Bowdler, Thomas (boud`lər, bōd`–), 1754–1825, English editor. He is best known for his Family Shakespeare (10 vol., 1818), an expurgated edition for family reading that, although attacked for its prudery, was reprinted many times. Bowdler also edited (omitting passages of an irreligious or immoral tendency) selections from the Old Testament (1822) and Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (6 vol., 1826). His editorial activities gave rise to the term bowdlerize, which means to expurgate a book by deleting sections considered indelicate.

Bowdler, Thomas

(born July 11, 1754, Ashley, near Bath, Somerset, Eng.—died Feb. 24, 1825, Rhydding, near Swansea, Glamorganshire, Wales) English physician, philanthropist, and man of letters. He is known for his Family Shakspeare (1818), in which, by expurgation and paraphrase, he aimed to provide an edition of the plays suitable for a father to read aloud to his family without fear of offending their susceptibilities or corrupting their minds. The first edition (1807) contained a selection of 20 plays that probably were expurgated by Bowdler's sister, Harriet.

Bowdler, Thomas

(1754–1825) expurgated Shakespeare and Gibbon for family editions. [Br. Hist.: Wallechinsky, 164]

See : Censorship

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