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