h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thomas Bowdler (July 11, 1754 – February 24, 1825) lent his name to the term bowdlerise which means "To expurgate, as a book, by omitting or modifying the parts considered offensive." One of his crimes was to censor Shakespeare. Making small changes in the text to make it less offensive to the few. Since his time many books have fallen victim to such "cuts" for the sake of the populace. Many of them are classic books. For example if you've ever read 1001 Nights you might notice a few nights are missing. There was an slightly suggestive adult content to some of the stories and they were cut out so as not to lead the young astray one supposes. Of course their "adult" content would be considered tame today what with what you can see on tv for example, but many books are still printed in their "corrected" (read bowdlerised) editions anyway. It hasn't stopped either. A few years back I heard there was a news story about censoring C.S. Lewis's Narnia books by taking the christian basis out. Of course as anyone who has read the books knows christianity is part of the bedrock of the series. Remove any and all mention of it, and the books have nothing to hold them together. Sometimes being P.C. in order to not offend the few cheats the many.