History Main / TheAnnotatedEdition

* ''BobAndGeorge'' has the [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/000401c on-site commentary]], which currently goes up to March 18th, 2005.

* The ''{{Flashman}}'' series has this as well. The annotations play with the LiteraryAgentHypothesis, and as well as explaining the various allusions and Victorian pop-culture references, point out [[HandWave occasions on which the eponymous character must have been mistaken, or exaggerated for effect]].

* "Literature/TheRimeOfTheAncientMariner". The writer himself had to write Cliff Notes so that his friends could understand it.

** Creator/IanMcKellen published an Annotated edition of his screenplay for the 1995 film adaptation of ''Theatre/RichardIII'', and it's an invaluable look at the process of adapting Shakespeare to the screen. It's also available for free reading on his [[http://www.mckellen.com/cinema/richard/screenplay/index.htm website]].

* ''Creator/IsaacAsimov's Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan'' provides an exhaustive annotation for all 14 Creator/GilbertAndSullivan operettas, including the three than nobody remembers anymore. Many of Gilbert's allusions are either particularly British or particularly Victorian, and Gilbert used the full range of the English language vocabulary as well as occasional terms from other languages. All of this provides rich annotation fodder.

* ''TwoGentlemenOfLebowski'''s first printing was an annotated edition, to keep up the pretense of it being an [[InTheStyleOf authentic reprint of a Shakespeare play]]. (To be fair, the author did such a good job keeping the linguistics authentic that a fair amount of the annotations are necessary to follow the piece.)

* ''The Annotated Literature/SherlockHolmes'' is a two volume onmibus of all of Creator/ArthurConanDoyle's Holmes stories, in best-guess chronological order, with lots of annotations.

* Sometimes, non-Western literature, especially translated versions of Japanese literature/light novels such as ''Anime/WelcomeToTheNHK'' have endnotes to explain even contemporary references which may seem obvious to a Japanese person if they are rooted in the context of the novel, but a Western person like an American or a different English speaking person might miss.

* While The Complete {{Peanuts}} does not have annotations, there is an online set of annotations for the various volumes here: [[http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Annotations_of_The_Complete_Peanuts]].

* Sometimes, non-Western literature, especially translated versions of Japanese literature/light novels such as ''WelcomeToTheNHK'' have endnotes to explain even contemporary references which may seem obvious to a Japanese person if they are rooted in the context of the novel, but a Western person like an American or a different English speaking person might miss.

A version of a written text, more often than not a collection of previously released material, that contains notes from the author ([[WordOfDante or someone else with insight into the work]]) in footnotes or sidebars.

* Creator/TSEliot provided some endnotes of his own for his poem "TheWasteLand"; the poem includes untranslated quotes from various sources. Unfortunately, the endnotes are sometimes almost as obscure as the poem itself.

** Neil Gaiman's ''ComicBook/{{The Sandman}}'' is being released in an annotated four-volume set. An interesting variation here, as the annotated version has reprinted the entire series without colour, using the original black-and-white line-art, as opposed to being a strict reprint with added footnotes.

* Jess Nevins has a cottage industry annotating AlanMoore's ''LeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen''. An interesting variation in that his annotations are not published WITH the books, but first on the web, and, at least for Vols. I and II, in book form separately (''Heroes And Monsters'' and ''The Blazing World''). Moore has said that the existence of these annotations meant that "we could be as obscure and far-reaching as we wanted".

** [[IanMcKellen Ian McKellan]] published an Annotated edition of his screenplay for the 1995 film adaptation of ''Theatre/RichardIII'', and it's an invaluable look at the process of adapting Shakesepeare to the screen. It's also available for free reading on his [[http://www.mckellen.com/cinema/richard/screenplay/index.htm website]].
* ''The Annotated SherlockHolmes'' is a two volume onmibus of all of Creator/ArthurConanDoyle's Holmes stories, in best-guess chronological order, with lots of annotations.

* ''The Annotated Alice'', an omnibus edition of ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' and ''Literature/ThroughTheLookingGlass'' with annotations by MartinGardner explaining historical context, obscure in-jokes, etc. Gardner followed up with ''The Annotated [[Literature/TheHuntingOfTheSnark Hunting of the Snark]]''.

** Nevins has also posted annotations for ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'', ''TopTen'', ''TheNail'', and other comics.

* ''The Annotated Alice'', an omnibus edition of ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' and ''Literature/ThroughTheLookingGlass'' with annotations by MartinGardner explaining historical context, obscure in-jokes, etc.

* Leonard Wolf's ''The Annotated Dracula'' (1975) explained a great deal of background information about the work that most readers wouldn't know about.

* Adolf Hitler's Literature/MeinKampf is only available legally as an annotated, censored edition in Germany, with entire parts of the original book missing.

* ''Creator/IsaacAsimov's Annotated GilbertAndSullivan'' provides an exhaustive annotation for all 14 Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, including the three than nobody remembers anymore. Many of Gilbert's allusions are either particularly British or particularly Victorian, and Gilbert used the full range of the English language vocabulary as well as occasional terms from other languages. All of this provides rich annotation fodder.

* Pepys's ''[[Literature/TheDiaryOfSamuelPepys Diary]]'' has so many endnotes they take up an entire volume, with another volume of general reference.

* JaneAusten's works are available as annotated editions, which won't be necessary for modern audiences to understand the basic storylines, but certainly will help with understanding all the social criticism that went into her works.

* ''BobAndGeorge'' has the [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/000401c on-site commentary]], which currently goes up to March 31st, 2004.

* ''Literature/TheArtOfWar'' is commonly released in annotated editions, because some of the things said in it are vague, and some context is useful, and other things require some knowledge of early chinese history to make sense.

* Almost all editions of Sun Tzu's ''Literature/TheArtOfWar'' include annotations by multiple ''classical-era'' authors, most notably Cao Cao. These make up 80% or so of the book and are normally considered an indispensible part of the text, providing far more information than the original work. Modern-era publishers will often add a ''second'' set of notes.

* ''Creator/IsaacAsimov's Annotated GilbertAndSullivan''.

* ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables''. One amusing bit is the annotating author observing that somehow Anne obtained a copy of ''BenHur'' two years before it was published.

* A few of the ''{{Dilbert}}'' collections (usually the specialized ones) also have text commentary.