The Mill on the Floss

by George Eliot

Overview

One of George Eliot's best-loved works, The Mill on the Floss is a brilliant portrait of the bonds of provincial life as seen through the eyes of the free-spirited Maggie Tulliver, who is torn between a code of moral responsibility and her hunger for self-fulfillment. Rebellious by nature, she causes friction both among the townspeople of St. Ogg's and in her own family, particularly with her brother, Tom. Maggie's passionate nature makes her a beloved heroine, but it is also her undoing.

The Mill on the Floss is a luminous exploration of human relationships and of a heroine who critics say closely resembles Eliot herself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781515455783
Publisher:	Wilder Publications, Inc.
Publication date:	06/09/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	520
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

George Eliot (1819–1880), born Mary Ann Evans, was an English writer best known for her poetry and novels. She grew up in a conservative environment where she received a Christian education. An avid reader, Eliot expanded her horizons on religion, science and free thinkers. Her earliest writings included an anonymous English translation of The Life of Jesus in 1846 before embracing a career as a fiction writer. Some of her most notable works include Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss(1860) and Silas Marner.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
George Eliot: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text
The Mill on the Floss

Appendix A: George Eliot’s Translations, Essays, Reviews, and Poems

1. From George Eliot’s translation of Ludwig Feuerbach’s The Essence of Christianity (1854)
2. [George Eliot], “Margaret Fuller and Mary Wollstonecraft,” Leader (13 October 1855)
3. From [George Eliot], review of Thomas Keightley’s Life, Opinions, and Writings of John Milton, The Westminster Review (October 1855)
4. [George Eliot], “The Antigone and Its Moral,” Leader (29 March 1856)
5. From [George Eliot], “Silly Novels by Lady Novelists,” The Westminster Review (October 1856)
6. From George Eliot, “Notes on ‘The Spanish Gypsy’ and Tragedy in General” (1868)
7. George Eliot, “Brother and Sister,” The Legend of Jubal and Other Poems (1874)

Appendix B: Contemporary Reviews of The Mill on the Floss

1. Spectator (7 April 1860)
2. [E.S. Dallas], The Times (19 May 1860)
3. [Dinah Mulock], Macmillan’s Magazine (April 1861)
4. From Henry James, The Atlantic Monthly (October 1866)

Appendix C: Historical Documents: Mythic and Religious Contexts; Medicine and Education

1. From Mrs. Anna Jameson, “St. Christopher,” Sacred and Legendary Art, vol. 2 (1848)
2. From Daniel Defoe, “Of the Tools the Devil Works with,” The History of the Devil (1727)
3. From Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (1737)
4. From Auguste Comte, The Catechism of Positivism (1858)
5. From Samuel Hare, Cases and Observations Illustrative of the Beneficial Results (1857)
6. From [William Ballantyne Hodgson], “‘Classical’ Instruction: Its Use and Abuse,” The Westminster Review (October 1853)

Select Bibliography

Reading Group Guide

1. In the first scene in the novel, Maggie is set in opposition to her surroundings, her family, and the notion of what it means to be a Victorian woman. Examine the last four pages of the Chapter II of Book First. How is this juxtaposition highlighted, and through what means? What role does the narrator’s voice play in this introduction to our heroine?

Mrs. Tulliver is portrayed as a stagnant and passive woman. Examine her unraveling in Book Third, Chapter II, as her material possessions are taken away from her. What does this say about her identity and its relationship to the material things in her life? How does this relate back to the ideals about women presented in the beginning of the novel?

The contrast between fantasy and reality is a theme that permeates the entire novel. Examine the passage in Book Fourth, Chapter I which contrasts the ruins of castles along the Rhine with the “angular skeletons of villages on the Rhone.” How is reality portrayed here and in contrast, what is its relationship with fantasy? Is one an escape from the other or are they mere opposites? What does this passage suggest about the human need for fantasy? Is fantasy an escape or is it portrayed as oppressive?

How does this contrast between reality and fantasy or nostalgia relate to Maggie? In Chapter III of the same section above, Maggie laments the lack of fantasy and nostalgia in her own life and her desire for the “secret of life” (the paragraph that begins with “Maggie’s sense of loneliness…”) What answers does this passage offer to this question? Does Maggie accept them?

Compare Maggie and herdialogues with Philip to the Maggie during her romance with Stephen. How does the change in her mirror the turn of events in the novel? How and why do the two men affect her in such different ways? Is it merely their own personalities affecting Maggie, or is it something more internal in Maggie that the two men merely bring out in her?

Examine Maggie’s relationship with Lucy. The contrast between the two women are clear from the beginning of the novel. How does this contrast shift throughout the novel? How does Maggie’s opinion of Lucy change? How does the world that Maggie inhibits differ from Lucy’s world?

Representations of “home” vary from chapter to chapter throughout the book. Compare and contrast the multiple allusions to “home” and “nurture” and how they affect the various characters. For example, consider the passage at the end of Chapter III in Book Fifth, where “desire” is juxtaposed with “home” What does “home” represent for Maggie and how does her attitude toward it shift throughout the novel? (Consider the passage towards the end of the novel where Maggie exclaims “I wish I could make myself a world outside it, as men do.”)

