The Mill on the Floss

Published in 1860 by William Blackwood and Sons, The Mill on the Floss followed the tremendous success of Adam Bede and confirmed Eliot's position as a major Victorian novelist. This complete and unabridged edition preserves Eliot's intricate narrative structure and psychological depth.

The novel follows Maggie Tulliver, an intelligent and passionate young woman, and her beloved brother Tom as they grow up at Dorlcote Mill on the River Floss. Their father's financial ruin disrupts their childhood happiness, and as adults, they become estranged over Maggie's romantic entanglements. Maggie's attraction to Philip Wakem, son of her father's enemy, and later to Stephen Guest, her cousin Lucy's suitor, creates moral conflicts that ultimately lead to tragedy when a flood destroys the mill and claims both siblings' lives in a moment of reconciliation.

The novel stands as Eliot's most autobiographical work, drawing heavily on her own childhood in rural Warwickshire and her relationship with her brother Isaac. It explores themes of family loyalty, intellectual development, and the constraints placed on women in Victorian society. The character of Maggie Tulliver has been praised as one of literature's most complex and believable heroines, embodying the conflict between passion and duty that defines much of Eliot's work.

The novel's ending proved controversial among Victorian readers, with some critics finding the flood melodramatic. However, modern scholars recognize it as symbolically appropriate, representing the destructive force of repressed emotions and social constraints. Eliot based the mill setting on Arbury Mill, near her childhood home, and the novel contains detailed observations of rural life that reflect her deep knowledge of agricultural communities.