The Sound and the Fury, which I just had to read for school, is a daunting novel to a first time reader. Its stream-of-consciousness style, random chronology, and unusual format makes it difficult to understand the first time around. However, this Norton critical edition is an immense help, as it includes an appendix, notes from the author, essays, and critical reviews on the novel. These greatly help a confused reader to understand the plot and keep reading. The critical reviews and essays are a fascinating read after finishing the book, as they provide new and interesting insights. This book is a tremendous help to unlock an amazing and brilliant book, which might scare people off without the help. Its like an authoritative, intelligent, thorough cliff's notes included at the end of the book. The novel itself is not tampered with, the essays and appendices are additional after the end of the novel. highly highly recommended.