Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexBell
It may well be that ebook enthusiasts in this thread may be familiar with 19th century English, and be instantly able to change the meaning in their mind. I still think that most readers would have read 'Gay' and thought 'homosexual.' And that is not what Collins meant.
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I really appreciate your intentions, but, IMHO, you underestimate most readers. Even non-native speakers are not very likely to misinterpret "gay" as "homosexual" in a 19th century novel, because if they've read other novels from that time period they'd know that most traditional 19th century English novels simply don't contain overt references to sexual orientation.
I'd go with
HarryT's suggestion. I.e., leave "gay" and add a footnote.