First, AlexBell, Thank you for contributing books to the Patricia Clark Memorial Library.
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Originally Posted by AlexBell
But I did make the point that the word 'Gay' now has an entirely different meaning than it had when Collins used it, a meaning that was unknown to him, and that he is very unlikely to have used to describe his character. In fact in the book the story describes the growing affection between a man and a woman.
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But it doesn't have an entirely different meaning just an added meaning. I should think folks 45 years old or older, reading The Queen of Hearts, would have quickly if not automatically read the word as intended. Personally I would have preferred the original spelling of gayety as well.
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Originally Posted by AlexBell
This most useful suggestion I've come across so far is to use a footnote giving the original word.
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A footnote might be a cleaner solution, but the suggestion seemed to be different than your interpretation. As I read the suggestion, the idea is to leave the original word in place and use the footnote to provide clarification. Either way you use footnotes at least there would be clarity of the original text.
Additionally, I agree with others that the alteration of words should have been clearer in the very nice Preface you provided and in the informative post you included where you attached the book.
Thank you again and I hope you continue providing these editions to the library.