The Mill on the Floss (1860)

It is easy to fall in love with the heroine of this story, Maggie Tulliver. Although she wants to be the ideal Victorian female, she can't help herself. She is bold, affectionate, impulsive and passionate and just can't fill the role of the passive and obedient daughter. What Maggie wants more than anything is the love and approval of her older brother Tom. Tom is the opposite of Maggie. He is responsible and steady and where Maggie's personality overflows with warmth and affection, Tom is more cold and deliberate. Although Tom loves his sister, he can't help but disapprove of her inappropriate behavior. The Mill on the Floss follows Maggie and Tom as they grow from children into adults. The Tulliver family has owned the mill for several generations, but Maggie and Tom's father makes some poor choices and ends up losing the mill due to a legal dispute. Maggie and Tom's lives change as they have to work hard to survive, Tom entering business on the docks and Maggie working as a teacher. Although Maggie works hard to help out and be the obedient daughter, she continues to disappoint her family by first falling in love with the son of the man who caused the Tulliver bankruptcy and then falling in love with a man who is betrothed to her cousin.



Although I enjoyed the story and the writing, I was so disappointed with the ending. Maggie gives up everything to try to be that obedient daughter and finally get Tom's approval. It almost seemed like the 'moral' to this story is that reason is better than heart or passion. And Tom - what a smug condescending idiot! So undeserving of a sister like Maggie. ( )

[SPOILER] This book really caught me. The super-charged melodramtic ending really hit me. The utter rapidity of its all-embracing solution jolted me: "The boat reappeared--but brother and sister had gone down in an embrace never to be parted, living through again in one supreme moment, the days when they had clasped their little hands in love, and roamed the daisied fields together." In this line, the whole book appears as a carefully sculpured whole--the long and rather dreary opening chapters are seen as an essential part to create the drama of the closing. The impact of the closing is so vivid, that the one-age Conclusion at first disturbed: but even it is just right: the following I thought overwhelming: "Near that brick grave there was a tomb erected, very soon after the flood, for two bodies that were found in close embrace; and it was visited at different moments by two men who both felt that their keenest joy and keenest sorrow were forever buried there." What a story--I now will certainly have to read more Geroge Eliot. ( )

This was my first experience with Elliot and made me a fan for life. It is a bit sad, but so good! ( )

Maggie Tulliver & brother Tom, the hot-tempered father and ever-patient mother

I think it will take me a few days to process this novel. Eliot brilliantly made me feel, care and relate to the characters. The novel follows Maggie and her family the Tullivers through happiness, loss and redemption. I absolutely loved Maggie but her striving to goodness drove me crazy. As I said I need more time to wrap my mind around the ending which was so devestating to me. ( )