Book Description
The Mill on the Floss: The novel details the lives of Tom and Maggie Tulliver, a brother and sister growing up on the river Floss near the village of St. Oggs, evidently in the 1820's, after the Napoleonic Wars but prior to the first Reform Bill (1832). The novel spans a period of 10-15 years, from Tom and Maggie's childhood up until their deaths in a flood on the Floss. The book is fictional autobiography in part, reflecting the disgrace that George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) herself had while in a lengthy relationship with a married man, George Henry Lewes.
Maggie Tulliver holds the central role in the book, as both her relationship with her older brother Tom, and her romantic relationships with Philip Wakem, a hunchbacked, but sensitive and intellectual, friend, and with Stephen Guest, a vivacious young socialite in St. Oggs and fiance of Maggie's cousin Lucy Deane, constitute the most significant narrative threads.
Reviews
"This book really moved me. I'm not sure what else to say about it. GE is a fantastic writer- this is the first I've read and I'll certainly be reading more. Her ability to fully unpack all the angles of a perspective on life, like how to think feel and be is great. She powerfully articulates the nuances of her characters' conscious and unconscious motivations. It's also incredibly tragic in its expression of the manipulation of Maggie by all the men in her life, who hold absolute familial and social power over her, who make all her practical decisions for her, whether she is educated, and who she can love or marry, and who have the power to ruin her reputation just by rowing too far. But Tom's life is no better, really, he is driven and controlled by his father's foolishness and prejudice, both in his education and in the misplaced sense of duty that is forced on him. It's really a wonderful book."
About Author
Mary Ann Evans, known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She was born in 1819 at a farmstead in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England, where her father was estate manager. Mary Ann, the youngest child and a favorite of her father's, received a good education for a young woman of her day. Influenced by a favorite governess, she became a religious evangelical as an adolescent.
