I remember writing about this in school essays about how I REALLY wished the author would just get on with things because the journey was taking forever. I don't think I would have made it through without it being an assignment - and since it's not the only Conrad I've read, he does have a tendency to go on and on. Footnotes would have helped a lot.
This Penguin edition has footnotes, including for the notes, but the superscript numbers don't match up with any footnotes I can find - I go to the appropriate number and it's clearly giving an explanation of something unrelated to where I came from - very frustrating.
I want to say, once again, thanks for the link. It really helped me understand what was going on. I think I'll be using it quite frequently in my mission to read as many 'classics' as possible.
I tried to read Rob Roy last year and just couldn't get into it, maybe I'll try it again with cliff notes.