Disturbing news from our Review section. In a new edition of Jack Kerouac's masterpiece, On the Road, the editors at Penguin have decided to remove the pseudonyms that once protected Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Neal Cassady - the beat author's companions - from exposure.

The result is that one of the most memorable opening lines in modern literature now reads: 'I first met Neal not long after my father died.' Before, it began: 'I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up.' While admiring the instinct that led to the publication of On the Road: The Original Scroll, this tweaking of the text is disconcerting. Moreover, it sets a worrying precedent. Imagine if Herman Melville's epic Moby Dick had once opened: 'Call me Bob.'