Mabbott's edition is an odd one, in a way. It has copious notes and other matter, but the texts of the pieces themselves are not interrupted by such. And Mabbott's notes give tremendous insight into Poe's sources, historical points which explain references the modern reader would simply not catch, and so on. He also provides variorum readings, as Poe not infrequently entirely rewrote poems and, occasionally, entire tales, to the point where the final product scarcely resembles the original. He also quotes pieces by others which Poe imitated, was responding to, or essentially rewrote to suit his own artistic vision (as Mabbott says, invariably improving on the original in such cases) -- entire, in the case of the poems, in part in the case of the prose works (if lengthy). He also includes, in his appendices, a scholarly "Life", works by Poe's siblings, and numerous other items of interest to the student of Poe. In addition, his presents all known poetic and fictional works of Poe, as well as the sketches (though not the critical works, etc.; he died before completing work on all of that) -- being one of the very few which does so.
However, as noted, the texts of Poe's works themselves are set aside in a larger typeface, with a heading, to make it easier for the casual reader to skip any of the other material he or she may not be interested in.
Mabbott's Poe is still rated as one of the greatest ever produced, as Mabbott himself was one of the greatest Poe scholars we've had. However, if you're looking for just the text of Poe's stories and poems, there are numerous good editions out there; which is the best among them, I couldn't really say; I'm not that knowledgeable, I'm afraid.
My own favorite of those I've come across is that known as "the Borzoi Poe", put out in two hardbound volumes by Alfred A. Knopf, edited by Poe scholar Arthur Hobson Quinn with texts established by Edward H. O'Neill. All bibliographic notes and the like are set aside at the back of the second volume; it also includes a small sampling of Poe's critical works and his marginalia, but there are a tiny handful of pieces missing -- strictly for the reason that they weren't known until after this edition first saw print (in 1946; it was in print fairly recently, having gone through numerous printings, so you might be able to find a used copy of it fairly inexpensively).
NOTE: I just took a look at Amazon and, while new copies are still available, they tend to go for a hefty sum; used copies, however, start as low as $5.90 for the two-volume boxed set (1092 pp.)....
Actually it does sound like I will want to chase that up so thanks for the heads up.
