Rebellious and affectionate, Maggie Tulliver is always in trouble. Recalling her own experiences as a girl, George Eliot describes Maggie's turbulent childhood with a sympathetic engagement that makes the early chapters of TheMillon theFloss among the most immediately attractive she ever wrote. As Maggie approaches adulthood, her spirited temperament brings her into conflict with her family, her community, and her muchloved brother Tom. Still more painfully, she finds her own nature divided between the claims of moral responsibility and her passionate hunger for self-fulfilment. George Eliot's searching exploration of Maggie's complex dilemma has made this one of the most enduringly popular of her works.

The Mill on the Floss, published on 4 April 1860, marks a turning point in Eliot's life as a writer. She began work on it in January 1859, a month before Adam Bede, her first full-length novel, was published. Nearly 4o years old, she had reached a moment of uncertainty. She could not know that Adam Bede would be a triumphant success, setting her on the road to fame and prosperity. Her first thoughts, as she embarked on this next piece of fiction, were of disaster. She combed the Annual Register "for cases of inundation', and copied details into her commonplace book--bridges swept away, houses flooded, fields submerged. In choosing the setting for her new novel, Eliot seemed to be continuing a pattern begun with Scenes of Clerical Life (1858), her first published fiction, and Adam Bede...

Introduction

Note on the Text

Select Bibliography

A Chronology of George Eliot

THE MILL ON THE FLOSS

BOOK FIRST: Boy and Girl

BOOK SBCOND: School-Time

BOOK THIRD: The Downfall

BOOK FOURTH: The Valley of Humiliation

BOOK FIFTH: Wheat and Tares

BOOK SIXTH: The Great Temptation

BOOK SEVENTH: The Final Rescue

Explanatory Notes