[samhy]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

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.

Originally Posted by Yapyap

I don't doubt that there are both very young native speakers and non-native speakers who aren't familiar with the changes in certain words' meanings over time, but frankly, I'd expect anyone who shows active interest in downloading and reading 19th century works (especially such which aren't likely to be part of any compulsory reading list in schools) to have some considerable experience with, well, reading books, and with the concept of older vocabulary existing as well as words changing in meaning.

Besides, when I come across with a word that I am either unfamiliar with or that seems odd in context (in the meaning that I know), there are such things as dictionaries.

I am one of those non-native speakers who like to read classics to get a feel for the culture and for what society could be like in those times. Even if the wording is challenging at times it doesn't drive me away from the classics. If what I wanted was something easy to read, I would go for translated versions.
Actually the same applies to classics in every language. Earlier this year I was reading Jules Verne's first book. The story is set in Africa so, as you can expect, the n. word is quite common. Well, as it happens *I* didn't expect that, but it helped me put things in perspective. Now I can appreciate how for instance, with all the knowledge available nowadays, we don't presume other people to be savages just because they are different.
So I'd like the stories to remain as they were written, but I'm not opposed as some improvements as long as this is clearly stated somewhere. The footnotes are a great idea too.