Misunderstood Maggie Tulliver is torn. Her rebellious and passionate nature demands expression, while her provincial kin and community expect self-denial. Based closely on the author's own life, Maggie's story explores the conflicts of love and loyalty and the friction between desire and moral responsibility. Written in 1860, "The Mill on the Floss was published to instant popularity. An accurate, evocative depiction of English rural life, this compelling narrative features a vivid and realistic cast, headed by one of nineteenth-century literature's most appealing characters. Required reading for most students, it ranks prominently among the great Victorian novels.
The Mill on the Floss, based on George Eliot"s own experiences of provincial life, is a masterpiece of ambiguity in which moral choice is subjected to the hypocrisy of the Victorian age.
As the headstrong Maggie Tulliver grows into womanhood, the deep love which she has for her brother Tom turns into conflict, because she cannot reconcile his bourgeois standards with her own lively intelligence.
Maggie is unable to adapt to her community or break free from it, and the result, on more than one level, is tragedy.
BOOK FIRST Boy and Girl
i Outside Dorlcote Mill
ii Mr Tulliver, of Dorlcote Mill, Declares his Resolution about Tom
iii Mr Riley Gives his Advice Concerning a School for Tom
iv Tom is Expected
v Tom Comes Home
vi The Aunts and Uncles are Coming
vii Enter the Aunts and Uncles
viii Mr Tulliver Shows His Weaker Side
ix To Garum Firs
x Maggie Behaves Worse than She Expected
xi Maggie Tries to Run Away From Her Shadow
xii Mr and Mrs Glegg at Home
xiii Mr Tulliver Further Entangles the Skein of Life
BOOK SECOND School- Time
i Tom"s "First Half"
ii The Christmas Holidays
iii The New Schoolfellow
iv The Young Idea"
v Maggie"s Second Visit
vi A Love Scene
vii The Golden Gates are Passed
BOOK THIRD The Downfall
i What Had Happened at Home
ii Mrs Tulliver"s Teraphim, or Household Gods
iii The Family Council
iv A Vanishing Gleam
v Tom Applies his Knife to the Oyster
vi Tending to Refute the Popular Prejudice against the Present Pocket-Knife
vii How a Hen Takes to Strategem
viii Daylight on the Wreck
ix An Item Added to the Family Register
BOOK FOURTH The Valley of Humiliation
i A Variation of Protestantism Unknown to Bossuet58
ii The Torn Nest is Pierced by the Thorns
iii A Voice from the Past
BOOK FIFTH Wheat and Tares
i In the Red Deeps
ii Aunt Glegg Learns the Breadth of Bob"s Thumb
iii The Wavering Balance
iv Another Love-Scene
v The Cloven Tree
vi The Hard-Won Triumph
vii A Day of Reckoning
BOOK SIXTH The Great Temptation
i A Duet in Paradise
ii First Impressions
iii Confidential Moments
iv Brother and Sitter
v Showing that Tom had Opened the Oyster
vi Illustrating the Laws of Attraction
vii Philip Re-enters
viii Wakem in a New Light
ix Charity in Full-Dress
x The Spell Seems Broken
xi In the Lane
xii A Family Party
xiii Borne Along by the Tide
xv Waking
BOOK SEVENTH The Final Rescue
i The Return to the Mill
ii St Ogg"s Passes Judgement
iii Showing that Old Acquaintances are Capable of Surprising Us
iv Maggie and Lucy
v The Last Conflict
Conclusion