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The Mill on the Floss (Dover Thrift…
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The Mill on the Floss (Dover Thrift Editions) (original 1860; edition 2003)

by George Eliot

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8,670120958 (3.8)1 / 504
Classic Literature. Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML:

Set in nineteenth-century England, this great novel of domestic realism sympathetically portrays a young woman's vain efforts to adapt to her provincial world.

Maggie Tulliver, whose father owns a mill perched on the banks of the River Floss, is intelligent and imaginative beyond the understanding of her community, her relatives, and particularly her brother, Tom. Despite their opposite temperaments, Maggie and Tom are united by a strong bond. But this bond suffers when Tom's sense of family honor leads him to forbid her to associate with the one friend who appreciates her intelligence and imagination. Later, when Maggie falls in love with the handsome and passionate fiancé of her cousin and is caught in a compromising situation, she fears her relationship with Tom may never recover.… (more)

Member:bookmonk8888
Title:The Mill on the Floss (Dover Thrift Editions)
Authors:George Eliot
Info:Dover Publications (2003), Paperback, 416 pages
Collections:Your library
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The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (1860)

  1. 140
    Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (ncgraham)
    ncgraham: Two Victorian heroines approach the question of how to reconcile passion and morality in very different ways.
  2. 100
    Middlemarch by George Eliot (Booksloth)
  3. 74
    Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (roby72)
  4. 41
    Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (Booksloth)
  5. 10
    David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (kara.shamy)
AP Lit (64)
1860s (5)
My TBR (22)
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English (117)  Spanish (2)  Italian (1)  All languages (120)
Showing 1-5 of 117 (next | show all)
A finely detailed and carefully observed coming-of-age of a girl growing up in rural England in the 1830s. I found Maggie, the protagonist, a compelling and relatable character--in the early part of the book, when she was still a little kid, she often reminded me of other big-hearted and emotionally intense but sometimes-wayward (in the sense of not easily submitting to society's narrow expectations for her) literary heroines that I looked to for reassurance when I was going through my own growing up as that sort of girl. However, the sections of the book that were more focused on other members of her family did not hold my interest as well, and I would have been ok with a lot of them being trimmed and keeping the focus on Maggie. The startling ending was definitely one that will stay with me. ( )
  selfcallednowhere | Mar 22, 2024 |
Here is a book that creates conflicting emotions, lots of them.

The description of the mill in chapter 1 almost made me miss my stop during my commute. There is a peculiar magic in the writing. It’s lyrical and sharp all at once.

I loved Maggie so much. Oh, how I felt for her. All these people telling her what books not to read, and wishing she was a boy (too clever for a girl, you know…), and reminding her at every turn that there are things you cannot do because you are a girl. George Eliot sees this so clearly. How I wish that Maggie had been loved *enough* when she was a child. How I wish she had a brother that knew that showing affection did not mean being a narrow-minded misogynic idiot.

“She loved Tom very dearly, but she often wished that he cared more about her loving him.”

Here is Maggie, saying no to a gift and breaking readers’ hearts:

“It would make me in love with this world again, as I used to be, it would make me long to see and know many things; it would make me long for a full life.”

George Eliot’s insights into human nature, relationships, and society are wonderful and often funny, it was a bit like talking to a good friend in a cozy place, nodding “I know! I know! You’re so right!”

“It is always chilling, in a friendly intercourse, to say you have no opinion to give. And if you deliver an opinion at all, it is mere stupidity not to do it with an air of conviction and well-founded knowledge. You make it your own in uttering it, and naturally get fond of it.”

“...but incompetent gentlemen must live, and without private fortune it is difficult to see how they could all live genteelly if they had nothing to do with education or government.”


The thing that was woven with great skill and that impressed me the most, was the story of two people who have no idea how to handle a sudden and strong sexual attraction (this is exactly what it is and all it is, Eliot does everything but scream at the reader).

I certainly wish that Elliot would do less Victorian moralizing; fewer sentimental and very long Victorian asides. These either bored me to tears or made me react in all the wrong (cynical) ways. Also, the story keeps coming apart at the seams when you look at the novel from a distance, having finished it. The plot meanders, it goes every which way, gets predictable at times, drowns in details and aforementioned asides. If it weren’t for the ending, it might still have been a four star read, because the book had grown on me. But what was that ending for, where did it come from? Nobody knows and out of nowhere! It seems like the author said, “I have no idea how to get my characters out of this situation and finish my story, so let me just…”. Oh, PLEASE. ( )
  Alexandra_book_life | Dec 15, 2023 |
This was just okay. While Eliot certainly can write, and I liked the insights into human nature and personalities that she included, I didn't particularly like the story or any of the characters.

I felt the author was a bit harsh when it came to the character of Tom, painting him as only terribly selfish and immature, with very little redeeming qualities; when it came to Maggie, she was too merciful, making her out to be a wonderful person even when she acted completely thoughtlessly, just because she "had a good heart." Since I learned this account was somewhat autobiographical for the author, based on her turbulent relationship with her own brother, this made sense, but didn't make for an objective story.

