Thoughts on the norton critical editions? Are they worth the bucks?

imo short of specific University editions, they're the most scholarly editions available. Great introductions, helpful footnotes

Sure, if you want sjws to tell you what to think about classic lit

Only if you really want to study the work and will actually go through some of that extra stuff, or if it's a collection. The Norton Critical edition of Keats poems and letters, for example, is a good edited collection of that material.

Broadview has pretty similar editions as well.

>>9528469
prove it

File: 1477927302327.jpg (98KB, 632x895px) Image search: [Google]

98KB, 632x895px

>buy a Norton Critical edition of Heart of Darkness for class
>almost all the criticisms involved are about how it is or is not racist
What a shame. On a more serious note they seem fine if you want the extra background and essays.

They're usually pretty good editions if you're actually looking for something to help you study the work. Occasionally there are issues with somewhat heavy handed political interpretations on some works, but honestly you're going to be hard pressed to find a book with extensive notes that doesn't end up devolving in to that for many texts anyway.

That being said, there's almost no reason to go for an NCE if you're not intending on seriously studying the material (with a few possible exceptions, like if you want to read Malory in Middle English, although if you want to do that I'd imagine you probably are intending on doing a somewhat serious study of it).

>>9528937
That image is retarded. Is this really how theists think?

>>9528965
clearly not.

>Ordered a norton critical from bookdespository because nobody sells them in my country and I didn't want to pay out the ass to ship
>Normally bookdespository orders arrive by the next week
>Its been almost a month
>Probably never arriving at this point

My thought is that my country must have some sort of barrier that disintegrates norton critical editions so that they can't get in.

>>9528404
They arent even expensive, about the price of a normal paperback

Always a good reliable publisher and even if you dont read the essays, their footnotes and text are normally top notch.

>>9528950
Did Malory write in Middle English? I thought it was Early Modern. On a related note, do you know if the text used in most editions of Le Morte D'Arthur is "translated" or has updated orthography?

>>9528980
It's not a barrier, mate. That's my job!

>>9529068
Malory is pretty firmly considered Middle English, although it's certainly closer to EME than say, Chaucer is.

>On a related note, do you know if the text used in most editions of Le Morte D'Arthur is "translated" or has updated orthography?
Translation is pretty common, but I believe there's actually quite a fair bit of variance in that depending on publisher, and it's probably going to depend on if you specifically want the Winchester or Caxton manuscript used as a base.

I'd honestly just recommend shopping around on Amazon or something, most of the editions probably say how they've been updated.

>>9529113
Thank you
I just found this: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/MaloryWks2/1:3.1?rgn=div2;view=fulltext
Is this the text the Norton Editions uses? Because if it is I don't see any harm in just updating the spelling.

>>9529126
This is the Caxton manuscript, while the Norton uses the Winchester manuscript, but language-wise it's quite similar.

There's definitely nothing wrong with updating the spelling. Several editions do use 'translations' that completely rephrase things though. Which is what I had assumed the poster I was responding to was asking about.

>>9528404
I'm not a big fan of the font they use, but they have footnotes rather than endnotes, and that is fucking glorious.

>>9529162
Thanks, good to see some people actually know their shit on this board.
>>9529068
>>9529126
All me btw

>>9528469
They all literally have criticism stretching back as far as the books were originally published. Don't be a fucking idiot.

>>9528469
Stupidity: The Post.

I love their KJV bible. You get the poetry of the KJV, but the extensive notes inform you of mistranslations and alternate translations, so you get both poetry and accuracy in a way.

>>9528404
They're the best publishers solely based on the fact that they use footnotes.

>>9528937
Which edition do you have? I have the Norton for Heart of Darkness, and there are three or four essays about racism, imperialism, etc, but a bunch of other ones from earlier and later times that don't deal with that. Maybe you got a shitty edition from the 90s when that stuff was in vogue.

>>9528404
Why is Frankenstein so big?

>>9528404
absolutely. their critical editions are great and relatively inexpensive and norton itself is worker owned which makes buying their books even more worth it.

>>9528404
I've only read their publication of Moby-Dick and it was worth every penny. The notes they provided deepened my reading of it tenfold.

>>9528404
Meh, it's like with all of them. Some are good, some are atrocious, it all depends on the editor.

>>9530811
This, and why is Moby Dick so small?

>>9529966
4th. In hindsight I suppose it only felt like that since it was all we talked about with the novella. There are more like, 5 essays about racism in HoD, all modern ones.

>>9530842
>>9530811
thicc vs lengthy and slim

>>9530868
I've got the third edition, from 1988, which has 4 critical essays on racism/ colonialism, out of 17 essays total, and one of those 4 is an African arguing against Achebe's essay. The fourth probably came out in the 90s, so it makes sense they'd throw extra race and colonialism criticisms in there.

>since it was all we talked about with the novella

That sucks, I've read Heart of Darkness in two different classes, one in high school and one at university, and we didn't deal with racial stuff at all, and only lightly touched on the colonial assumptions of the book, mostly as a background.