• A new edition of one of Eliot's best-loved novels whose central figure, Maggie Tulliver, is one of English literature's great female characters.
• A compelling story of a young girl's growth to adulthood, and the conflicts that arise from her growing independence.
• New introduction emphasizes Eliot's significance as a writer of fiction, and the literary qualities that have sometimes been overshadowed by her interest in philosophical ideas. It examines the importance of reading in the novel, its preoccupation with gender, and complex relationship with feminism.
• Full notes identify allusions and the significance in particular of literary references, and also pay attention to significant textual changes between manuscript and successive editions.
• Use the definitive Clarendon text of the novel.
• Up-to-date Bibliography.

New to this Edition:

• Introduction by Juliette Atkinson, informed by the latest critical and scholarly thinking on the novel.
• New and expanded Notes.
• Up-to-date Select Bibliography.
• Re-set text retains the defnitive Clarendon text and improves print appearance.

                      
'Was her life to be always like this? - always bringing some new source of inward strife?'
               
When the miller Mr Tulliver becomes entangled in lawsuits, he sets off a chain of events that will profoundly affect the lives of his family and bring into conflict his passionate daughter Maggie with her inflexible but adored brother Tom. As she grows older, Maggie's discovery of romantic love draws her once more into a struggle to reconcile familial and moral claims with her own desires. Strong-willed, compassionate, and intensely loyal, Maggie seeks personal happiness and inner peace but risks rejection and ostracism in her close-knit community.
                  
Opening with one of the most powerful fictional evocations of childhood, The Mill on the Floss (1860) vividly portrays both the 'oppressive narrowness' and the appeal of provincial England, the comedy as well as the tragedy of obscure lives. George Eliot's most autobiographical novel was also her most controversial, and has been the subject of animated debate ever since. This edition combines the definitive Clarendon text with a lively new introduction and notes.