Oh, boy am I excited to tell you about a life-changing project that I have been working on for almost TWO YEARS.
To make a long story short: I'm annotating classic novels; Jane Eyre is ready; and these books are life-changing.
Those who have been with me since the beginning of Vocabbett--which was founded with the publication of Ahead of Her Time in the days of yore--know that I put definitions of difficult words at the bottom of each page in my fiction books.
In my opinion, this is hands-down best way to improve your high-level English vocabulary. The brain is naturally hardwired to learn through stories and immersion, but you are also a sentient human being. There is no reason to guess the meaning of each word through context if you don't have to.
I found myself back in the classroom in 2023, helping teach a few classes of 7th grade English until the end of the year, and how I wished to Vocabbett-ify their books!
These kids--blame it on COVID, social media, or whatever you like--didn't know what so many words meant! Consequently, when I asked them to tell me what just transpired in a scene, their interpretation was sometimes the opposite of what the author had been trying to convey.
Take a sentence like, "She was ecstatic to see him, and her face showed it."
Most students can work out that "ecstatic" relates to some strong emotion, but if these are new characters, she could just as easily be angry as she is happy (the latter is correct, by the way). Without knowing the definition of "ecstatic," students are left guessing at which strong emotion is playing across the character's face.
Not only that, but there were countless allusions that went right over their heads--a missed opportunity to join the great conversation throughout history.
And you know what they say...If you want to see something, and it doesn't exist yet, make it yourself!
The Vocabbett Classics annotated edition of Jane Eyre contains more than 1,750 annotations, and they cover everything from definitions to historical references and the occasional snarky comment.
I wrote them all, and believe me when I say, they are a game-changer.
I loathed Jane Eyre the first time I read it, but that was because so much of it went over my head. It wasn't that I was too immature...I just didn't possess the requisite vocabulary or historical knowledge to appreciate her many, many references.
To be honest, reading it again 15+ years later, I still didn't know what she was talking about sometimes! But this time I looked everything up, and I found myself chuckling at her wit--and you will, too, now that you also possess this knowledge.
Take this line from page 67, for instance. Jane is at boarding school, and the girls are being forced to listen to a rather long church service:
"A frequent interlude of these performances was the enactment of the part of Eutychus by some half-dozen of the little girls..."
I had no idea who Eutychus was, so I assumed the girls were giving some kind of a performance. Wrong!
My footnotes will inform you that Eutychus was a man who fell asleep during a long sermon, and as a result, fell out a window and died. These girls aren't giving a performance--they are struggling to stay awake! Actually understanding the story makes it so much richer!
The best part is that my annotated classics maintain the original work in its entirety, only supplementing where needed. They provide the bridge between the past and present, inviting you to understand the work as the authors intended.
Far too often these days, texts are entirely rewritten for modern students (like "No Fear Shakespeare"). These study aids destroy the originals, replacing them with shams the author wouldn't even recognize. This is something akin to a moral travesty in my opinion, and academic honesty at the very least. My works are not like that.
My annotated classics are, quite simply, the best in the business. Written by an author and educator, I know what you need. I won't weigh you down, but I will give you all the tools you need to fully appreciate these texts.
I'm so grateful for you and my job! You can find Jane Eyre: The Annotated Edition here. A Room With a View is also ready, and The Iliad's publication is imminent. Though I make about 7 times more per ebook than paperback, I still suggest getting the paperback. I just think the experience is better!
So I say to Jane Eyre, that heroine of yesteryear who had fallen out of favor because we were too uninformed to understand her...welcome back!
Until next time...
-Erica