#writersCoffeeClub 4/24: When older novels use outdated or racist language, should they be edited for the modern world or left alone and viewed in context?
They shouldn't be edited, BUT I'm all in favour of adding a content warning up front and then footnotes/an afterword explaining how attitudes and/or usage have changed since the text was written, and explaining it in context. Especially if the book is being directed at younger readers or the education sector.
I'd really like to see more novels published with commentary alongside (i.e. in footnotes or in some other way that makes it easy to refer to while reading), with a much broader range of topics than the one you mention (also describing the reason for slightly puzzling situations, references that have aged out, and also simply commentary). I've seen that done consistently only in the Bible, and I really liked it when I saw it in iirc a bilingual edition of Alice in the Wonderland.
