The Mill on the Floss (Penguin Classics)

I first read The Mill on the Floss when I was 17 years old. I couldn’t put it down - read for 14 hours straight. However, many years later, I did not remember much about the book at all, only that I loved it. Now, after all these years, I see why.George Eliot is better at describing our innermost thoughts and feelings than any author I have ever read. Why do we read books? A good story is always entertaining, but more importantly, I think we read to gain new insights and to hear our own insights expressed more succinctly and beautifully than we could ever imagine doing ourselves.The Mill on the Floss starts off almost as a comedy, her dry wit, at least for me, is laugh out loud funny at times. It becomes increasingly more serious in tone and story line until the amazing ending.Take your time when you read Eliot (if you can). Savor every exquisite word and insight. Her gift in writing about the human condition was unparalleled.

I love the actual book The Mill on the Floss, I purchased this Kindle edition and find it impossible to read because it is full of language errors. And some weird changes that make no sense (George Eliot certainly never described the River Floss as "cute" and there is no way that the word "beautiful" was misread by a screen reader to "cute"). I am disgusted that a title is being sold that has not been checked for errors. Don't waste your time on this particular item.

While scholars and students admire George Eliot’s “Middlemarch,” readers fall in love with “The Mill on the Floss.” Yes, the former is perhaps the greatest English-language novel ever written, but it’s the latter we return to for strength and inspiration. In its main character, the rebellious Maggie Tulliver, Eliot created one of her greatest voices and a precursor to all of the misunderstood youths to follow in the literary canon.The novel traces Maggie’s growth from childhood to young adulthood and her “yearning for something that would … give her a sense of home.” This journey leads Maggie to a series of hard choices that set her individual desires against family, honor, tradition and small-town English values, or what Eliot calls the “dead level of provincial existence.” It all comes to a flashpoint when Maggie falls in love with the one boy no one wants to see her with.In contrast to Maggie is her brother, Tom, a boy who “was particularly clear and positive on one point – namely, that he would punish everybody who deserved it.” The siblings' complex relationship lies at the heart of the novel, even more so than Maggie’s love affair. Tom’s unrelenting and self-righteous focus eventually turns its attention to Maggie, with tragic results.A complicated book that doesn’t let the reader or its characters off easy, “The Mill on the Floss” deceives with what, for Eliot at least, seems a straightforward narrative. (To be sure, the book features about half-a-dozen important players, each with a story of his or her own, but it’s nowhere as involved as “Middlemarch.”) The challenge comes in reconciling Eliot’s take on Maggie’s struggle toward self-realization in the face of societal pressures – or what Eliot sums up as “the great problem of the shifting relation between passion and duty” – with our own, 21st-century “selfie” perspective that values individuality above all else. Even though this is one of literature’s great stories of a woman finding her true voice, “The Mill on the Floss” seems, ultimately, to say that comes with a heavy price that may not be worth paying.That’s heavy stuff. Nonetheless, if you’re looking to tackle Eliot’s works, this makes the perfect introduction, along with “Silas Marner," before graduating to "Middlemarch." Both capture the essence of Eliot’s style and vision in quick, easy reads. Unlike, say, Eliot’s contemporary William Makepeace Thackeray, whose pen dripped with sarcasm and at times outright disdain for his characters, Eliot loves her creations – even when they make stupid choices – and writes from a self-confessed “strong sympathy” for them. As a result, the reader cares for Eliot’s creations. Maggie and Tom Tulliver will haunt you long after you’ve finished reading this novel.

When I read the first page, I wondered if there had been some weird transcription to Kindle problem, as the writing was so weird and hard to follow. Then I thought maybe the author was trying to be really edgy with experimental language, which was surprising since no reviews mentioned it. Finally I came across the following passage: "Here she fretted out all her unwell humors, and talked aloud to the computer virus-eaten floors and the Trojan horse-eaten cabinets, and the darkish rafters festooned with cobwebs…" As you all know, this book was published in 1860, and those terms didn't exist, so the hacker apparently was crying out for recognition. I've made a report to Amazon and they gave me a refund, but more importantly, I hope they weed out this flawed edition (and hope that it isn't capable of infecting devices) so no one else gets it.

Enjoyed the book . However there are lots of instances where the original words have been incorrectly transferred to the digitised version either accidentally or deliberately which made the read frustrating and annoying.examples"became speakme" - should have read "was speaking" location 182.many more examples"malicious computer virus eaten shelves " should have read "worm eaten shelves" location 678" expensive" should have read "dear" location 1001 - many more examples"U.S.A" should have read "country" location 1089"financial institution" should have read "bank" (river bank!!) location 137"healthcare practitioner " should have read "surgeon" location 4616"C program languageperiod" should have read "to pass the interval" location 4516"at ultimate" should have read "at last" location 4534other examples 0 there are loads more"he or she" when it was clearly one of those - very trans I am sure!"coronary" when heart was required."ebook" I guess it should have been book.This digital version was obviously not checked proof read - pretty poor

I have read a lot of the classics but I hadn't read this, I don't know why. How I loved it!!! For me it was much easier to read than some of the others and I really must make an effort to read more of George Eliot. This seemingly quite simple book covers so many issues and inequalities faced by women in the culture of this time. I often find these books a bit predictable but not this one. In fact I loved it so much I have promised myself I will read it again!

The blinkered narrow minded views of the author really grate on you as you try to read a well written story. The feelings of the frustration of a young spirited girl are well thought out, and the opposing character of her brother at odds with her and the problems he faces are the ingredients to good solid story. But the infringement of the rather overpowering need to tell the reader how they should feel is not to my liking but it is another classic story of it's time.

A story that has elements of humour and romance, but is , fundamentally a savage plea for the rights of women in 19th century England. The heroine longs to have her ambitions for education and self-determination to be recognised but finds, even when forced to accept her position as a mere chattel of her male relatives, she cannot find a life that is free of insufferable pressure to conform to the whims of a judgemental society in which equality is an alien concept.

Not the first time I've read this, it is one of the several classics I return to from time to time. This Kindle Penguin edition, bought for travelling, is good, and has a foreword worth reading. The text is peppered with reference numbers, and this is where my Kindle (it is an old one) is annoying because it is tedious to go back and forth, so I ignore them I'm afraid, and just go on reading and enjoying. I'm glad I have the real book on my shelves. A marvellous book by a marvellous writer.