foster stereotypes is understandable, the problem with the changes to Mr. Dahl’s work is that there did not appear to be any limits.

“You start out wanting to replace a word here and a word there, and end up inserting entirely new ideas,” Ms. Nossel said on Twitter. “Literature is meant to be surprising and provocative. That’s part of its potency.  By setting out to remove any reference that might cause offense you dilute the power of storytelling.”

“Those who might cheer specific edits to Dahl’s work should consider how the power to rewrite books might be used in the hands of those who do not share their values and sensibilities,” she added.