Résumé
Résumé de The Mill on the Floss
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
For readers who love rich family stories with deep feeling for character, and anyone who has loved a sibling and quarrelled with one. Maggie’s desire for love and learning brings family bonds, duty and social judgment into focus.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
The Mill on the Floss is a novel by George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. It came out in 1860, after her first success with Adam Bede. She set it in the English Midlands, in a countryside she knew from her own childhood, and she drew on her memories of growing up beside a brother. The story follows two children, Tom and Maggie Tulliver, who live at Dorlcote Mill beside the River Floss, near the town of St Ogg's.
What do you get from it? You get a close, patient portrait of childhood, with all its small joys and sharp hurts. You get a clear look at a provincial society that judges people by money, family and reputation. Above all, you get Maggie, a clever and passionate girl who wants more than her world will give her, and Tom, her brother, whom she loves and who rarely understands her. Let us begin where the book begins, at the mill, with a girl and her family.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A girl and a boy at the millFree
- 2Childhood hurts are real hurts
- 3The Dodsons and the Tullivers
- 4School, a friendship, and a father's feud
- 5Ruin comes to the mill
- 6What the book is about and how it is told
Point clé 1 sur 6
A girl and a boy at the mill
The story opens at Dorlcote Mill, where Mr Tulliver runs the family business beside the Floss. His wife, Mrs Tulliver, was born a Dodson, and she is proud of her tidy household and her respectable sisters. Their two children could hardly be more different. Tom is a sturdy, practical boy who likes rules, tasks and clear answers.
Maggie is younger, dark haired, quick and restless. She reads, she dreams, and she feels everything at full strength. Her mother despairs of her untidy hair and her wild ways. Her father, though, sees her sharp mind and is proud of it, even when he fears that cleverness in a girl will bring her trouble.
Maggie adores Tom. She longs for his approval more than for anything else in the world. Tom is fond of her in his own way, but he is quick to judge her when she makes mistakes, and he can be stern and unforgiving over small things.
Eliot spends real time on these early scenes. She lets us see the mill, the river, the rooms and the garden through the eyes of a child. This beginning matters, because the bond formed here will shape every later choice in the book. When you meet the grown Maggie, you will remember the child at the water's edge.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Maggie Tulliver
- Maggie is Tom's clever, passionate younger sister, longing for learning, affection and her brother's approval.
- Tom Tulliver
- Tom is Maggie's practical, proud older brother, whose firm rules often prevent him from understanding her.
- Mr Tulliver
- Mr Tulliver runs Dorlcote Mill and loves his children, though his stubborn pride puts their security at risk.
- Mrs Tulliver
- Mrs Tulliver is Maggie and Tom's mother, a respectable Dodson sister often bewildered by her daughter's behaviour.
- Philip Wakem
- Philip is a sensitive, gifted lawyer's son whose friendship with Maggie crosses a bitter division between their families.
- Lucy Deane
- Lucy is Maggie and Tom's gentle cousin, whose easy charm contrasts with Maggie's intense and impulsive nature.
- Mrs Glegg
- Mrs Glegg is Mrs Tulliver's stern, thrifty sister, who expects her relatives to uphold the Dodson family's standards.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 214,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 14 h 15 min
- Listening time23 h 50 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary; paperback and hardcover at cost
- LanguagesEnglish and 14 other languages