Examine Maggie’s relationship with Tom. What does their conversations throughout Book Fifth suggest about gender? How does her relationship with Tom affect Maggie and her outlook?

Consider the ending of the novel. Why do you suppose the last chapter is titled “Final Rescue” even though the novel ends with Maggie and Tom’s tragic death? What does this suggest about the novel’s purpose? Looking back, how does this ending justify or explain Maggie’s journey throughout the novel?

Editorial Reviews

This edition of George Eliot’s most passionate novel about a woman’s life is accompanied by a selection of contemporary materials that demonstrate the surprisingly radical context of the author’s views at this point in her career. Oliver Lovesey has selected brief, eminently readable portions from Eliot’s own translations, essays, and reviews that will educate the reader in the ‘real’ George Eliot—a woman of amazing education herself, and of profoundly original thought that transcended the conventions of her time. The edition also includes the full text of the author’s poem, ‘Brother and Sister,’ a parallel narrative of Eliot’s childhood that is crucial to the reader’s understanding of the novel, as well as other very useful selections from historical documents and contemporary reviews of the novel.” — Mary Wilson Carpenter, Queen’s University

“This edition is a splendid presentation of George Eliot’s most autobiographical novel. The long and generous introduction dispels some of the myths about the author’s life, traces subtle relations between the novel and the moral complexities Eliot faced in Victorian society, places the novel in the context of her life’s work, and offers valuable analyses of the novel’s style and structure. Footnotes throughout the text helpfully explain dialect words, obsolete expressions and literary allusions. Excerpts from George Eliot’s critical writings, added as appendices, give insight into some of the ideas about fiction, religion, and the place of women in society that entered into the writing of The Mill on the Floss.” — Jacob Korg, Professor Emeritus, University of Washington

From the Publisher

[Eliot’s] faith in free will was unshakable. She firmly believed in the importance of self-determination in the life of the individual. For her, Maggie's tragedy is as much one of character as of circumstances.”

University of Dehli Meenakshi Bharat

The peculiarly tense and gloomy character of parts of The Mill on the Floss must derive from the paradoxical fact that she was using an artistic re-creation of her own life partly to ‘teach’ that strong and deep roots make good men, that morality is derived from the development of particular family and local affections into abstract conceptions of duty and piety.”

A. S. Byatt

If I had an imaginary friend, Maggie was it. I loved her, I laughed with her, I agonized about her problems, I cried over her…and I still do…George Eliot’s understanding of human nature is profound…The greatest British novelist of any age.”

Daily Mail (London)

It is a stern critic who would deny readers the pleasure of spotting which parts of her own childhood George Eliot transferred to Tom and Maggie. The dynamics and personalities of the Tulliver family are remarkably similar to what we know of the Evanses.”

Guardian

Intense…enduring…dramatic”

Booklist

Eileen Atkins’s terrific depiction of the inner struggles of Maggie and Tom Tulliver will leave listeners awed.”

AudioFile

"This edition is a splendid presentation of George Eliot's most autobiographical novel. The long and generous introduction dispels some of the myths about the author's life, traces subtle relations between the novel and the moral complexities Eliot faced in Victorian society, places the novel in the context of her life's work, and offers valuable analyses of the novel's style and structure. Footnotes throughout the text helpfully explain dialect words, obsolete expressions and literary allusions. Excerpts from George Eliot's critical writings, added as appendices, give insight into some of the ideas about fiction, religion, and the place of women in society that entered into the writing of The Mill on the Floss."

Jacob Korg University of Washington

"This edition of George Eliot's most passionate novel about a woman's life is accompanied by a selection of contemporary materials that demonstrate the surprisingly radical context of the author's views at this point in her career. Oliver Lovesey has selected brief, eminently readable portions from Eliot's own translations, essays, and reviews that will educate the reader in the 'real' George Eliot—a woman of amazing education herself, and of profoundly original thought that transcended the conventions of her time. The edition also includes the full text of the author's poem, 'Brother and Sister,' a parallel narrative of Eliot's childhood that is crucial to the reader's understanding of the novel, as well as other very useful selections from historical documents and contemporary reviews of the novel."

Mary Wilson Carpenter Queen's University

Eileen Atkins’s terrific depiction of the inner struggles of Maggie and Tom Tulliver will leave listeners awed at their stubbornness. Maggie is a cranky child who loves books and her brother but hates having her hair done and sitting still; Tom is sent to school to learn Latin and other esoteric subjects even though he’s only good at physical games. Atkins creates multiple distinct character voices ranging from the upper-class Philip to the hilarious Bob Jakin. Interspersed with the drama, there are lighter moments, and for those Atkins employs a deft touch. The aunts are particularly amusing, especially Aunt Glegg, who believes Mrs. Tulliver married beneath her but that Tom may have inherited some of the Dodson spirit. You can hear Aunt Glegg’s nose in the air. A.B. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2012 - AudioFile