Name: The Mill on the Floss
Author: George Eliot

How you explore The Mill on the Floss on Literah

The cast, the places, the objects, the plot, and the author’s own words — each one a card in a feed you scroll on your phone. One at a time, at your pace, in any order you like.

Built for your phone. Literah is designed for mobile, so your worlds travel with you. On a laptop it shows a QR code to carry the world to your phone.
A feed, not a wall of text. 21 characters, 10 places, 10 objects and 6 plot beats, each its own card with its own illustration.
The author’s own words. 38 passages of The Mill on the Floss sit in the feed verbatim, exactly as George Eliot wrote them, each with a short reading of what it is doing. The map is ours; the prose is always the book’s.
The same scroll, a better world. The gesture you already give away to feeds, spent on George Eliot instead.

9:41

The Cast

Maggie Tulliver

Main · Tulliver family

A brilliant, hungry-hearted girl keeps reaching for love in a world that calls her intensity a fault.

Locations

Dorlcote Mill

mill and family home

The mill wheel throws bright water beside a house older than the children who love it.

Passage

A remembered childhood calm carries the ache of knowing it cannot last.

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The Author’s Pen

Leaving the Bridge

Now I can turn my eyes toward the mill again, and watch the unresting wheel sending out its diamond jets of water. That little girl is watching it too; she has been standing on just the same spot at the edge of the water ever since I paused on the bridge. And that queer white cur with the brown ear seems to be leaping and barking in ineffectual remonstrance with the wheel; perhaps he is jealous because his playfellow in the beaver bonnet is so rapt in its movement. It is time the little playfellow went in, I think; and there is a very bright fire to tempt her: the red light shines out under the deepening gray of the sky. It is time, too, for me to leave off resting my arms on the cold stone of this bridge....

Reading

The narrator has been standing here as if physically present, arms resting on the bridge, watching a scene that turns out to be memory. This is the opening of the book, and the little girl in the beaver bonnet is Maggie Tulliver, whose story we are about to enter. The narrator speaks of her as someone still out there in the cold, needing to be called inside to the fire, as though the past were a place you could walk back into and worry over. That warmth pulling the child indoors is also what pulls the storyteller out of reverie and back to the present.

World Index

The Plot

Childhood at Dorlcote MillThe Tulliver DownfallMaggie and PhilipStephen and the DriftSt Ogg's Condemns MaggieThe Flood

The Cast

Maggie TulliverTom TulliverMr TulliverPhilip WakemStephen GuestLucy DeaneMrs TulliverMr WakemMrs GleggBob JakinMrs PulletMrs DeaneMr DeaneReverend StellingMrs StellingMr RileyKeziaMr GleggMr PulletMrs MossMr Moss

Locations

Bob Jakin’s Riverside HouseDorlcote MillGarum FirsKing’s Lorton / Reverend Stelling’sPark HouseSt Ogg’sThe Floss RiverThe Red DeepsThe RippleThe Round Pool

Objects of Note

Boats and OarsBob Jakin’s Packman GoodsBooksBusiness Papers and LedgersHousehold Goods, Linen, and FurnitureLegal PapersMaggie’s HairPhilip’s Drawings and Artistic MaterialsThe Mill PropertyTom’s Fishing Gear

Core Concepts

A gifted girl vs. a constricting worldDesire vs. dutyHome and memory vs. irreparable lossMercy beyond respectabilityPride, debt, and restorationSibling love vs. moral judgmentSocial judgment and female reputationThe Floss as memory and fate

The Author's Pen

Renunciation as SatisfactionMaggie Returns to the Red DeepsNo Time for ReveriesNo Home With MeToo Cute For A WomanThe Dodson SpiritMaggie's New ExperiencePublic Opinion and ResultsThe Devil in Wicked MenMaggie’s Unanswered QuestionTom Judges PhilipWe’d Rather Do Without YouTom Obeys His FatherThe Cross EverywhereStupefaction Is Not ResignationMaggie at Bob Jakin’s DoorPhilip’s Mute ConfessionLucy Comforts MaggieA Line All to HerselfTom Called Her MagsiePhilip Sees MaggieThe Tin Box SavingsTom Awaits the WorstThe Flood Under the DoorGone Down In An EmbraceThe Tomb of Tom and MaggieNobody Kisses MeThe Pocket Knife ProofA Mutual GlanceMaggie Cropped Her HairWakem and Dorlcote MillThe Bible OathTheir Father’s Empty PlacePhilip's Painful SuspicionSunshine on Empty PlacesThe Morrows Old StruggleThe Irrevocable Wrong

Plot point 01

Childhood at Dorlcote Mill

Clever, passionate Maggie Tulliver adores her brother Tom, whose love she can never quite hold on the banks of the Floss.

