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Svengali: what Wikipedia removed

Svengali is the sinister Jewish villain of George du Maurier’s 1894 novel Trilby. Through 2015 the opening said scholars call Svengali a classic example of anti-Semitism in literature because he is Jewish and exploits Trilby. Today the opening states only that Svengali is a Jewish man who seduces, dominates and exploits Trilby, without the scholarly finding, though antisemitism survives three times in the body. A reader arriving now learns Svengali is a Jewish villain and not that scholars identify him as a classic antisemitic stereotype.

The word “antisemitism” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2015. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 3. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.

The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot

Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”
word20052010201520206 October 20232025
antisemitism001000

Counts are of the opening paragraph only, the part most readers, search engines and AI training sets ever quote.

What was taken out

Section titled “What was taken out”
  • The image credit and earlier phrasing introducing Svengali as a fictional character, reworded in the current opening.
  • Scholars’ finding that Svengali is a classic example of antisemitism in literature, dropped from the opening.

How it opened then, and now

Section titled “How it opened then, and now”

2005 (revision 16655625):

Svengali is the name of a fictional hypnotist in George Du Maurier ‘s 1894 novel, Trilby . A sensation in its day, the novel created a stereotype of the abusive hypnotist that persists to this day. Template:Spoiler Trilby O’Ferrall is literally tone-deaf: “Svengali would test her ear, as he called it, and strike the C in the middle and then the F just above, and ask which was the highest; and she would declare they were both exactly the same.” Svengali is, in Du Maurier’s words, an “Oriental Israelite Hebrew Jew” with a cruel personality. He “would either fawn or bully, and could be grossly impertinent. He had a kind of cynical humour, which was more offensive than amusing, and always laughe…

2025 (revision 1290610699):

Fictional character from the 1894 novel Trilby by George du Maurier This article is about the fictional character. For other uses, see Svengali (disambiguation) . Svengali as a spider in his web . Illustration by George du Maurier (1895) . Svengali ( / s v ɛ ŋ ˈ ɡ ɑː l i / ) is a character in the novel Trilby which was first published in 1894 by George du Maurier . Svengali is a Jewish man who seduces, dominates and exploits Trilby, a young half-Irish girl, and makes her into a famous singer. ^ Rosenberg, Edgar (1960). From Shylock to Svengali: Jewish Stereotypes in English Fiction . Stanford University Press.

Section titled “Related”

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