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This book because apparently I have to use the text that is in the syllabus even though it's in the public domain.
Does the Norton use annotations? I'm a fan of Norton, and Frankenstein is one of my top three favorite novels, but I don't know why they made you choose a specific edition unless they wanted you to utilize Norton's annotations.
Silly, as Norton usually uses translations, etc., that are cheaper/already in the public domain.
Most people don't care what edition you have as long as you have the text. The only reason I would assign a specific edition is if the annotations were good and/or the introduction has some good information. It is annoying though. You could just buy a cheaper paperback/use a free version but they make you have to get like the 20 dorrah version or something. Sucks but meh. Hilarious though, considering your prof didn't even utilize the essays in that version of your book. Rude.
The editions
do matter, especially for translated texts. Nevertheless, for
Frankenstein it wouldn't matter that much. My professors were cool and said the editions weren't as big a deal if the text was nearly identical (for English-written works, however). I got my BA and MA in English, so I was used to getting novels for all my classes. It got too expensive, though, and toward the end I just ended up finding what editions I could from the local library.
Seeing as Flood's text is a Norton edition, I'd imagine the professor wants to use the annotations, but I can't imagine the annotations would be that critical for
Frankenstein, unless you don't know the background that well. It would be awful if Flood's prof doesn't even make use of the essays/annotations, but it wouldn't surprise me.