What does /lit/ think of Norton Critical Editions? Do footnotes

Wish i had fucking footnotes when i read The Sound and the Fury

>>9684988
>What does /lit/ think of Norton Critical Editions?
They're generally pretty good. Sometimes the critical essays and the other surrounding content they give is really fucking awful though. Although, sometimes it's great, really depends on the book.

>Do footnotes ruin the flow of the text and are in turn detrimental to the reading experience?
No. They're a much better alternative to end notes, unless you're fucking Arden Shakespeare level with them where 90% of the page is footnotes.

>are they necessary in such works as Moby Dick
No.

If you don't want to ruin the flow don't look to the footnote every time one pops up. I will typically read a section, then read the footnotes of that section while my memory is still fresh enough to know what they're referring to, so that reading the footnotes isn't disruptive to the flow at all, but something I look forward to upon reaching a natural break in the text, giving not only extra information, but forcing me to pause and consider again what I've read.

>>9684988
i don't like reading from them because the text is too small

>>9684988
>Do footnotes ruin the flow of the text and are in turn detrimental to the reading experience?

Only if you let it. If I buy a critical edition of anything it's because I really want to absorb the material and that means multiple readings. The first time I read a book like this I just plow through anything I don't understand and I don't bother with the footnotes at all. I don't look anything up or make any notes. It's the second reading when I really start to take my time.

I have to use critical editions for my university work. They have nice resources in them.

Are there any critical editions that are noticeably bad? What I have seems ok. Some anon said the Moby Dick critical edition wasn't too great a while ago.

This is an autist question, but how do people read Critical Editions?

I have one with lots of secondary material at the back, should I read it all linearly?

>>9686777
University anon here. I use them as an anthology of the most commonly cited articles. I only read what I need to cite.

>>9686832
this

>>9686777
>>9686832
Just search through an academic data base for relevant journal articles?

>>9689189
My database only have academic articles.

The Northon Critical Edition of Heart of Darkness has relevant bits from Charles Darwin, The preface to The Nigger of Narcissus, letters written by Joseph Conrad, contemporary responses from people like Virginia Woolf, etc. Things that articles in the database often cite, but aren't themselves in the database.

>>9690852
>The Nigger of Narcissus
I'm going to definitely have to give that one a read sometime!