The Mill on the Floss

George Eliot (1819-1880)

Original en 206494 words First published 1860 United Kingdom

Maggie Tulliver is bright, passionate and hungry for more than her provincial world will allow a girl, and her adored brother Tom is dutiful, stubborn and unforgiving in proportion. Eliot drew directly on her own Midlands childhood for the mill at Dorlcote and the river Floss that gives the book its ending. The bitter feud over a lawsuit drags the siblings apart; Stephen Guest's elopement attempt nearly destroys Maggie's reputation; and the novel closes with one of the most famous floods in English fiction, in which brother and sister are reconciled in death as they never quite managed in life.

Text sourced from Project Gutenberg (public domain in the United States); the Project Gutenberg trademark and license text have been removed on import. Public-domain status determined by the author's death year + 50 years rule.

001 cover The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot “In their death they were… 2527 words
002 “I think I’ve hit it, Bessy,” was his first remark after a short silence. 2506 words
003 Mr Riley was turning over the leaves of the book, and she could make… 2534 words
004 “But there’s no hurry, is there?” said Mrs Tulliver; “for I hope, Mr… 2508 words
005 Perhaps she felt it necessary to recover her position with him on the… 2506 words
006 “Didn’t I think about your fish-line all this quarter, and mean to… 2505 words
007 “Yes, yes,” said Mr Tulliver, “ask her to come. 2607 words
008 “I know the chap as owns the ferrets,” said Bob, in a hoarse treble… 2543 words
009 “Well, Bessy!” said Mrs Glegg, with a bitter smile and a scarcely… 2542 words
010 She did to-day, when she and Tom came in from the garden with their… 2527 words
011 But Tom was not altogether hard. 2508 words
012 “Come, come, come,” said Mr Glegg, soothingly. 2719 words
013 “Brother, I’m glad to see you,” she said, in an affectionate tone. 2626 words
014 As for Lucy, she was just as pretty and neat as she had been… 2543 words
015 The only alleviating circumstance in a _tête-à-tête_ with uncle… 2555 words
016 Chapter X. Maggie Behaves Worse Than She Expected The startling… 2729 words
017 Maggie soon got out of breath with running, but by the time Tom got… 2592 words
018 Maggie felt that it was impossible she should ever be queen of these… 2607 words
019 This legend, one sees, reflects from a far-off time the visitation of… 2686 words
020 “Well, Mr Glegg! it’s a poor return I get for making you the wife… 2628 words
021 But though the letter could not shake Mrs Glegg’s principles, it made… 2862 words
022 He very soon set down poor Tom as a thoroughly stupid lad; for though… 2525 words
023 “_You_ help me, you silly little thing!” said Tom, in such high… 2605 words
024 But it was worth purchasing, even at the heavy price of the Latin… 2678 words
025 But not even a direct argument from that typical Dodson female… 2501 words
026 “Why, were the Greeks great fighters?” said Tom, who saw a vista in this direction. 2514 words
027 There was a great improvement in his bearing, for example; and some… 2540 words
028 When Maggie came, however, she could not help looking with growing… 2536 words
029 Maggie started a little on being roused from her reverie, and said… 2542 words
030 The down had come on Tom’s lip, yet his thoughts and expectations had… 2535 words
031 In half an hour after this Mr Tulliver’s own wagoner found him lying… 2524 words
032 Maggie had witnessed this scene with gathering anger. 2527 words
033 “Oh, dear!” said Mrs Tulliver, “I never sent ’em word about Mr… 2508 words
034 The poor woman was interrupted by a rising sob. 2516 words
035 Uncle Glegg involuntarily shook his head, and looked more concerned… 2528 words
036 “Ah, young gentleman,” said Mr Deane, with that tendency to repress… 2691 words
037 Maggie, in her brown frock, with her eyes reddened and her heavy hair… 2535 words
038 Bob pushed the sovereigns forward, but before Tom could speak Maggie… 2559 words
039 It is clear that the irascible miller was a man to interpret any… 2760 words
040 These were the mental conditions on which Mrs Tulliver had undertaken… 2500 words
041 The quarto Bible was laid open before him at the fly-leaf, and while… 2549 words
042 He paused and looked on the ground. 2502 words
043 This time of utmost need was come to Maggie, with her short span of thirteen years. 2503 words
044 Bob was in the act of depositing his pack on the door-step, and with… 2585 words
045 This afternoon, the sight of Bob’s cheerful freckled face had given… 2670 words
046 “Let your mother have that bit o’ pleasure, my dear,” said Mrs… 2543 words
047 “I don’t know,” said Maggie, musingly. 2752 words
048 Chapter II. Aunt Glegg Learns the Breadth of Bob’s Thumb While… 2524 words
049 Uncle Glegg, who regarded himself as a jocose man since he had… 2699 words
050 Bob held it at a distance for admiration, but Mrs Glegg said sharply… 2511 words
051 “Oh yes, much larger. It is an oil-painting. You will look like a… 2524 words
052 “Maggie,” said Philip, with surprise, “it is not like you to take playfulness literally. 2526 words
053 “Ah, it’s poor talking about littleness and bigness,—anybody may… 2565 words
054 Tom and Maggie walked on in silence for some yards. 2506 words
055 “Tom, my lad,” he said, in a stronger voice, when he had taken some… 2504 words
056 The father and son clasped hands and looked at each other an instant. 2656 words
057 “With thee delight is ever new, With thee is life incessant bliss,”… 2564 words
058 “There is one pleasure, I know, Maggie, that your deepest dismalness… 2518 words
059 “Oh, thank you,” said Maggie, blushing with returning… 2559 words
060 “There, Lucy, you have had my story,” said Maggie, smiling, with the tears in her eyes. 2554 words
061 She did not answer directly; her heart was too full, and she sat… 2975 words
062 Thus Maggie was introduced for the first time to the young lady’s… 2502 words
063 “I wish Lucy had not been obliged to go out. 2505 words
064 “Is there no other alternative, Maggie? 2534 words
065 It was but an ordinary act of politeness in Stephen; it had hardly… 2592 words
066 Philip paused, but his father was silent. 2530 words
067 “No, no; see, she has got a customer; there is old Wakem himself just… 2532 words
068 “But I will talk to him; he’s coming back this week. 2508 words
069 “The only reason,” said Maggie, with calm decision. 2561 words
070 “Sit down here a bit, my dear.” She drew Maggie into the porch, and… 2639 words
071 Thus, all that Lucy had effected by her zealous mediation was to fill… 2561 words
072 The ring of the door-bell was punctual, and she was thinking with… 2642 words
073 There was to be no rain, after all; the clouds rolled off to the… 2515 words
074 Maggie did not answer immediately. 2616 words
075 Maggie paused too, three yards before him. 2757 words
076 But the results, we know, were not of a kind to warrant this extenuation of the past. 2503 words
077 “The only thing I want is some occupation that will enable me to get… 2556 words
078 “But the miseries of that night had prepared me for what came before the next. 2593 words
079 Only those who have known what hardest inward conflict is, can know… 2517 words
080 She sat quite still, far on into the night, with no impulse to change… 2521 words
081 “Park House stands high up out of the flood,” said Maggie. 537 words

The Mill on the Floss

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