The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot

...hoped for books in which the less pretty, dark haired girl triumphed rather than the elfin blondes. The Mill on The Floss is the tale of the dark girl triumphant - for the man prefers her to her pretty blond cousin. It is also a tale of honour and courage in the face of social disapproval. Finally the fate of the heroine is not a happy one, but as a tragic heroine, maggie is certainly preferable to many of the 'dappy bints' occupying that niche.. ...
...section of the book deals with the heroine's early life - her adoration for her older brother, her parent's pretentions and errors. Her father's foolishness leads the family into abject poverty. We see snippets of other family members and local people - not as much detail as you get in Middlemarch, but certainly enough to provide richness. Quite sweet anecdotes, but also some shrewed points about education, and especially the education of girls who ... more

I remember once reading a comment written by George Eliot, in which she said that she always hoped for books in which the less pretty, dark haired girl triumphed rather than the elfin blondes. The Mill on The Floss is the tale of the dark girl triumphant - for the man prefers her to her pretty blond cousin. It is also a tale of honour and courage in the face of social disapproval. Finally the fate of the heroine is not a happy one, but as a tragic heroine, maggie is certainly preferable to many of the 'dappy bints' occupying that niche..

The plot then - the first section of the book deals with the heroine's early life - her adoration for her older brother, her parent's pretentions and errors. Her father's foolishness leads the family into abject poverty. We see snippets of other family members and local people - not as much detail as you get in Middlemarch, but certainly enough to provide richness. Quite sweet anecdotes, but also some shrewed points about education, and especially the education of girls who really weren't given many opportunities.

Maggie Tulliver falls in love with her cousin's betrothed, and finds that he returns her feelings. He persuades her to go off with him in a boat and attempts an elopement. For the sake of her cousin, who she loves dearly, Maggie returns. (chasitity in tact, reputation in shreds) The community in which she lives is quick to judge her - assuming that she has slept with Stephen and that he has rejected her. It is obvious that had they run off and married, it would have been excused. Conventions must be followed. Here the parallels with Eliot's own experiences are obvious. (Eliot lived with a married man, and often found herself a social outcast because of her unmarried state.)

Maggie is rejected by her brother and finds herself friendless. She has her own sense of honour in tact, but little else remains to her. When the river floods, she is able to save her brother, and briefly they are friends again before fate overtakes them.

Victorian fiction is littered with unlikely coincidences, and Mill on the Floss does have a few, but so many as to strech your credulity. The plot is quite slow moving, but has a good deal of depth to it - character insight and social observations being more important here than pace and action. its a thoughtful piece, deeply romantic in a way. It is a long book and at first the wordy writing style can seem a bit like struggling through a amrsh - as you get usd to the language, it becomes very readable and enjoyable.

George Eliot herself was an unconventional figure - not a beautiful woman, and one who lived with a man who she had not married - a daring enterprise in Victorian England. There are traces of Eliot's own life to be found in the Mill on the Floss - no doubt her own expereinces of social judgment and personal isolation have impacted on the character of dark haired Maggie Tulliver.
As ever with Eliot's work, The Mill on the Floss is rich with insight into a whole society, centered around the lives of the Tulliver family. Richly described scenes and characters bring alive an England of the past, and make comprehensible attitudes that would seem very out of place in this day and age.

The modern age is not without its hypocrasises, and by better understanding the past we may make sounder judgements about our own biases.

I would recomend this book to fans of Victorian literature, and to anyone who has read authors like Catherine Cookson, or any sort of historical chick lit, and found them lacking - Eliot is one of the authors who laid the foundations for the historical women's fiction we get now, and her work is infinitly superior to that of most later copiers. I would also recomend it to male readers - It's not totally girl orrientated, although it is more so than most of Eliot's fiction.
 

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