The Mill on the Floss (The Penguin English Library)

I had never read anything by George Eliot and felt that an educated person should. So I picked The Mill on the Floss which is said to be her most autobiographical. It is a hard book to read. It's wordy with long sentences and filled with extraneous information not directly plot related. One has to slow down to read it. I was frustrated with it but persevered and was glad I did. It gives such a feel for the rural life in the 1800s in England and great characters. It is beautifully written and worth the effort. But it took me at least 100 pages to "slow down" and focus.

After reading Silas Marner, this book was a disappointment. Lots of unhappy people making mistakes and a disappointing ending. If it had a better ending, it might have been redeemed and I might have given it one or two more stars. Yes, Eliot is amazing with her description of human experiences and emotions, but the characters were left wanting.

A very complex work. Combining social
commentary, sharp psychological portraits, a strikingly modern portrayal of physical attraction, and an interesting
Look at the theme of duty vs social
obligation

A masterfully written book, with vividly and realistically portrayed characters and gripping story (but if you expect a Hollywood action movie kind of gripping, it will not live up to your expectations).

It's not as good as Middlemarch, but George Eliot was a great novelist. The relationship among the characters is gripping, especially between the older brother and worshipful younger sister, which is said to echo Eliot's own relationship with her brother.

I have been promising myself for years that I would read some of the works of authors like Thomas Hardy and George Eliot. I started out by purchasing Mill on the Floss and was interested in reading about Maggie, her brother, and their relatives. I was very amused as the book progressed and the author, in a very subtle way, described Maggie's aunts and uncles in their narrow-mindedness and snobberies. Somewhere about the time that Maggie ran off and was taken in by gypsies, I became very bored and have not finished the book. I will probably pick it up again and fast-read to the end but I am not in a hurry to do this. The fault is in me, not in the book. In this day and age we readers are used to fast action and it is hard to stick with a slow-moving book like this.Perhaps I will edit this review after I finish the book--which I will do at some time.

Although the description for this Charles River edition states that a table of contents is included, this is not so. Also, the only illustrations in the book are located in the beginning and they are illustrations of George Eliot, not illustrations in relation to the novel. The description for this edition is misleading. I admit that 99 cents is not much to pay, however product descriptions should be accurate.

Awfully printed, with no care at all put into formatting or editing. I would not recommend this edition to anyone seriously looking to read it, as it is a headache inducing nightmare of block text and the absence of contextual formatting.

Avoid if there is another option.