Annotated Edition

[Peppin Kishore]

Anannotated edition is a literary work where marginal comments have been added to explain, interpret, or illuminate words, phrases, themes, or other elements of the text. The annotated edition is often something pursued by historical or literary scholars, as a secular parallel to exegesis annotations of the Bible.

Some annotations are brief, requiring only one or a few sentences. Others are lengthy, continuing for one or more pages. Normally, the text occupies the center of the page, and the annotations, which are keyed numerically to the words and phrases with which they are associated, run down the left side of the left page and down the right side of the right page. However, sometimes the annotations appear at the bottom of both pages, as in The New Schofield Reference Bible and The Riverside Shakespeare.

This edition is sumptuous eye candy for the Janeite. It is a real pleasure to have so much information collected and assembled for our edification and enjoyment. Morrison offers a lengthy and lucid introduction.

The key for creating both popular and academic editions was figuring out how to output the same text with and without footnotes. This seems like a simple proposition, but was challenging with the combination of software I was using. (Updating and correcting multiple editions has been an additional project, but kind of fun for detail-brains.)

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I find it hard to read a novel smoothly while referring to the annotations, which I regard as interruptions, so I generally read the annotations alone. I then refer to the sections of the novel that are described. After going through the annotations, I will sit down and read the novel again. That second reading is much enriched because of the additional information. (I am curious to know how others tackle reading an annotated book!)

Luthien, I receive review copies. I place the disclaimer on my sidebar, but I suppose it is not obvious. I am a little early in my review, but saw that the book was available on Amazon US for those who want to purchase it now.

Although the release date is November, I found a copy of this new annotated version in a bricks & mortar B&N store two weeks ago (first week of Oct). So it may be available now for readers who are interested.

Bonnie, I like your method too. I simply do not have the ability to stop, read the annotation, and continue, but admire your ability to do so. I love your description of your method as being a delicious process!

It does sound rather a shame the annotations are next to the text. That format is very often useful in an academic text but not I would have thought in a work of literature. Off putting to say the least.

I am curious as to your thoughts on the propriety of a gentleman joining a Jane Austen book club. My local group happens to consist solely of ladies. Perhaps that is why the organizer has ignored my enquiries into the membership guidelines. Thank you in advance.

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Hello, my name is Vic and I live in Maryland, USA. I have adored Jane Austen almost all of my life. I am a proud lifetime member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me and my team. We do not accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. However, we do accept and keep books and CDs to review.

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If this question is an identification request or a history-of-literature question in disguise, then please edit and vote to reopen. If the asker has a chance to make it on-topic, for example by asking about the earliest work satisfying certain criteria rather than asking for any or all such works, then please leave a comment guiding them on how to do so.

I've always been a huge fan of Arthurian legend, and have read many books and comics etc inspired by it. But I've always wanted to read a telling of the stories that was much closer to the source so to speak.

After some cursory googling the best lead I have is Le Morte d'Arthur. I was hoping some more learned folks might have recommendations for good annotated editions of this text that would be appropriate for, let's say an enthusiastic amateur of Old European Lit.

I'd highly recommend it for someone who's accustomed to reading English literature with old-fashioned turns of phrase (from Shakespeare to the various 19th-century authors or even Tolkien) but not necessarily with archaic, obsolete, or inconsistent spellings of words.

This edition has modernised spelling (familiar words are spelled in familiar ways for today's readers) but retains many archaic words (lots and lots of words never used nowadays, like "hight" for instance), which are all marked with endnotes and listed carefully in an appendix with their translations into modern English. It also has lots of very old-fashioned turns of phrase (phrases in an unexpected order, long run-on sentences, etc), but remains readable for any well-read English literature enthusiast. As well as the endnotes on unfamiliar words, there are also endnotes on some other aspects, such as differences between the Caxton and Winchester versions of the manuscript, or commentary on some apparent contradictions.

Personally, I found reading this a very fascinating experience. To see how sentences were constructed back then and how a story was told, and to learn lots of new archaic words. It may enhance your appreciation of the English language, even if you're already a voracious reader of works from the last few centuries. It may take you a while to get accustomed to the style of writing (battles are described as "So-and-so unhorsed So-and-so, then So-and-so unhorsed So-and-so, then ..." - lots of repetitive prose, lists, etc.) but when you do get used to it, you may really enjoy it.

There are two versions of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur: the text as printed by Caxton in 1485, from which I believe the Penguin edition is derived, and the "Winchester Manuscript" text, not printed until 1947. Apparently this was the text as it left Malory's hand; Caxton used it in preparing his version.

My copy of the latter, in the Oxford Standard Authors series, edited by Eugne Vinaver, is surprisingly easy to read. There is a glossary at the back of the book, and I have never regretted the lack of footnotes. Although there has been a lot ofvocabulary and orthography change in the English language between 1450 and now, the language itself is basically the same language we speak nowadays, and reading this edition is like visiting a place where they speak a different dialect from yours: you pick it up. I read the first 40 pages to my 5 year old kid, who had no trouble understanding it; we stopped because the next bit ("Balin") bored us.

The Winchester text is not merely much closer than Caxton's to what Malory actually wrote, it also establishes that Caxton freely edited and recast Malory's work. For the general reader this is a much livelier book, and its fifteenth-century English presents few difficulties. The reader's eye quickly becomes accustomed to the old spellings...

The best modern English adaptation of the Mort (IMO) is John Steinbeck's 'modern' English reworking, The-Acts_of_King_Arthur_and_His_Noble_Knights. It's not a pastiche like Once & Future King or The Crystal Cave (TH White, Mary Stewart, respectively). He never completed it, but the later tales are dark and depressing anyway - you can read them in the Penguin :). Steinbeck's passion for Malory, his wonderful introduction, and his own literary genius make this the only non-Malory Mort I'd recommend.

If you want to explore Malory as literature to enrich your enjoyment and understanding of the Tales, the Penguin 2-vol Mallory is a terrific, modern spelling starter set - and for non-obsessives, there's no need to look further (it's based on Caxton's* famous 15th C edition published not long after Malory's death). If you do become a true Malory "stan," though, you will eventually get the Eugene Vinaver version. Published in 1947, it's the most authoritative original spelling version and was the basis for Caxton's 15th C classic.

There's no good way to answer this question. Asking for recommended editions of Malory is just as fraught as asking for good editions of Shakespeare. Once the scope broadens to include retellings such as Steinbeck's, the range of valid answers becomes an open-ended list. Is there any post-Malory Arthurian tale in the language that is not a retelling of Malory?

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