Objects of Note

Books

Maggie wants a life of the mind that her family and her town refuse to allow her.

The Cast

Tom Tulliver

Main · Tulliver family

Tom loves with the force of duty and wounds with the force of judgment.

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The Mill on the Floss

George Eliot

The cast, locations, objects of note, core concepts, and selected passages in the Author’s Pen - at your own pace.

One of 128 classics in the Literah library

The Mill on the Floss feed, as it appears in your mobile

The plot of The Mill on the Floss

The story beat by beat, as Literah maps it.

Childhood at Dorlcote Mill
The Tulliver Downfall
Maggie and Philip
Stephen and the Drift
St Ogg's Condemns Maggie
The Flood

The author's pen in The Mill on the Floss

The passages themselves, George Eliot's own words, as Literah maps it.

Leaving the Bridgech. 1
Renunciation as Satisfactionch. 1
Maggie Returns to the Red Deepsch. 1
No Time for Reveriesch. 1
No Home With Mech. 1
Too Cute For A Womanch. 2
The Dodson Spiritch. 2
Maggie's New Experiencech. 2
Public Opinion and Resultsch. 2
The Devil in Wicked Mench. 3
Maggie’s Unanswered Questionch. 3
Tom Judges Philipch. 3
We’d Rather Do Without Youch. 3
Tom Obeys His Fatherch. 3
The Cross Everywherech. 3
Stupefaction Is Not Resignationch. 3
Maggie at Bob Jakin’s Doorch. 3
Philip’s Mute Confessionch. 4
Lucy Comforts Maggiech. 4
A Line All to Herselfch. 5

The characters of The Mill on the Floss

Who is who, as Literah maps it.

Maggie Tullivermajor
Tom Tullivermajor
Mr Tullivermajor
Philip Wakemmajor
Stephen Guestmajor
Lucy Deanesupporting
Mrs Tulliversupporting
Mr Wakemsupporting
Mrs Gleggsupporting
Bob Jakinsupporting
Mrs Pulletminor
Mrs Deaneminor
Mr Deaneminor
Reverend Stellingminor
Mrs Stellingminor
Mr Rileyminor

The locations in The Mill on the Floss

Where it happens, as Literah maps it.

Dorlcote Millmill and family home
The Floss Riverriver
St Ogg’stown
The Red Deepswooded ravine
King’s Lorton / Reverend Stelling’sschool household
The Round Poolpool
Garum Firscountry house
Park Housetown house
Bob Jakin’s Riverside Houseriverside home
The Rippletributary river

The core concepts in The Mill on the Floss

What the book keeps returning to, as Literah maps it.

Sibling love vs. moral judgment
A gifted girl vs. a constricting world
Home and memory vs. irreparable loss
Desire vs. duty
Social judgment and female reputation
Pride, debt, and restoration
The Floss as memory and fate
Mercy beyond respectability

The objects of note in The Mill on the Floss

The things that carry meaning, as Literah maps it.

Books
Maggie’s Hair
The Mill Property
Legal Papers
Philip’s Drawings and Artistic Materials
Tom’s Fishing Gear
Business Papers and Ledgers
Boats and Oars
Bob Jakin’s Packman Goods
Household Goods, Linen, and Furniture

The offer

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How you explore The Mill on the Floss on Literah

The plot of The Mill on the Floss

The author's pen in The Mill on the Floss

The characters of The Mill on the Floss

The locations in The Mill on the Floss

The core concepts in The Mill on the Floss

The objects of note in The Mill on the Floss

Explore The Mill on the Floss. And 127 more.

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