Why are so few American books annotated?

[Jman999]

I read a book review for a novel which basically said that the Russian version was thoroughly annotated to provide information for esoteric knowledge and other uncommon concepts. Apparently this is quite a common practice in Russia. My question is the following: why is that not done here in the states? For example, I'm reading Jane Eyre right now for school, and a lot of 19th concepts I have to research myself. Things such as outmoded styles of dress or phrases in French that the author never directly translates.

It would make reading such works much easier. this could be done for modern books as well, especially ones that deal with lesser known scientific principles or sociological theories. Whatever the average Joe doesn't know that isn't directly explained in the novel could be annotated at the publisher's discretion.

[Doodle Bob]

It would make reading such works much easier. this could be done for modern books as well, especially ones that deal with lesser known scientific principles or sociological theories. Whatever the average Joe doesn't know that isn't directly explained in the novel could be annotated at the publisher's discretion.

Oh, that's easy to answer: market forces.

As you now know, it takes a lot of work to annotate a book properly, and the publishing company has to pay someone to do it. That adds onto the cost of publishing the book. Now, if the company thought that enough people would buy the annotated version at a higher cost, then they would do it.

But for the most part American audiences don't care enough about such things (apparently Russian ones do). Chances are you're reading Jane Eyre from a Bantam or Signet edition, which are dirt-cheap, because they really don't do much work with those editions -- just slap a new cover on a very old edition on very cheap paper. Which is great, I love having easy access to the classics for less than $5 each.

[FroggieBKT]

Another key reason is that annotating a work can get out of hand really quickly. It is not as easy as you would think to draw the line between things that are "common knowledge" and things that are not. I've read editions of some works that are so bogged down in footnotes that it is nearly impossible to actually read the book itself. For example, when creating an edition of a work from any further back than a hundred or so years you have to either modernize spelling (which begs the question: does this taint the work) or ask yourself whether you should note various spellings that aren't easily understood by the current reading audience. If you note spellings like this you wind up with fifteen or twenty notes per page. I always thought it was easier to just rely on the reader to interpret the work as they see fit. As for the scientific principles, I'm more of the opinion that if the author of the book doesn't give you enough information in context to at least understand what is important to the book then they're probably not that good a writer anyway.

[Joe no Sleep]

It's dvd commentary...before dvd commentary (I'm holding off from saying "old school").

[Headhunter]

I think annotation will start to take off, when the concept of wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki) really catches on with the public at large.

[Jonathan Bogart]

I read a book review for a novel which basically said that the Russian version was thoroughly annotated to provide information for esoteric knowledge and other uncommon concepts. Apparently this is quite a common practice in Russia.
It's a common practice whenever a book is translated, actually. When major novels are translated from French or Italian or Russian to English, annotated editions are usually included on the market, at a higher price than the regular edition. If the book you're talking about was being translated into Russian, annotations wouldn't be surprising in the slightest. But I would bet that for a book to be heavily annotated in Russia is only slightly more common than it is here.

If there's a major bookstore in your area (Barnes & Noble, Borders, etc.), I guarantee you can find a well-annotated edition of Jane Eyre. The Oxford Classics editions are pretty standard, and not very expensive at all. (Twelve, maybe fifteen bucks. Much less at a decent used-book store.)

As for the idea that every book should contain every piece of knowledge necessary to understand and enjoy it, I think it's both impractical and foolish. I'd rather have to look up something for myself. That way I learn it better. And I think sometimes readers can allow themselves to be too paralyzed by not understanding every little thing in a book. To this day, I'm not sure what a "nubia" is, other than the fact that the March girls sewed them in Little Women, but really, that's all I need to know. (At least until someone asks me where my nubia is, and then won't I look silly.)