[Margaret Pilkington]

Eric, it is your prerogative to disagree.
I don't have a problem with that at all. What the writer wrote at the time was in keeping with the life at that time, therefore it provides a social commentary which should not be tampered with.
Tampering with what the writer wrote, is in some kind of way sanitizing it(or at least that is how the PC brigade would have us see it) but because we do not now use the 'N' word for the slaves of the time, doesn't make it right to erase it out of the language of the time.
After all, I am led to believe that the N word has its origins in latin.

I agree that everyone who ever reads a story will be reading it from the perspective of their own experience....and as such will probably put a different cast on it.

Some people will suss out the sub plots, while for others they will go right over their heads.
Also you can read something in your youth which leaves you cold, but read it again later in life and you will be affected by it......because you have matured and become a different person, with more depth.

We read Shakespeare at school.......it mystified us, the language was difficult to comprehend but it came alive when we were whisked off to Manchester to see a performance of 'The Merchant of Venice'.

There is talk of converting the plays of the bard into the common vernacular to make it more acceptable to youngsters in school.......I don't think it is a good idea.
Just take them to see the plays, bring the words alive, don't bastardize the bard.(or any other writer for that matter).