There were multiple love triangles (which always make me roll my eyes), and the ending was very abrupt and ridiculous. It just felt like a cop-out.

However, I did like some of it, and here are a few quotes in particular that struck me:

"...conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course..." p 587

"There is something sustaining in the very agitation that accompanies the first shocks of trouble, just as an acute pain is often a stimulus, and produces an excitement which is transient strength. It is in the slow, changed life that follows - in the time when sorrow has become stale, and has no longer an emotive intensity that counteracts its pain - in the time when day follows day in dull unexpectant sameness, and trial is a dreary routine - it is then that despair threatens; it is then that the peremptory hunger of the soul is felt, and eye and ear are strained after some unlearned secret of our existence, which shall give to endurance the nature of satisfaction." p 313 ( )
1 vote RachelRachelRachel | Nov 21, 2023 |
Tom was a heartless, self-righteous ass. Maggie was an insipid sop of a fool, self-righteous in her own way. The one was a mindless roar, the other a detestable whimper. Such wonderful writing, but I ceased caring about any of these hateful characters at least halfway through the book. I had to force myself to finish it. By the end, I was earnestly hoping that Maggie would fling herself into the Floss and make a pleasing end of things for everyone. It isn't hard to imagine how happy I was about the ending, at least, though no auto de fé could suffice to redeem these two obnoxious characters.

Why did you do this to me, George Eliot? I won't soon forgive this offense. ( )
  judeprufrock | Jul 4, 2023 |
While I immediately disliked the way everyone except her father treated Maggie, I was mildly enjoying this classic about the struggles of a middle class family in Victorian England until the final 2 books (about the final 20%). I found Maggie's behavior in these final sections so intensely irritating that it ruined the book for me.

This is the 3rd George Eliot book I have read & overall I haven't been a fan. Guess I will skip Daniel Deronda and Adam Bede (both on the Guardian's list) at least for the near future!

Nadia May was excellent even though I didn't care for the book & I would recommend her narration. ( )
  leslie.98 | Jun 27, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 117 (next | show all)

» Add other authors (68 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Eliot, Georgeprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Allen, Walter ErnestIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ashton, RosemaryIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Atkins, EileenReadersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Behler, Albertsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Birch, DinahIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Byatt, A. S.Introductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Constable, JohnCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Daiches, DavidIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Davis, J BernardIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Eliot, Charles WilliamEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Haight, Gordon ShermanEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Livesey, MargotIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
MacNeill, AlysonIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Manning, WrayIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mooney, BelIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Salomon, LouisIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Smiley, JaneAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Stephens, IanIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Venning, ChristopherEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Watson, EmilyReadersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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A wide plain, where the broadening Floss hurries on between its green banks to the sea, and the loving tide, rushing to meet it, checks its passage with an impetuous embrace. On this mighty tide the black ships -laden with the fresh-scented fir-planks, with rounded sacks of oil-bearing seed, or with the dark glitter of coal—are borne along to the town of St. Ogg's, which shows its aged, fluted red roofs and the broad gables of its wharves between the low wooded hill and the river-brink, tingeing the water with a soft purple hue under the transient glance of this February sun. Far away on each hand stretch the rich pastures, and the patches of dark earth made ready for the seed of broad-leaved green crops, or touched already with the tint of the tender-bladed autumn-sown corn. There is a remnant still of last year's golden clusters of beehive-ricks rising at intervals beyond the hedgerows; and everywhere the hedgerows are studded with trees; the distant ships seem to be lifting their masts and stretching their red-brown sails close among the branches of the spreading ash. Just by the red-roofed town the tributary Ripple flows with a lively current into the Floss. How lovely the little river is, with its dark changing wavelets! It seems to me like a living companion while I wander along the bank, and listen to its low, placid voice, as to the voice of one who is deaf and loving. I remember those large dipping willows. I remember the stone bridge.
Quotations
Such things as these are the mother-tongue of our imagination, the language that is laden with all the subtle, inextricable associations the fleeting hours of our childhood left behind them. Our delight in the sunshine on the deep-bladed grass to-day might be no more than the faint perception of wearied souls, if it were not for the sunshine and the grass in the far-off years which still live in us, and transform our perception into love.
There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.
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Classic Literature. Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML:

Set in nineteenth-century England, this great novel of domestic realism sympathetically portrays a young woman's vain efforts to adapt to her provincial world.

Maggie Tulliver, whose father owns a mill perched on the banks of the River Floss, is intelligent and imaginative beyond the understanding of her community, her relatives, and particularly her brother, Tom. Despite their opposite temperaments, Maggie and Tom are united by a strong bond. But this bond suffers when Tom's sense of family honor leads him to forbid her to associate with the one friend who appreciates her intelligence and imagination. Later, when Maggie falls in love with the handsome and passionate fiancé of her cousin and is caught in a compromising situation, she fears her relationship with Tom may never recover.

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Penguin Australia

2 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 0141439629, 0141198915

Tantor Media

An edition of this book was published by Tantor Media.

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Urban Romantics

An edition of this book was published by Urban Romantics.

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