I'm self-learning philosophy, am untrained in linguistics, and fear obscurantism. So I prefer and find more helpful 'paraphrases', which I define to mean other (more recent) philosophers' rewrites and glosses, of the originals, in a contemporary simple language (in which I am fluent).
So should I read the paraphrases before the original philosophical works? I assume:

1. that the author is a fair, learned philosopher, who dispassionately and objectively explains and simplifies the original work.

2. the availability of a (cheap!) contemporary simple paraphrase exists.

3. the value in reading the originals, but dearth of time prevents reading of both the original and paraphrase.

I'm self-learning philosophy, but am untrained in linguistics, and fear obscurantism. So I prefer and find more helpful 'paraphrases': (which I define to mean) other philosophers' rewrites and glosses, of the originals, in enjoyable plain simple 20th-21st century English (or French).
Should I read the paraphrases before the original philosophical works? I assume:

1. that the author is a fair, learned philosopher, who genuinely tries to explain and simplify the original work, dispassionately and objectively.

2. the availability of (cheap!) such paraphrases.

3. the important worth in reading the originals, but dearth of time prevents reading both the original and paraphrase.