Reading books over again

I am currently reading - and crying over - Little Women, the classic by Louisa May Alcott. I don't care to count the many years since I first read it but I am surprised that I still know most of it by heart.
I was annoyed the other day by a TV/film critic commenting on a screen version of the story and saying it was about the "loves and jealousies" of four sisters.  Now that I think is not what it is about. It is based on Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan and is basically no different from other books and stories of the present day which try to show unobtrusively - and obtrusively in some cases! - that money doesn't make us happy, that helping others is good for us and that we should not judge too harshly or feel too complacent about ourselves. In other words, we should count our blessings. I am inclined to think that this point of view is as relevant today as it was when Little Women was written.

I remember how much I enjoyed it as a 12-year old. I was given the book as a birthday present and was very doubtful that it was my kind of novel as I was somewhat of a tomboy and preferred boys' adventure stories, especially the ones about animals. I had read White Fang and the Call of the Wild among countless now-forgotten stories which I devoured as a child. A book about four sisters - almost too good to be true in my opinion - was not the stuff which would attract me.
I remember that my mother read the book aloud to me and my sister (my brother listened in while pretending not to!). I liked Jo, I remember, because she was unconventional and a tomboy like me - not that I wanted to be a boy but I did find their pursuits infinitely more interesting than playing with dolls. And I had already started to write stories, so I felt Jo and I had some things in common. Of course I would have loved to have had a friend like Laurie Lawrence!
Although I found Meg a bit irritating, I loved the chapter where she went to stay with Annie Moffat and got her first taste of "fine" society. And I liked the bit where Jo was so angry with Amy for tearing up one of her manuscripts and learned to forgive. This made the characters believable to me.

 I'm not sure I learned any of the splendid lessons contained within the pages of the novel but as I read it now and wipe away a tear or two, I can understand what made it a classic and I have no doubt that I will take it out and re-read it at some future date and enjoy it almost as much as the first time I read it.