The Mill on the Floss (Highbridge Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, grim novel
Review: The Mill on the Floss has one of the most appealing young girl characterss of all 19th c. literature--Maggie Tolliver. The relationship between her and her brother is at once beautiful, horrible, and probably indicative of much that was true for boys and girls in 19th century England. Whenever I read the book (and I've read it a few times), I am again in love with Maggie, delighted with the people around her, and saddened by the heavy events that bring her down. George Eliot doesn't pull punches--when you've read one of her books, you know you've been somewhere else, experienced something powerful

Rating:
Summary: Great book for some, including me, contrived for others..
Review: This was my first (of four, so far) George Eliot novel. It's also my favorite. Unlike Adam Bede or Silas Marner, I found the characters to be interesting and enjoyable. No, it's not a finely-crafted piece of literature like Middlemarch. And it might be a bit on the melodramatic side. But for some odd reason I found the story to be ultimately quite moving.

Other folks who I gave the book to gave it mixed results. No one disliked it, but most found the "brother-sister" element to be a bit corny. And pardon my sexism, but I thought the book would appeal more to women than men (since the main character is a teenage girl). Not so. This book is definitely "not for women only".

I imagine if you have a sentimental streak through your bones you will probably love this book.

Rating:
Summary: The divided self.
Review: _The Mill on the Floss_ (1860) was George Eliot's third published book (after Scenes from Clerical Life and Adam Bede)and tells the story of Maggie and Tom Tulliver, two children who grow up in the middle-class rural community of St. Ogg's.

It's been a while since I've read Mill on the Floss, I think that the last time I did I was in my early 20s, just graduated from school. I got a lot more out of the read this time, I think it's probably a book that profits both with re-reading and age. The first time I read it I identified so strongly with Maggie that I practically skipped over everything dealing with the other characters. I found Tom loathesome and the ending of the book appalling.

As a slightly more adult human, I was able to read it for more than just Maggie's story and enjoy it even more. I was surprised by how compulsively I read it. I'd had every intention of stretching it out over several days, but I literally found that I couldn't stop reading it and carried it with me from room to room in the house. I was able to laugh more at Eliot's sly humor and more able to see people like the Gleggs as people and not simply stock appendages of the story.

I think what makes Mill On the Floss such a powerful book (aside from the writing style, which is excellent) is this notion of the divided self which is being worked out both through Tom and Maggie. Tom has a firm clear sense of right and wrong and is always being forced to question or do injury to that sense because of his very difficult sister. On the other hand, Maggie can't seem to find the right balance between self-indulgence and renunciation. She can't ever manage a way to negotiate between the sharp emotions that she feels and her desire not to inflict the consequences of those emotions on her family and friends. It's a tragedy that neither of them ever really manage to understand each other and are constantly hurting and being hurt in their drive to do the right thing and be who they really are.

Interesting how Eliot plays with the tropes from all the popular women's sentimental novels of the time. A young girl who's unattractive because she's dark-haired overcomes poverty and goes on to attract the eye of the most fastidious and eligible man in town... However, in the world of St. Ogg's (unlike the novels of the sentimental sisters like Mary Jane Holmes) Maggie is unable to overcome her obstacles to happiness and is as trapped by her beauty and popularity as she was her unattractive hoyden girlhood. Given the position of women at the time and the strength of the social norms, it's unfortunately a much more believable view of the outcomes of things.

If you haven't read Eliot, I'd agree that it isn't her best book (that's still Middlemarch, for me, and I would begin there first) but it's hugely thought-provoking and honest. It should make many a young woman of today count their blessings and thank the stars that the world has changed since the time Maggie Tulliver was a girl.